Bits and Bites

 -- Tribeza magazine announces their Summer Solstice Chef's Table series, with a variety of local chefs preparing special tasting menus based on the summer bounty, June 27 - 29. It's a fantastic list of participating chefs/restaurants: Haddington's, TRIO, Foreign and Domestic, La Sombra, Jeffrey's, Shoreline Grill, Trulucks, Parkside, and La Condesa. Most of the menus are on the website, and you can buy tickets through the site as well.  It will be a great chance to meet some of your favorite chefs and talk to them about their inspirations for the menu.

-- There's a new FREE iPhone/Pad app out called Texas Monthly BBQ Finder.  And guess who developed it, yes, Texas Monthly. For each BBQ joint, it lists their hours of operation, how TM rated it, and a place to add your personal rating. Can we get an Android version, please?!

El Meson

The second location of El Meson opened last fall, and while it's not that far from my house, last week was my first time going. I was really struck by the interior of the building, with beautiful tile work on the floors and even in the bathroom! Unfortunately, I think because of the tile, noise bounces all around, and it was fairly loud for a little bit. But we were also surrounded by two tables with young children, but good thing they left not too long after our arrival.

My friend was there when I arrived, and also at the table was a fresh melon "ceviche" that was very tasty. Nice amuse bouche palate cleanser, with melon and cucumber diced very finely.

For entrees, I had the chicken with mole rojo, and my friend the chicken enchiladas with verde sauce. Mole is often the standard dish I get at interior Mexican restaurants. I love the complexity of flavors it brings, and having made it before, I appreciate the work that goes into it. Our waiter said it's 22 ingredients, and continued to say that it tastes the same -- consistent -- every day. It was a good mole, I will certainly agree. However it lacked the depth and aforementioned complexity of a great mole sauce (or even my own mole sauce...). So thumbs up, particularly if you're not too familiar with moles. The verde sauce on the enchiladas had the requisite tomatillo tartness to it. Their sides of rice and beans didn't really excite me, not a ton of flavor in either. They actually aren't pinto beans; the waiter said they are a close cousin, but I can't remember the name.

 For dessert, we split a piece of tres leches cake, which was quite good. Not overly sweet.  

The biggest complaint I have heard about the South Lamar location is their pricing; apparently it is higher that at the original Burleson Road spot (I haven't been there either). From their incomplete website, I think Burleson serves breakfast and lunch, whereas South Lamar is lunch and dinner, which may account for some of the price differences. I wish their website would post the menu for the SoLa location. Would I go back? Yes. But given the choice between El Meson and their neighbor one block north, Sazon, I would pick Sazon.

IACP Wrap Up

Last week was the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) conference at the Hilton in downtown. I volunteered on Saturday, and got to sit in on a couple sessions.

-- Cooking from the Edge of Vietnam and Texas, with Chef Duc Tran, a Vietnamese refugee who grew up in Texas, but has returned to Vietnam and opened his restaurant, The Mango Rooms. He prepared some Asian fusion foods -- seared ahi tuna on top of a bed of mango salsa. Students from one of the local culinary schools had assisted by pre-making the mango salsa. Chef Tran then seared the tuna pieces, and they passed out samples -- delicious!

 -- The Science of Baking, with chemist Shirley Corriher. I actually got to chat with her a little prior to the Vietnamese session above. Shirley's class was using the same ballroom, where a demo kitchen had been erected, and she was a touch concerned about the limited amount of time for set up between the two sessions. She and her husband were rather delightful, and had enjoyed their time in Austin thus far. For those who are fans of Alton Brown's Good Eats show, you may recognize her as the food scientist who occasionally shows up to explain the food chemistry. For her session at IACP, she had a nice handout with baking tips, as well as the recipe for an extremely light buttermilk biscuit that was served with raspberry chambord butter. Yes, we all swooned when we tried the tender biscuit!

 -- Let There Be Light! Harnessing the Right Light for Digital Food Photography, with married photographers Diane Cu and Todd Porter. This engaging couple really had some great tips on how to look at lighting when you are photographing something, and they emphasized trying to use inexpensive props to bounce or diffuse light when doing a shoot. I took some good notes, which I need to review and see what I can incorporate.
-- On Saturday evening, there was an optional event for conference participants: Up in Smoke, held at Boggy Creek Farm. The event was co-sponsored by IACP and Foodways Texas, with proceeds benefiting the Sustainable Food Center. Dai Due roasted a feral hog onsite, Hoover's had pork ribs and beans, Trace restaurant had various sides, El Naranjo made lamb barbacoa...and more, those were just the ones I tried! It was a delicious finish in a lovely setting!

Sushi Zushi

If you've been reading these here pages, you know that I recently went to Beets Raw Foods Cafe in the relatively new 5th Street Commons building, between Mopac and Lamar. At the time, I was more concerned about figuring out parking that I didn't really notice the western-most tenant (as in, the business you past first, as you're headed eastbound on 5th) Sushi Zushi. So when a group of friends suggested meeting there for happy hour, I at least knew where the building was, and where to park! (There is a little bit of street parking right in front, but fortunately, there's ample parking, much of it indoors, behind the building. And if you park in the indoor garage, most of the retail businesses have an entrance from the garage and street sides.)

