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By Pete, July 9, 2009 10:41 am

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then no matter how many pictures I post or how many words I write, NOTHING will do justice to what I experienced at Alinea. My only hope is to recall and capture through words, a tiny fragment of that splendid 3.5 hours for both myself in the future and for you.

Seeing how I called in to make reservation at the earliest allowable time (2 months ahead), it is fair to say that I planned my trip around Alinea. For those of you unfamiliar with the menu at Alinea, they only offer 2 menus, a 12-course tasting menu and a 20-course tour menu. Initially, my thoughts were that since we were already there, let’s just do the tour and chalk that up as a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But upon reconsideration, I decided that there was no way I would be able to do a 20-course meal. So we decided on the tasting and got our reservations on July 3rd at 7:15pm.

I’m not familiar with Chicago at all. So when the cab stopped, I just followed Carol & Tiem, my friends who live in Chicago, to two gigantic doors that leads into an unmarked building. Had there not been a valet outside, I probably would have walked right past one of America’s best restaurants without ever knowing it.

A dimly lit, declining hallway awaits on the other side of the double doors from the street. There was no music, there wasn’t much decoration. It felt like that it was a transition place to give patrons a chance to leave the world on the opposite of the doors that they just walked through.

After getting seated at our table tucked away upstairs towards the back of the restaurant, we were asked again if anyone had any food allergies (they have asked, confirmed, and reconfirmed during the reservation process) and also whether we’d want to order wine or do the wine pairing. We figured since we were already there, we might as well go ahead with the wine pairing (When in Rome, do as the Romans do right??).

Alinea - A New Beginning

Before our food arrived, I mentioned to C&T that it felt a little stiff and pretentious in the dinning room. The room was pretty much silent!! The walls were not bare, but it was a very minimalist decoration. The tables were about 10-12 feet away from each other. Not only was there was no table cloth on the table, there was also no silverware. The only thing on our table was a mysterious “functional centerpiece”, three small square plates (one for each of us) sitting towards the middle of the table with a “pillow” on top of the plate, and a napkin with the alinea logo on it. So many things that I’ve associated with being at a restaurant was completely, and very noticeably, absent. I could almost hear the thoughts in my head as I begin to question if this was a mistake because I’ve always believed that food should be unpretentious and bring people together. As I am looking around trying to soak in the surroundings, I saw out of the corner of my eye that our first course is on its way to us.

The suggested weapon for the upcoming course.

After the jump, I’ll try, to the best of my abilities, to describe in as much details as possible about the food. I’ve included at least a picture of each course as well as the pairings (if there was one). So grab something to drink, sit back, and enjoy. =)

Continue reading 'Alinea – Meal of my Life…'»

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By Pete, September 6, 2008 5:27 pm

It might or might not be a good thing that I’m packed in October, but Bri sent me the link today for Austin’s Restaurant Week. Check it out!!

[Austin Restaurant Week] (10/12-15, 19-22)

*If you’re looking for recommendations, I think most of the restaurants on there are pretty well known except 34th street cafe (I really like that place btw), so if you get a chance, check it out!!

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By Pete, April 18, 2008 2:26 pm

I read about this place back in October when the headline was simply something along the line of “The management group behind Rudy’s plan burger joint in Arbor Walk area”. After hearing a few people talk about it, I finally had the chance an excuse to go check it out for lunch today.

The burger looked great. While the taste wasn’t all there for me. I thought that the meat was fresh and of decent quality, but there just wasn’t enough taste in the meat for me. The most disappointing thing, by far, was the fries. I wasn’t sure what the frizzy things are, but I don’t want small and frizzy fries with my burger – give me something with a bite!! The shake, to MFB’s credit, was excellent. I wouldn’t recommend this as a daily treat, but I thought that it was one of the better shakes I’ve had recently. As far as the price is concerned, don’t look for happy meal price here. I had their cheeseburger, fries, and shake and the total was a little over $10. (Not totally outrageous, but not exactly cheap either).

The bottom line? Mighty Fine Burger is a decent place to grab a burger up north. When I think about all the burger joints I like in Austin, most of them are downtown (P.Terry’s, Huts, Dirty’s…) so having a place up north is nice. But it is, by far, not the best burger I’ve had. For what it’s worth, I think it’s better than In’N'Out, which I am NOT a fan of. If you want a good burger, go to Plano and try JC’s Burger house right by Plano Senior High.

