Kent Wang

From Austin Chronicle: I've been to Mueller's at least five times and it is my favorite as well. What really sets it apart is the consistency of quality, the beef ribs (which very few places have), the unmatched old town vibe, and the fairly decent sides.

Is it me or are these really expensive? $45+ for a bottle is as much as 12 or 15 year Scotch. Why is mezcal, which doesn't require aging, that expensive? Are they much cheaper in Mexico?

It was for the Peking duck. I just call them tortillas! I guess I've been in Texas too long

Was this just deboned, or did was it chopped up and then pressed back together? Did yours have roe? Looks like just a bunch of mushrooms, and no fa cai algae? But the mushrooms do look delicious. Congratulations on a successful event. Kirin Court is definitely quite authentic.

This was our most successful Chinese New Year banquet yet, with eight people in attendance. Photos by yimay. Jellyfish. Everyone liked it! Kao fu. Wheat gluten, mushrooms, bamboo, etc. Traditionally, a Shanghai breakfast dish. Pork and soy sprout soup. Dumplings with pork, shrimp and scallops. Very interesting, I've never had a dumpling with scallops before. They might have been dried scallops as there was a more pronounced briney taste. Quail. "Lion's head", giant meatballs, extremely tender and fluffy. Peking duck. Ti pang, braised ham hock. Thick layer of skin and fat. Probably my favorite dish. Me, my friend Pete. Whole flounder with roe. A fish with roe is considered an auspicious sign. Mustard greens covered in "black hair" seaweed sauce. Black moss or black hair seaweed is actually an algae and is eaten on Chinese New Year because its chinese name "fa cai" (hair vegetable) is a play on words that means prosperity, as in "gong xi fa cai", which is a greeting exchanged during Chinese New Year meaning good luck and prosperity. The seaweed is mild in flavor but added a thick texture to the sauce. Eight treasure rice. The most important Chinese New Year dish, composed of eight different "treasures" in sweet, glutinous rice, similar to a rice pudding. I can't remember all eight of the treasures but they included dates, raisins, gingko nuts, peanuts and prunes. We all have iPhones! Pao's is a really terrific restaurant. If it was more conveniently located I would come out all the time. We raised $32 for the Society at this event. Thank you everyone for coming out. The Year of the Rat is shaping up to be a delicious one.

I have a friend that has offered to bring some charcuterie from Porcella for me. What items do you recommend? I have $50 to spend. I'm mostly interested in house-made salumi and sausages.

What are chicken intestines like? Pretty similar to goose?

You might be hitting Luling a little late. If you can handle waking up earlier you should try to do Kreuz (or wherever else in Lockhart) at 10 am or whenever they open. You can also consider Cooper's in Llano or Louie Mueller's in Taylor. Both are kinda on the way between Austin and Dallas. So you could do Mueller's then Lockhart on Saturday and Lockhart and Luling on Sunday. Note that Mueller's is closed on Sunday. Cooper's is a little different as they use the vinegar dip, and Mueller's is just hands down my favorite. Their beef ribs are also pretty unique.

Thanks, that worked quite nicely. I'm going to try pressing them together next time, though it doesn't look very easy. What's the nutritional content of ears -- I'm guessing high in protein and fat? I think ear should be a New Years dish. In the tradition of using homophones to justify auspicious dishes like the black moss seaweed "fa cai", we can think of ear as a English homophone for year, as in a "New Ear" dish.

I've mixed Bowmore Legend. I totally agree with Sam about its lack of mixability, but I love Islays so much that I think it's pretty damn good -- but I know I'm probably in the minority.

I still love Belgian ales but wine and scotch and have begun to lose their appeal to me because of the cost. Fine beer and cocktails are pretty damn cheap comparatively.

I was well amused by it. You should consider a whole series of these.