Never really having heard of Sushi Zushi,  I checked out their website before our happy hour. They appear to be a Texas-based chain, with 4 locations in San Antonio, 1 in Dallas, and 2 here; the other Austin locale is up north at the Domain. Their website says it best: "Sushi Zushi is all about variety. With an ever-growing menu of delightful sushi, as well as cooked items, there is something for everyone." And I must say: their menu is massive. Almost overwhelming, because there are so many choices. If you click on the menu link on their website, you'll open a seven-page PDF file. So if you don't like raw fish, there's noodles, grilled skewers, and little fried things, to name a few.

And, for happy hour, they have GREAT prices! They have a variety of food items that are nicely priced, and I believe all of their signature cocktails are $5. It's a big list of Asian-influenced cocktails, like a lycheetini and a basil yuzu drink (below). Unfortunately, neither their happy hour menu nor the cocktail menu are posted on line (boo!), so I can't remember the names of everything we had!

House seafood udon noodle bowl with salmon. Very nice dashi broth, hearty noodles.

Roll with tempura shrimp; the shrimp were nice and crisp with a light batter, and not greasy.

Bacon-wrapped asparagus on the left, and a roll that I am blanking on completely...We also had edamame and one of the yakimeshi stir-fried rice bowls.

For dessert, mochi ice cream (vanilla, chocolate, and mango) and tempura fried bananas with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. 

The layout is flowing, I'd say curvi-linear, with clean lines; also a private dining room for large groups. Our waitress attentive but not obtrusive. And I particularly liked the zori shoes (the wooden clogs that were the precursor to flip flops) hung on the bathroom doors indicating W or M -- just a fun touch! I do wish their expansive menu would have a bit more definition or description of what certain category of dishes are, and even more specifics within the line items too, like what is Tampa Bay sauce? 

Overall, the quality of our food was quite good, especially for the volume they are producing. It's certainly no Uchi/ko, or even Yanagi, but it was tasty, and a fun/affordable place for a gathering. 

Franklin BBQ

You'd think that a Thursday at 11:30 am would be a good time to meet friends for lunch. Get in, get out, without getting too caught up in the lunch crowd. In essence, that's a good plan, unless you are going to Franklin BBQ for that lunch. This was the line when I arrived at 11:30 am.....

 ...snaking around the front of the building. (And I know, you can hardly tell from this picture how the line was, but TRUST ME, it was a line.) Fortunately, there's shade most of the way, until the last brutal 10 minutes as we waited to get the last 10 feet into the building.  All told, it took a little over an hour from when we got in line to when we sat down with our plates.

Was it worth the wait? Yes. Though I'd say some meats were better than others. Upon arriving at 11:45, two other friends decided not to stick around, so it was just two of us, me and my trusty eating buddy, M.  She had the bright idea that we each get a two-meat plate, and that way, we'd cover all four of the meats on the menu.

My plate had the brisket and the pork ribs, along with potato salad and beans.

Hers had pulled pork and sausage, with potato salad and cole slaw.

The ribs were incredible. The meat fell off the bone instantly, and was even easy to extract from the cartilage bits. They had a very thin crust on the outer portion, and a little bit of a pinkish smoke ring, after being smoked for 6 hours. A touch greasy, but full of porky goodness flavor.

The brisket was extremely good too. These are smoked on oak for 18 hours, and they do ask you if you want lean or fatty when you order (we went fatty!). Great char on the outside, but not as crispy as it could have been. What's the name for those crispy, burnt ends of brisket? When I had previously visited their now-defunct trailer about a year and a half ago, they gave me a bite of that crispy goodness. Franklin's brisket is considered by many some of the finest in the region.

The sausage was a nice medium grind, and had good snap to the casing, and a bit of black pepper flavor, but could have benefited from some jalapeno peppers.

The pulled pork was kind of lacking in flavor, sad to say. Very tender, but this particular pig didn't have a whole lot going on. Franklin makes 3 different BBQ sauces which are in glass bottles on the tables, and the pulled pork definitely needed something to help it along.

Of the sides, I think the cole slaw had the best flavor. The red cabbage was very crisp, with a light mayo-vinegar dressing. Clean and bright. The potato salad I thought needed a bit of salt; I looked around for some at the condiment area and didn't see any, so it's a good thing I carry a bit in my purse! The beans were fairly bland too; they may not be using any pork in them.

I will say, as we waited outside in line, a guy kept coming out, checking on people, asking if they needed water or other drink while they waited. And of course, he was gauging the line to know how much more food they could serve out. But it was a nice customer service touch on a hot day. This is the sign we faced as we approached the door...

...but customers were still arriving at 1:15 pm with the sign still up, and only having to wait about ten minutes. So you can get there early (apparently people start lining up at 10:30am) and wait, or get there later and chance it that Franklin will still have food. I would certainly go back, and have heard their smoked turkey is fantastic; they were out when we got to the counter, or else we would have gotten a small piece to try. However, I think I'd be inclined to get meat only, no sides. And a beer would be good.

Oh, and make note that they still haven't updated their website to reflect their brick and mortar location; it's 900 E. 11th Street. The web has their old, now defunct trailer address, but clearly, the lack of proper info isn't hurting their business any.