Aba: The Greatest Hits

Passion fruit gin + tonic. Yes, please! 

In the past month, I have been fortunate to go to Aba twice for lunch. The first visit was quite good, and the second trip even better! Aba is a Mediterranean spot on South Congress in the new Music Lane (read: upscale) development; the original restaurant is in Chicago and this is now their second location. Here's a rundown of our foods with a little commentary. 😀 

Whipped feta with pistachios and pita bread. If you only order one thing at Aba, make it this. OMG. So creamy, not overly salty, and a basket of  warm pita which is doughier + fluffier than your standard pita.

Hummus with short ribs was quite tasty.

I believe this was the farro salad with sunchokes; gorgeous presentation but to me it didn't have all the flavors the menu promised. (I actually don't see this version on the current menu.)

Grilled chicken kebabs with wonderfully juicy chicken. The zhoug sauce (like a cilantro pesto) was a bit flat and needed more acidity to really shine.

Frozen Greek yogurt with strawberry sauce was a refreshing palate cleanse at the end of our meal.

On to my second visit:

This ahi tuna tabouli was outstanding, and I am not one that gravitates to raw dishes. The tuna was like velvet, the pomegranate seeds offered the perfect texture and acidity along with a light bit of yuzu, and I like the mouthfeel of pearled couscous rather than cracked barley for a tabouli.

Very crispy potatoes, which I loved, served with a scallion crema.

Big Brussels sprouts, with almond dukkah (a sumac-based seasoning) and honey harissa for a touch of sweetness. Great flavors.

Slow braised leg of lamb wrapped in eggplant. I love lamb and would eat this again in a heartbeat! It was very tender, the tomato sauce full of cinnamon, which may sound strange (though very typical of Mediterranean food), but so good!

Plan your visit ahead as getting a reservation can be challenging. Both times, we went for an early weekday lunch and were able to get seated in the outdoor breezeway with no problem. The design of the place is beauitful with a huge deck with lounge areas, tables, and a full bar; the majority of the seating is outdoors, nestled between old trees and new buildings. My photos of the exterior don't do it justice and hence not posted, but take my word for it. They also have a gluten free menu, and to-go parking in the below-ground lot.  The scope of South Congress is changing, loosing its once funky vibe, but Aba is a welcome and VERY delicious addition to the scene. 

Have you been? What foods did you enjoy?

First Look: Winner Winner, Porchetta for Dinner!

Editor's Note: closed, Winter 2019

When you head out Highway 290 towards Dripping Springs, there is now a "gathering" of train cars perched around a big lot. The one closest to the road is now home to Winner Winner Fine Foods, which three people had mentioned to me since their opening in April. I had lunch with one of them a couple weeks ago as she doesn't live too far from there. What a great, healthy addition to the area!

Located on the north side of Hwy 290, about a mile west of the light at Circle Drive.

Winner Winner has built up a deck, not unlike a train platform. There are also full restrooms across from the entrance to the what is literally the diner car. All the food has been precooked, and you can either eat in or take it to go. I imagine they're doing booming business in the evening, catching folks headed out of Austin to their homes down 290. There are a variety of meats available, sides/salads,  a soup of the day, and some sweets.

Order at the counter

We ate there, with my friend E having the lamb with roast potatoes and arugula salad. While their website doesn't say, previous article on Eater Austin says that all the meats are from local farms, the lamb from Capra Foods and the pork from Tender Belly.

Roast lamb; there was some sort of minty sauce with it too, but I can't remember specifically what!

And I had porchetta with roast carrots and also the potatoes.

Porchetta with some nice crispy, rendered fat and perfectly roasted carrots.

Outside deck

They were both delicious!

Winner Winner is open Monday - Saturday from 11 am - 8 pm. If I lived in that direction, I am sure I would be stopping by a lot!

Sichuan River

Sichuan River (from the owners of A+A Sichuan in North Austin)  has taken over the Tien Jin Chinese restaurant at 4534 Westgate Blvd (on the Hwy 290 eastbound frontage road at Westgate; same strip center as Black Swan Yoga and Sap's Thai). Can't say I had ever been to Tien Jin, but I have now had food from Sichuan River three times in two and a half weeks.