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By Pete, April 8, 2008 3:30 pm

A group of us went to happy hour at 219 West yesterday – It was pretty awesome. I’ve been to a lot of happy hour places, and I’d say that 219 West is pretty high up there next to Kyoto and Saba Blue Water Cafe.

My favorite was definitely the Caprese mini burgers with prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, tomato & basil – that is quite a combination for a burger. Other populars hit was the Portabella mushroom & crab fondue, Grilled asparagus with lump crab.

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By Pete, November 14, 2007 11:21 am

We went out to Estancia Churrascaria to celebrate my 26th birthday last night. None of us have been there before so we wanted to try it out. Compared to the other Churrascaria’s I’ve been to, I would rank Estancia behind Fogo de Chao and Texas de Brazil. Even though I had a great time, I thought that the quality of meat was sub-par compared to the other churrascaria’s I’ve been to. But, Estancia is a lot cheaper compared to the other churrascarias (dinner was $29.90/person).

If you’re going to try it out, here’s a tip: When ordering water, be sure to ask for tap water. We didn’t know at first, and they were giving us bottled water (and boy, they kept them coming). Even though it was like ordering a glass of tea at the end, it’s still something that’s good to know.

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By Pete, August 28, 2007 9:05 pm

I found a link to Buenos Aires Cafe online today. I must try this whenever I get a chance. Time to round up some old friends and see if they want to get together. =)

Who wants in?

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By Pete, April 17, 2007 10:40 am

I came across this old article on MSNBC today describing the food that I grew up on and what I’d say is my more than likely my favorite cuisine: “Canto-Western”.

I grew up loving things like “Baked Pork Chop Fried Rice”, “Macaroni in Clear Broth with Egg and Ham”, or “Wok Fried Spaghetti with Beef”. Thinking about dishes like this reminds me of my childhood.

To my knowledge, there’re very few restaurant that serve this kind of food in Texas. The only ones that I know of are Hong Kong’s Cafe in Houston (on Bellaire Blvd. in Chinatown, 713-772-9633) and New Hong Kong Express in Plano (on the SW corner of Parker and Alma, 972-881-7467). I’ve been to both of these restaurants and I would recommend both of these to those who want to get a little taste of this Canto-Western Fusion. I’d suggest the “Baked Pork Chop w/ Fried Rice” first, and then go and try different things from there.

Let me know if any of you try this. =)

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By Pete, October 11, 2006 10:29 am

To my knowledge, one of the most labor intensive and delicious food is xiao long bao (“XLB”). I’ve been in love with this little steamed lumps of goodness ever since I was introduced to them when I was living in Hong Kong. I vividly remember the place that we used to go to for dinner almost every other sunday. I’ve not had many good ones since I moved here, but the BEST one I’ve had was definitely Joe’s Shanghai in New York. Jeng Chi in Dallas is decent, but I never fail to visit everytime I go back to Dallas. Before you go out and order this item at a chinese restaurant, I must warn you that most of the places that are offering XLB are doing them an injustice.

Yesterday, (I’m pretty sure out of the sheer bordem offered by the stock market) LL sent me an IM with two XLB recipes that he found online. After a quick trip to Albertson’s to pick up a few things, we were in the kitchen trying to recreate these delightful goodies. We’ve actually tried to make them before, but our previous attempts failed miserably as we couldn’t get the skin to hold the soup inside the dumpling.

We finally figured out (from the recipe) the secret to making the soup stay inside the dumpling is high gluten flour. I didn’t take any pictures of our creations because we haven’t really figured out how to wrap the dumplings like the pros yet. But the dumplings turned out to be great. I’ve linked the recipes below so you, too, can enjoy the awesome-ness that is known as XLB. Here’s a word of advice, don’t skim out on the gelatin!! Put as much of it in there as possible.

The only thing that we have to figure out now before we have perfected the art of making XLB is figure out how to wrap these dumplings to create “the look” above, and also how to create space in between the skin and the filling. If you have any idea how to do this, please leave a comment!!! I’d really appreicate it.

Recipe 1 (The one we used)

Recipe 2