Dinner: I cooked up a few pounds of Brussels sprouts to go with the leftovers were ate for dinner.

We ate the Trout Almondine and fish and chips leftovers.

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What I Ate: January 17, 2010 (Red Robin)

Dinner: Our friends Braden and Kelly came over, so we headed over to South Congress Cafe (1600 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 447-3905‎) for dinner. To start, Braden ordered a Pan-Seared Tuna Salad (marinated ahi seared rare served on a bed of field greens, pear tomatoes and garden fresh veggies. finished with jicama, tortilla confetti, sesame seeds, and spicy avocado vinaigrette, $14) which looked and tasted great. They also ordered the Gumbo with Duck & Oysters which Tina and I had on a previous visit.

We ordered the Calamari (semolina breaded sliced calamari steaks served with an orange ginger red chile sauce, $12) as our appetizer because we found out that Braden had never had soft and tender calamari before. Squid is chewy when raw and chewy when fully cooked - but when cooked just right it's very tender and soft - almost like warm mozzarella cheese but less sticky.

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What I Ate: January 16, 2010 (South Congress Cafe)

Lunch: We went to Musashino (3407 Greystone Drive, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 795-8593‎) for lunch to try their ramen (which is only available on weekdays at lunchtime). We ordered the Musashino Ramen (old fashioned ramen noodle soup, $9.50) which was pretty much just a shoyu ramen with smoked beef brisket instead of a slice of roasted pork loin. The noodles were okay, but didn't have the chewiness of really good freshly made ramen noodles. I've never been a huge fan of the shoyu soup base - it's just a light broth with soy sauce and this was no exception. Also, the smokiness of the beef brisket plus the grilled bean sprouts added a too much smokiness to the soup (which I like best when the flavors are clean and balanced). A Texan twist on ramen isn't what I'm looking for when the menu says "old fashioned ramen noodle soup" as the description.

We also ordered the Hakata Ramen (Egg noodle soup with pork stock, $9.50). The menu didn't say this, but our waitress explained to us and we discovered when we tasted the soup - there soup is made with milk. Hakata ramen (as far as I was aware) is a regional-style of tonkotsu (pork bone) ramen that is known for its richness and milky white broth (which is achieved by simmering bones and fat for many hours to extract gelatin and flavor into the soup). To use milk to get that coloration seems to be weird (and to my taste buds, off putting). Tina didn't mind it as much (which is strange since she usually doesn't like the taste of cooked milk), so she ate most of the Hakata ramen. Oh, it also had a slice of smoked beef brisket.

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What I Ate: January 15, 2010 (Musashino Sushi Dokoro)

Lunch: Nong Shim Seafood Ramyun with fresh Napa Cabbage and a Coyote Creek Pastured Egg poached in the spicy soup.

Dinner: I fired up the Big Green Egg and grilled chicken thighs that I marinated in Greek yogurt seasoned with tandoori spices. I also grilled oyster mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms, and vegetable skewers. I served it all with Persian saffron rice.

Lunch: I ate the leftovers from The Salt Lick.

Dinner: While running errands after work, we stopped at Chuy's for a Tex-Mex dinner. I ordered the Enchilada, Taco & Chalupa Combination Plate (cheese enchilada, crispy beef taco, and chicken chapula). The Tex-Mex at Chuy's is quite a bit better than the food at the Serrano's at 290 and Mo-Pac (although the Serrano's in South Park Meadows has always been quite tasty).

Lunch: We heated some HEB brand chicken tamales and beef & potato tamales for lunch.

Dinner: My high school friend Brian who I haven't seen for eight years was in town, so I picked him up and we all headed down to The Salt Lick for dinner. I ordered two combination plates with moist cut brisket, sausage, and ribs with an additional pound of ribs and extra cole slaw.

Lunch: I had a tuna fish sandwich and the left over two slices of pizza from last night.

Dinner: I had a piece of lasagna. We froze the lasagna into serving size pieces, but when reheated, there's a tendency for the frozen lasagna to spread. This results in an unsightly picture, but doesn't really affect the taste of the lasagna.

Lunch: I had a slice of the lasagna which I prepared before my trip that Tina baked a few days ago. A couple interesting notes about the lasagna: I used Belgioioso brand ricotta which is much creamier after cooking than Precious brand. Also, the pasta I used was HEB store brand (precooked) which came out much softer than my regular brand (Ronzoni) which I haven't seen here in Austin yet.

Dinner: We had dinner at Central Market Cafe prior to grocery shopping. Tina ordered a Artichoke Olive Mushroom Pizza (Basil pesto, roasted artichoke hearts, roasted mushrooms and Feta cheese, $8) which was good, but only after we removed about half the olives. The overabundance of olives made the pizza much too salty to eat without scraping some of them off.

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What I Ate: January 10, 2010 (Central Market Cafe)

Breakfast: I ate a McDonald's Sausage McMuffin with Egg and Hash Brown Patty at around 4:30am. I didn't take a picture because both my cameras were packed away for the flight back to Austin.

Dinner: After flying to Houston and then Austin, I made it home. Tina (who has been cooped up inside the house for the last week) suggested we go out for some Mexican or Tex-Mex food, and I agreed. We ate dinner at Serrano's where I decided to try the Pollo Perfecto (three marinated chicken thighs mesquite grilled and topped with chile con queso and fresh avocado). The chicken was tender and rice was good, but I didn't really like how the chili con queso and rice were burning on the hot iron plate while I was eating.

Lunch: I ate lunch with Papa at Kasa Indian Eatery (4001 18th Street, San Francisco, CA‎ - (415) 621-6940‎). Kasa serves kati rolls (flatbread wrapped around fillings like curry, paneer, egg, etc.). I got their lunch special ($7.95) which gives me two rolls and a fountain drink. I chose Chicken Tikka Masala and Gobi Aloo as well as paid an extra $1 each for Unda style (with egg inside).

Dinner: I headed back down to South Bay to try Ramen Santouka (675 Saratoga Avenue, San Jose, CA‎ - (408) 255-6699‎) in the Mitsuwa Japanese Marketplace. The place closes at 7:30 (because Mitsuwa Marketplace closes at 8:00pm) and there's usually a line. They cut off the line around closing time - I got there at around 7:15pm and was the fifth to last person to be served.

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What I Ate: January 8, 2010 (Kasa Indian Eatery, Ramen Santouka)