My first time, I got eggplant in garlic sauce for carry out, along with the fried dumplings. My butcher friend had been there, and I thought he had said he had the eggplant with pork, which is what I asked for when I called. Turns out the pork isn't normally part of this dish (I've had it that way at Asia Cafe a place I really really like in far northwest ATX) but they had no problem adding it in. Verdict: thumbs up! Although after I had posted the picture on Facebook, one comment was that it looked like a dismembered Smurf. The eggplant is incredibly tender and the sauce was mildly sweet with a hint of a twang. The dumplings were a bit of a miss, but I am partially to blame, as they sat in a styrofoam container for 20+ minutes, and the ensuing condensation negated any crispiness that pan-frying gave them. I'd order them again, but only if I was eating there. On the plus side, the dough for the dumplings was much, much better than that at Asia Cafe, where it is WAY too thick, and the soy sauce-based dipping sauce breathed some life into them. Oh, and the eggplant dish, which comes with rice? I got three meals out of that!

The second trip, I went to dine in with a Thai friend. She wanted to try some of the cold specialty dishes, namely pig ears and crunchy jellyfish, as she has had them in Thailand, and she wanted to see how they would compare. While these are not normally dishes I would go for, I was willing to try. And now I can say I tried them, and don't need to try them again. For some, I am sure they are wonderful. But for me, they were both very similar in texture: cartilaginous.  Both were fairly bland, gelatinous, and a touch crunchy, the pig ear more so. You can't really see it, but there was some very nice julienned cucumber slices under the jellyfish. In my defense, my Thai friend didn't especially love them either.

I ordered the dan dan noodles, which I had been tipped off by the butcher that they were good, but NOT on the printed menu. Oh, no problem, said the waitress. Now, when I've had dan dan noodles in the past, they've had a decent amount of ground meat with them. These did not, but they did have the nice chili oil, a mild Sichuan peppercorn flavor, and a nice firm quality to the egg noodles. I would definitely get this again.

The third trip was dinner with my friends who first introduced me to Asia Cafe many years ago. There were five of us total, and we agreed to order a variety and just split everything. We started with some hot and sour soup, which seemed heavy on the white pepper, but not enough sour for my liking. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't anything memorable. The rest of the meal fared much better! The dry fried green beans were a touch salty, but yummy, and still a bright green (as in NOT overcooked) color.

We ordered the eggplant in garlic sauce (just as is, no pork) which was again really good, though the sauce might have been just a bit on the thick side, and I would probably ask for it with pork again.

Butcher friend had also recommended the Sizzling Sichuan Lamb, and yeah, it was spot on! It's spicy, though you could probably have them dial it back a bit (see the dried red chiles and the sliced jalapenos?!). And tender. So tender. Very heavy on the cumin (yes, not just for Latin foods!), and a little bit of Sichuan peppercorn again. I love lamb, so I was very happy. Oh, and butcher friend has always loved Asia Cafe for it's tripe, stomach, and other "weird" parts; he's been extremely happy at Sichuan River so if that's your thing, go for it!

My friends are BIG egg foo young fans, so their eyes got REAL wide when they saw it on the menu, so we ordered the pork version. This did not disappoint, and they went as far as to say it was the best EFY they had had in a very very long time. It was crispy, because they serve the sauce on the side -- genius! And what is EFY, you might ask? Think of it as the Chinese version of an omelet. And really good.

Our final dish was jumbo sesame shrimp. On the plus, the shrimp were lightly crisp, but on the negative, the sauce was just way too thick and almost cloyingly sweet. Someone had a very heavy hand with the cornstarch in making the sauce. Shrimp good, sauce not so much.

The nice thing about having a larger group of people, is not only can you try a variety, but the cost seems to go down. We paid $15 each, and that included tip.  And while they seemed a bit short handed (but all the food came in a timely manner), the only other real drawback that we noticed was the lazy susan at our table could really use a good scrubbing and re-coating of protective oil; it was clean but sticky/tacky.

Why am I so excited to have a Sichuan place in South Austin? I believe it's the first place really serving authentic Sichuan (Szechuan/Szechwan) down south. And they're not heavy on the Americanized Chinese dishes, though they do have some if that's your thing. And on this Saturday night, the clientele was two-thirds Chinese, and by the time we left, they had a good-sized crowd. And they are close to my work, so I see more nights of eggplant with pork in my future. Both times I have eaten there, I've had the same waitress who is very good, and speaks good English and has good humor. I am starting to hear a bit of a buzz about Sichuan River, and for those of us in South Austin, this is a great addition to our food scene.

