Sway

I was invited to a media tasting at the new Australian-influenced modern Thai spot Sway, at South First and Elizabeth Streets. I have lived in the Bouldin Creek neighborhood for a number of years, and as long as I can remember, the spot Sway took over has been an abandoned, gray, cinder block building. It is exciting to see new life in the neighborhood, and when you see Sway from the inside, it's hard to imagine why and how it sat dormant for so long. 

The building was redesigned by award-winning local architect Michael Hsu, who is responsible for quite a number of eateries in town, including Sway's sister restaurant downtown, La Condesa. The interior of Sway is spacious and open, with a somewhat hidden outdoor patio as well. You also get great views of the kitchen staff at work, and counter seating is available to watch your food being made. By and large, it is communal tables that can seat up to twelve. They don't take reservations, unless you're a group of ten or more.

We started off with some drinks, and Sway has quite a range, from sake to kombucha to tea. I was not familiar with "drinking vinegars" and our server explained while they are not uniquely Thai, they are found throughout southeast Asia. Sway serves the brand Pok Pok Som, and I had the tamarind, which is mixed with Topo Chico (sparkling mineral water). Nice and refreshing, and I would have loved a little more tartness in mine! 

The tasting began with the Prawn Miange -- betel leaf, shrimp, toasted coconut and cashews, lime, fresno chili, grapefruit, and dried shrimp. I occasionally see betel leaves in Asian groceries in town, and these are being brought in from Thailand. You just pick the whole leaf up, and pop the whole thing in your mouth for a great medley of flavors and textures.

Raw oysters were next, served with a wonderful sauce they call nahm jim and crispy shallots. Not sure specifically where the oysters were from (we were told east coast), but they went down easy with a light brininess. I loved the sauce, and asked what was in it; they were nice enough to print me the ingredients, and they make two versions, a red and green. I will assume this was the red nahm jim, which consists of Thai red and fresno chiles, garlic, cilantro, lime juice, palm sugar and fish sauce. SO GOOD!

Som tam, or green papaya salad with Thai red chile, cucumbers, green beans, and tamarind. I liked the flavor and texture of this salad -- spicy, a bit twangy, but still light and refreshing.

The next was Pad Thai Jay, which is much sweeter than a normal pad thai. The jay is also vegetarian, while the regular has shrimp. Not sure exactly what contributes the sweetness to this dish, but the more bites I took, the more I realized just how sweet is was. Staff at the tasting said it is something they have been made aware of by their customer base, but as of yet don't have plans to change it. Of all the dishes we sampled, this is really the only one I wouldn't order again.

Now the Kai Yaang, or charcoal rotisserie chicken, was fabulous! It was marinated in the delicious nahm jim sauce before cooking. The result was a tender, moist, and very flavorful chicken. The darkened skin was rendered nicely, and extremely hard to resist.

The Salt and Pepper Tofu used silken tofu, and had a nice sweet chile sauce. Thought the blocks of tofu could have been a touch crispier.

Finally, the Jungle Curry -- Texas Wagyu beef, red chile, eggplant, kaffir lime leaves, baby corn, green peppercorns, and coconut cream on top. The beef was fork-tender, and while the curry had some heat, you could temper it with the coconut cream. Not pictured are the jasmine and sticky rices that accompanied these dishes, and were great for soaking up some of the curry sauce. This and the chicken were my two favorites of the meal, and I can't wait to try them again!

For dessert, we had Jasmine Tea Panna Cotta. It had an extremely subtle jasmine flavor, accompanied by red grapes and lychees, holy basil caviar dots, crunchy amaranth, and coconut-lychee sorbet. Look at the bowl, it's a beautiful presentation! The sorbet and crunchy amaranth bits (something new to me!) really shined.

If you look at all the pictures, you'll notice that each one is topped with at least one thing for flavor and particularly texture, whether it's dried shrimp or shallots, toasted coconut or crunchy amaranth. All the plates are presented well with these little touches, and the flavors are bold and exciting. This is not your standard Thai fare, and that's a good thing, just as Sway is a great new thing in the neighborhood.

Satellite Bistro

It's only been in the past month or so that I have heard of Satellite Bistro and Bar in Circle C, and then I heard of it a few times by different people in succession. So my curiosity was

piqued, and I was even more surprised to discover it's been open since around 2006.

While in suburbia, Satellite was designed by noted local architect Michael Hsu, and it's very much his aesthetic. Stone work, modern lines, big windows, reminds me of Olivia (which yes, he also designed). We were seated on the patio, which has nice big ceiling fans and just enough landscaping to help you forget you're in a strip mall. However the volume on the speakers was really loud, and the music was reminiscent of your iPod on "shuffle"... when we sat down, it was the Gregorian Monks and that chanting song from the 1990s, and throughout our time there, it ranged from country to contemporary. Not exactly congruous. All the while, a 1950s chanteuse performed live inside.

It's an eclectic menu to say the least, with dishes representing the flavors of Italy and the Mediterranean, Tex Mex, pan-Asian, and seafood.... From their website, I learned the owners are a pair of Greek brothers, hence the Med and seafood influences, I would guess. It took me a long time to decide what I wanted to, especially because I wasn't starving, having come from another event. It probably didn't help that our college-aged (?) waitress came by twice for orders, though all of us were sitting there pouring over the menu both times. She was nice, and was trying to do her job, but our table of food people made eyes at each other when she mispronounced the day's risotto special (it came out like "reyz-ottow" instead of "rih-soh-toe") and none of us could understand the method of how the daily specials vegetables were cooked. Yeah, we're kinda food snobs.

We started off with the calamari, which had a nice thick crust on them, but a few rings were a touch greasy; the marinara with it was bland, but the red pepper remoulade had a nice punch. 

The eater who ordered this Mediterranean Shrimp Linguine ate too many calamari and could only eat half her main dish!

This is the Champagne Gorgonzola Salad with shrimp, which well-liked by the eater.

And the Gourmet Bistro Burger with a delicious smoked tomato jam; I tried the jam, but not the burger, and the jam was great. The yuca chips were decent, though you have to be a fan of the starchy tuber to appreciate them.  Didn't hear any complaints about the burger.

And for me, crab cakes. Oh but wait. Where were they? It was another waiter/runner who brought the food to the table, not our initial waitress. He said "they're coming," and disappeared. I urged my table mates to start eating....and waited. So a couple minutes later, our waitress comes by and apologizes, by saying the crab cakes were being made again, because they were "too dark." Okay...

So they did arrive a few minutes later, a lovely golden brown color. And while they were very crispy, coated with Panko breadcrumbs, and I think deep fried given their evenness of color, they really didn't have much flavor to them. Yes, it's mostly crab inside, not filler, but bland. Salt? Pepper? Garlic? Chives? Something, please!! The dish's saving grace, apart from the presentation? The jalapeno aioli.

We considered dessert, but when a dessert and corresponding drinks menu doesn't contain any prices, I am concerned! So we passed. Overall, the food was fine, though certainly not exceptional. And this correlates (unfortunately) with what I had heard from others about Satellite -- it's a mixed bag. Glad I had great company to make the meal more enjoyable!