Lunch: Grabbed a Chick-Fil-A sandwich with fries. These were the worst fries I've ever had - undercooked and no seasoning. Adding some salt and toasting them in the toaster oven didn't even help, so I just tossed them.

Dinner: I heated some baby back ribs that I had smoked a while back. Apparently, freezing (in a vacuum bag) and then reheating heightens the spiciness (since I didn't remember making them so spicy). Steamed broccoli and dinner rolls accompanied them.

We also had some of the bioche I made. The recipe didn't rise as well as I had planned because I ran out of time when making them and had to re-refrigerate the risen dough and then bring it back to room temperature to rise a third time (which didn't work as well).

Lunch: Dim sum at Shanghai Chinese Restaurant (6718 Middle Fiskville Road, Austin, TX (512) 458-8088) with friends.

Dinner: Torchy's Tacos (4301 West William Cannon Drive, Austin, TX (512) 514-0767)

Scarecrow ($3.50) - Pumpkin Crusted Chicken, Roasted Poblanos, Escabeche Carrots, Cotija Cheese and Cilantro. Served on a Flour Tortilla with Creamy Chipotle. This was our favorite taco out of all the ones we've had at Torchy's.

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What I Ate: October 24, 2010 (Shanghai Dim Sum, Torchy's Tacos)

Dinner: We went to our friend's Erin and Nat's home for a Ham and Bourbon party thrown by (other friends) Logan and Rachel (aka Boots in the Oven) who brought back several hams and bourbons from Kentucky.

Several of the hams were excellent rivaling prosciutto di Parma. Logan made green eggs and ham (deviled eggs filled with an avocado cream) and I was taught how to make a little sandwich of ham on biscuit with sorghum syrup (the first time I've tasted this delicious molasses-like liquid).

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What I Ate: October 23, 2010 (Five Guys Burger)

Dinner: The Odd Duck Farm to Trailer (1219 South Lamar Boulevard, Austin, TX (512) 695-6922).
Clockwise from front:
Soft Boiled Farm Egg, Goat Cheese Polenta, Mushrooms, Butternut Squash, Sunchoke
Grilled and Marinated Zucchini and Squash, Roasted Peppers and Goat Feta
Pecan Porter Braised Pork Shoulder on Toasted Baguette, Mustard and Grilled Onion
Corn off the Cob, Paprika, Goat Ricotta
Grilled Half of Quail, Cheddar, Texas Rice and Apple

Lunch: Leftover Home Slice Pizza

As promised, I posted a full review of our dinner at Per Se on Cooking For Engineers. Go check it out!

Lunch: I had a couple slices of left over Home Slice Pizza.

Dinner: Central Market Cafe. I had the special for the day - Chicken Fried Steak, which came a little overdone and with mashed potatoes that were terribly bland (except for the chunks of garlic).

Lunch: We split a oven roasted chicken breast sandwich from Subway.

For dessert, we each had a couple of cookies we had left from Per Se.

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What I Ate: October 20, 2010 (Home Slice Pizza)

Breakfast: We each grabbed a doughnut from Dunkin' Donuts at JFK Airport before our flight back to Austin.

Lunch: We had Nong Shim Seafood Ramyun with Napa cabbage and egg.

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What I Ate: October 19, 2010 (Texas Roadhouse)

Dinner: We had a late dinner at Per Se (10 Columbus Cir # 6-REST, New York, NY (212) 823-9335) starting around 10pm. This was a bit late for us to start eating dinner, especially after not getting much sleep the last two days (traveling between New York and Philadelphia and back). Execution wasn't perfect - the butter poached lobster was very chewy and flavor wasn't as good as the similar dish we had at Le Bernardin, but the high points of the food were simply amazing - the best foie gras preparation we had ever tasted, the best fish course (sauteed halibut), all the breads were outstanding with the highlight being a brioche toast that blew me away, the best doughnut we've ever had, a seemingly endless supply of mignardises…

Service was a bit weird at first, making us feel pretty awkward for the first thirty minutes of our meal. At these prices, it's unacceptable - but, over the course of the evening the staff seemed to warm up and by the end everything was made perfect by a visit to their expansive kitchens where Thomas Keller waved at us from the kitchen of The French Laundry via teleconference! (Tina said I kept waving at him like an idiot… what can I say, it's Thomas Keller!)

I'm working on a more complete documentation of our dinner to be posted at Cooking For Engineers and I'll post a link here when that is ready. In the meantime, enjoy these teaser photos.

Through these doors (the automatic sliding glass ones on the sides, not the big blue door) awaits one of the best fine dining restaurants in the United States.

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What I Ate: October 18, 2010 (Per Se)

Breakfast: In the morning, we walked down to High Point Cafe (602 Carpenter Ln, Philadelphia, PA (215) 849-5153) in the West Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia where I enjoyed a hot chocolate and split a cinnamon roll with Tina.

Lunch: After taking the Chinatown bus back from Philadelphia to New York, we found ourselves in (you guessed it) Chinatown. We couldn't pass up this opportunity to eat the xiao long bao at Joe's Shanghai (9 Pell Street, New York (212) 233-8888) again, so we rolled our luggage over and ordered another two orders of xiao long bao (one order of crab with pork and one order of pork).


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What I Ate: October 18, 2010 (High Point Cafe, Joe's Shanghai)