Southern Traditions Meats

Some home cooking time! I was invited by Southern Traditions meats to try out a couple of their fresh, grassfed meats. (I was not paid for my opinion of their products.) They are a family-operated farm in Briggs (between Lampasas and Georgetown) that does not use any hormones, antibiotics, or corn in the raising of their animals, and have various cuts of beef, goat, and lamb available.

I picked up some ground lamb and beef at the Hope Farmers Market back in March. With the lamb, I made my favorite lamb meatball recipe that I've made for years. It's got mint, currants, and sesame seeds in them for a bit of a Middle Eastern flair. I cook these in the oven, and use a stoneware dish that has the ridges in it, so the whatever you're cooking sits up, away from the fat that renders. Well, the rendered fat from these lamb meatballs was crystal clear with few impurities -- a sign to me that this is high quality meat! Add a homemade tzatziki sauce and voila!

And of course with the ground beef, I made a big ol' burger! Seared it in a cast iron skillet and finished it off in the oven. Pretzel bun and some leftover pimento cheese from a friend! Delicious.

I would definitely get their meats again, and would love to try some local lamb chops! Look for Southern Traditions meats on Saturdays at the Cedar Park and SFC downtown markets or Sundays at Hope and Lone Star (at the Hill Country Galleria) markets.

Lamb Meatballs

I love lamb.

I especially love lamb when I can get it locally at the farmer's market. I've bought lamb a couple times now from Loncito's at the Sunset Valley Farmer's Market. The first time was earlier this summer after Loncito himself and Lou Lambert taught a class on lamb at the north Central Market cooking school. They made a lamb rillette with the shoulder, but after talking to him at the farmer's market, he suggested the neck bones. You basically just plop the bones in olive oil, and let it simmer for a couple of hours. The meat fell right off the bones, and it was to die for. Particularly when served as suggested as a little sandwich with some mustard and chutney; the acidity in the chutney helps cut the fat while enhancing the flavor. It was, in a word, incredible.

This past Saturday, I got a pound of ground lamb from them. (Also fresh mint from one of the stands, and I can't remember the name, oops!) I made a meatball recipe that I have made a few times before, but never with the locally procured lamb. It's a recipe from epicurious.com, and I've adapted it slightly over time. One of the key things to remember when making meatballs is to not overwork the meat, as that will make them stiffer. The currants add a nice touch of sweetness, and the sesame seeds nice texture.

This recipe also makes me reminisce, as I was in Morocco exactly a year ago, eating lamb and seeing sesame plants for the first time. :)

Sesame Lamb Meatballs with Mint Yogurt Dip, makes 18 golf ball sized meatballs
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, minced
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. salt, or to taste
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/3 cup onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. fresh mint leaves, minced
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 lb. ground lamb
1 cup fresh bread crumbs, finely ground
1 large egg, beaten lightly
2 - 3 Tbsp. dried currants
1/4 cup black sesame seeds
1/4 cup white sesame seeds

-- In a small bowl, combine yogurt, mint, lemon juice & salt. Combine well and set aside. This can be made ahead and refrigerated. Best when made at least 30 minutes before eating so flavors can meld.
-- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
-- In a medium skillet, heat oil over med-low heat, and saute onion & garlic until softened. Let cool slightly.
-- In a large bowl, place onion mixture; add mint, salt, allspice, & cinnamon and combine well.
-- Add lamb, bread crumbs, egg, & currants. Mix thoroughly (with hands is best), but do not over mix or squeeze too hard.
-- Form balls; I make golf-ball sized ones.
-- Combine both the sesame seeds on a small plate. Roll the meatballs in the seeds, lightly patting them on and shaking off excess.
-- Place on a wire rack that is set in a baking sheet (so fat can drip into the baking sheet). Place the meatballs on the rack, evenly spacing them.
-- Bake for about 12 minutes, or until just cooked through. Let cool slightly before serving with the yogurt dip.

* I think I may have cooked these in a skillet once, rather than the oven, but not totally sure. I think it would work just fine. I did manage to set my smoke detector off when I made them the other night, as the dripping fat was apparently getting rather hot in the oven!