Java Noodle

Java Noodle has been over on East Oltorf for several years, and according to a bit of chatter I saw online, they've gone through numerous owners. It's an Indonesian place (though there are clearly some Thai and Chinese dishes on the menu), and while I have never gone that frequently, maybe once or twice a year, there have always been certain dishes I love. Saturday morning, the cravings came! Must make a trip!

I didn't have a carryout menu handy at home, so I drove over there to place my order to go. I immediately knew I wanted the Fried Tofu from the appetizer menu (#2), and the Rendang Daging Padang, which I always just known as beef marinated in a spicy coconut milk mixture (#1 under Beef). Then I wanted a vegetable dish, but didn't know what. I asked the cashier (late teens, maybe early 20s?) about the Gado Gado Salad (#6 in the Vegetarian section), specifically, what kind of vegetables were in it. She sheepishly said she didn't really know. At that moment, one of the waitstaff (also fairly young) came up to the counter; they conferred in an Asian dialect, and neither of them had a clue, but she said she could go to the kitchen and find out. I told her I wanted some vegetables to balance out the beef; she did suggest the Java Special, which is #5 under the Vegetarian menu, but asked if I wanted it with tofu or chicken, and I opted for chicken; basically veg & chicken in a red curry sauce. So while I was a bit put off by their complete lack of knowledge regarding one of their dishes, she somewhat redeemed herself by making an immediate suggestion for another similar dish. Does make me wonder how long both of these two had been working there, and/or had management recently changed.

Fortunately, the food came fast, and I returned home. The reason I love the fried tofu is it is served with a brown sugar sauce, which I cannot seem to replicate on my own. The tofu suffers a bit from sweating in a styrofoam container; not quite as crispy as when you get it there at the restaurant, but I still love the sauce. The veg in the Java Special was mostly green beans, broccoli, cabbage & carrots; a slightly sweet, slightly spicy creamy sauce. It's a pretty tasty dish. Now as I recall the beef dish in the past, it's been slightly tough chunks of beef in just this fabulous spicy coconut milk marinade. I don't remember it having a ton of sauce with it. So I was in for a surprise when I opened the container, and a big (slightly greasy) pool of sauce is filling the container, and the beef is swimming in it. The beef was still in big chunks, but more tender than I remember -- these really fell apart when cut with a fork. It's a really nice, spicy sauce, with that coconut milk flavor that I remember. Large portions, as there is at least 2 more meals worth of food in my fridge.

So management, and probably a chef or two have changed, but the food was still good, though not exactly as I remember it. They have a website, but it appears not to have a server at the moment; hopefully that will be remedied. They also have weekday lunch buffets, and a really big one on Sundays, though I've never been to it.

A day of mostly good eats!

On Monday, I had lunch with a friend at the new Mighty Fine Burgers on Brodie Lane in Sunset Valley. Owned by the people who own Rudy's BBQ, they are more or less a local chain. They pride themselves on using all-natural beef and other all-natural ingredients. The burger was good, but I really thought the cut on-site crinkle cut fries were fantastic. Good and crispy, and not greasy. The chocolate shake was thick and rich. When we arrived about 11:15am, there were 20 people working behind the counter, and rows of red tables waiting for people to sit and eat, as there were only a handful when we walked in. By the time we left, it was almost full in there. Oh, and I have to add, the women's restroom seems totally high-brow for a burger joint! Cut-crystal chandelier, nice cabinet around the sinks....just seems a touch out of place. Wonder what the men's room is like?

For happy hour, I met another friend at the recently opened House Wine, just behind the original P. Terry's Burger on S. Lamar. It's an old bungalow house that's been smartly converted to a wine bar. There's a nice front porch and big patio area, 3 or 4 rooms inside, and a small parking lot out back. The furniture is comfortable (at least where I was sitting), and there's funky local artwork all throughout. We split a bottle of wine and got the cheese plate. You get your pick of 2 cheeses (5 total to pick from, pretty much your standards), and it comes with assorted crackers, Tuscan olive cheese spread, and pistachios. It was a nice assortment for snacking, and a great atmosphere for catching up with a good friend. I'd certainly go back!


