Dinner: We went to Ryu of Japan (11101 Burnet Road, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 973-9498‎) for dinner. We started with seaweed salad.

Miso soup came with our order of the chirashi sushi.

Monkfish liver

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What I Ate: July 6, 2010 (Ryu of Japan)

Dinner: In the evening, I found myself at the Lakeline Mall in Cedar Creek. (I was picking up a set of pans that I ordered online at sears.com which apparently I could not get shipped to me and this Sears location was the only one within an hours drive that had it. The set they put aside for me was dented (a 30 degree arc on one side was pushed inward so it was flat) and the pots were smaller than I expected, so we ended up returning them.) Looking through the food court, I didn't find anything that caught my eye. I decided on chow mein, orange chicken, and broccoli beef from Panda Express which was passable. While eating, I sat directly across from the baked potato stand and realized that besides baked potatoes they also sold gyros, kabobs, and Greek salads that looked quite tasty. Oh well.

Lunch: Our friends Tony, Connie, and Chaffee from California were in town, so we headed over to The Salt Lick (18300 Farm to Market Road 1826, Driftwood, Texas‎ - (512) 858-4959‎) for lunch with Braden and Kelly who drove up from San Antonio to meet us. I ordered a couple racks of baby back ribs and a couple combination plates of brisket (moist cut) and sausage for us to share.

Dinner: Braden, Kelly, Tina, and I ate an okra and sausage soup with white rice for dinner after we played an afternoon of FIFA World Cup soccer on Playstation 3, The Beatles Rock Band, and SingStar.

Dinner: I made biscuits and grilled Mediterranean sea bass (also known as branzino or bronzino as well as a variety of other names) with some chili seasoning.

Later in the evening, I got hungry, so I made myself an egg and bacon biscuit sandwich.

Lunch: I ate leftover tomato egg and broccoli pork with rice.

Dinner: We ate while grocery shopping at Whole Foods. I had a slice of Chicken Pot Pie (pretty decent) with Mac 'n Cheese (not very cheesy) and green beans (overcooked and underseasoned).

Dinner: After the large meal I had yesterday at Fogo de Chao, I had only one real meal today. Tina cooked the smoked pork with some broccoli and eggs with tomato to go with white rice.

Dinner: I attended a food blogger dinner at Fogo de Chão (309 East 3rd Street, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 472-0220‎) a south Brazilian churrascaria which started in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1975 and has now expanded to sixteen US locations (as well as six Brazillian locations).

We started with Brazillian cheese bread which was very good - the interior was soft and chewy and the exterior like soft bread. The flavor was a tad too salty to eat continuously, but a few up front is a great way to wait for the meal to begin.

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What I Ate: June 30, 2010 (Fogo de Chao)

Lunch: I ate the rest of the kale soup and another piece of cornbread.

Dinner: I smoked some pork cushion meat with a citrus rub and ate it with fresh corn, sauteed spinach, and grilled shiitake mushrooms.

Lunch: Kale Soup and Cornbread

Dinner: Ate at Chuy's (4301 West William Cannon Drive, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 899-2489‎). Had the Tacos Al Carbon (beef), which came with thick fluffy flour tortillas and quite a decent amount of flavorful steak.

Dinner: We had the opportunity to have dinner at Uchiko (4200 North Lamar Blvd., Austin, TX) tonight. Uchiko is the second restaurant by Uchi chef Tyson Cole and he's brought Paul Qui and Philip Speer in to be Uchiko's executive chef and executive pastry chef. Their combined talents have made Uchi into the best fine dining in Austin, so a lot of people are wondering how Uchiko will turn out. After tonight's dinner, I am happy to report that Uchiko is every bit as good as Uchi. The dining space is larger (about twice as big as Uchi), the place seems less loud, and the kitchen is definitely a lot bigger. We sat at the sushi bar for this meal (and had Yoshi as our sushi chef and Erica as our server).

tempura nasu japanese eggplant crisps, mitsuba, sweet chili sauce, $4. Our friend Willet was on the fry/tempura station tonight (I think he said it was his second day on the station), and he was hitting it right on the mark. The eggplant was perfectly fried with just the right amount of seasoned tempura batter to give it both delicate flavor as well as delicate crispiness. For tempura frying, we still prefer the Brussels sprouts from Uchi, but eggplant is pretty good (just a tad more greasy due to the shape of the cut vegetable which results in much more surface area).

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What I Ate: June 27, 2010 (Uchiko)