So after staring at the drive through for P. Terry's while sitting in the front room at House Wine, I knew that my cheese and crackers were not going to suffice as dinner. If I hadn't had a burger already for lunch, P. Terry's would have been the obvious choice. However....so I wandered down S. Lamar to Pie Slice, where before I had only had pie, and how heavenly was that! This time I ordered a pizza pie to go - the blue cheese with chicken. I didn't peek at it until I got home, and it looked gorgeous! The crust was great -- very thin and crisp, and there was a TON of cheese. I mean a lot! But see how in the picture there's a greenish cast to it? Not quite what I expected from Maytag blue. Their menu says they blend blue, shallots, and jalapenos. Unfortunately, I couldn't really taste the blue at all. It was creamy, but something almost like a very mild BBQ sauce. I can't quite place the flavor, but it wasn't blue cheese, and it wasn't really jalapeno-y either. I would try one of their other pizzas, but I don't know that I would order this one again. It was a great deal, I think, for a handmade pizza, probably 12", with lots of cheese and diced chicken for $9.95. I did also get a croissant that I ate for breakfast the next morning. Once heated in the toaster oven -- yum! Wonderfully flaky and buttery.

The Mighty Cone

Street fair and festival foods are certainly a favorite category. You don't need utensils, food items are generally pretty easy to eat, and deep fried items are certainly in abundance. Mmmmm.....how can you go wrong?! One of the newest trailers to hit Austin was born at the Austin Music Festival by the wild game enthusiasts at Hudson's on the Bend. What apparently was a huge hit for Hudson's at the hot and dusty ACL is now a "permanent" fixture, and not just for one weekend in September. The Mighty Cone has now reared its pointy little head.

Situated on our hip South Congress Ave (SoCo), The Mighty Cone is in the same lot (someday to become high end apartments or will the economy kill that plan?) with Hey Cupcake, one of the early entries into Austin's trendy trailer/airstream eateries. They've barely been open a week, but this is the time to get your doors open, as multitudes of hungover SXSW party-goers could use a little fried food to cure what ails them. A report from over the weekend said the line was around the block at lunchtime. My friend and I decided to brave it anyway, heading over on St. Patty's Day. Fortunately, at 11:45 am, we beat any lunch crowd, though we were hardly the only ones there.

As you can see from the menu board, it's not an extensive list of offerings....but from this first taste of it, I'd say what they do, they do well. (But I would expect that from the folks at Hudson's.) I got the Crunchy Chicken Cone, my friend the Deluxe Chicken & Avocado Cone, and we split an order of fries. Their crunchy eats are coated in a cornflake crust with sesame seeds, and fried beautifully, as there was no grease whatsoever. Did I mention tasty? Really tasty. The tortilla-wrapped chicken was very crisp, and served with a cole slaw with a creamy, spicy dressing on it, a nice amount of heat. You can make out the shape of the corn flakes, since they're not totally pulverized. The thin cut fries were also fried to perfection and a bit of chili powder sprinkled over them. The red picnic tables are outfitted with cone holders, a definite necessity. My only complaint is that the slaw slid down to the bottom of the cone, making it a bit hard to eat without a fork....such is life, I suppose. I was totally happy with the chicken, and the chicken-avocado got high marks too.

Saw some sliders being eaten; they too are served in a cone and looked pretty yummy. Didn't see any desserts coming out, but they sound so good, I'll have to return for them -- funnel cake and a wild turtle cone! And as the side of their trailer says: eat at Hudson's for under $10!

No Knead Bread!

A no-kneading multigrain bread! And it's good! A friend had told me of a book that features no-knead bread recipes, and in the February issue of Eating Well magazine, they ran five different recipes from the book, including this multigrain.

I started it late Tuesday evening, and let it rise overnight, for about 15 hours total. (Shoulda taken a picture of the first rise, but I didn't think of it!) You then stir it, put it in a Dutch oven, sprinkle it with additional seeds, slash it, and let it rise for about another 2 hours before baking.


It is a large, very heavy loaf, with a large crumb, and a very chewy crust (did I mist it with too much water when it went into the oven?). When I slice it real thin and toast it, it reminds me of those very dense Scandinavian breads. It's been great with butter, and also with pb & j. I think it would be lovely sandwich bread if I had deli meat or the like at home to put on it! It will take me awhile to go through this loaf....if you want a piece, let me know!

All things pork

The one and only Bacon Explosion. Weighing it at 4 pounds, it's pure pork pleasure with sausage rolled up inside! Not made by me, but it was well-received at my recent pork-inspired pot luck. Mmmmmm.