I usually red cook these (hong shao), by braising on high heat with soy sauce. However, the cartilage always ends up pretty tough. I've had much softer cartilage from several restaurants. What's the secret? I've braised for an hour and a half without making much progress. Should I try longer time, lower heat? This preparation I had at Metropole in Hong Kong is one of the best that I've had. The cartilage is soft and the ears are pressed together then sliced into sheets. How does one go about pressing them together? Do I need some industrial-level equipment?

I had my birthday lunch at Chinatown on Saturday, 5 January. Bean curd roll, tea. This is the Szechuan bitter sweet green tea ($10). The tea comes in small sealed packages -- but are whole leaf, not bags of dust. The tea selection is interesting, but I feel is hugely marked up. I'm not a tea expert, but there is either an extreme markup here (higher than anyone would markup wine) or they should provide some cheaper selections. I would also prefer more non-floral teas in the $10 range. Nevertheless, they're the only restaurant that I've been to in the US with a tea menu and should be commended for it. Ground shrimp ball in wonton-like skin. Interesting permutation, but nothing spectacular. Salt and pepper shrimp, served in a cocktail glass. Shao mai, chao shao bao. Coffee spare ribs. Fried pork ribs served in a thick coffee syrup. Interesting "fusion" but the spare ribs were overcooked, and the coffee syrup should be lathered over the ribs instead of just serving as a dipping sauce. Frankly, I dislike nearly all Asian fusion -- anything below Uchi or Momofuku standards tends to irritate me. This one is not totally offensive but is so-so at best. Xiao long bao (aka Shanghai soup dumpling). Yikes, along with Shanghai we suddenly have two restaurants in town that serve these. Unfortunately the skin is too thick, there is too much filling and not enough broth, and both the filling and skin were too soggy. Slightly better than Shanghai's -- as most of theirs have broken skin -- but still inferior to what can be had in Dallas, much less New York, Vancouver or Shanghai. Nevertheless, I'm delighted that there are now two restaurants in Austin attempting this dish. Maybe one day they will improve. Ground shrimp on sugar cane skewers. The sugar cane is inedible (sugar cane is always inedible, not that they screwed it up) and adds nothing to the ground shrimp. I can get ground shrimp in fried ball form, why would I want them wrapped around this piece of sugar cane? Avoid. Sea bass, yams. Not too fusiony; I could see this in a restaurant in China. The sweet glaze on the sea bass pairs well with the yams. Competently cooked. Walnut shrimp on fried taro. An American-Chinese staple. Interesting presentation. The service is attententive and the tea was always topped off with hot water. Decor is nice, not too overwrought, perhaps the best of all the Chinese restaurants in town. Of the 30 or so customers I saw, I was the only Chinese. The tab was $96 total for two people. This is the most I have ever paid for dim sum, in the US or China. Granted, $10 was for the tea but these prices are obscene. Shanghai is about 30% less. I imagine much of the bill was run up by the non-dim sum dishes like the sea bass and walnut shrimp, but they were all rather lackluster and not worth the money. Overall, I recommend just going to Shanghai. The prices are better, execution is about the same, selection is wider with more traditional dishes. If I were to return to Chinatown it would only be to get the tea and xiao long bao.

Fonda San Miguel is not Tex-Mex but Mex-Mex (i.e. interior Mexican). This is how they self-identify and are widely recognized as being the case. The brunch is quite good there.

There's not much of a trick to using it. Just add a pinch or teaspoon-ful. Add it in at the same time as salt, usually in about one-quarter or less the quantity of salt. That's how my mom used it until we abandoned using MSG sometime in the mid-1990s. I'm curious if people also use it in Western cooking.

Your trip sounds like the same as mine last year: eat, see the tailor.

The Taco Journalism blog is also a good source, especially because they have hours of operation for most of the restaurants.

I agree with your assessment Richard. And why not share a bit of the tea with the restaurant while you're at it?

Driving out to Weatherford? Now that's dedication. Maybe you can make the Czech Stop on the way.

Janitzio 1422 Town Creek Dr Austin, TX 78741 (512) 442-6275 6am - 11pm (?) everyday Located in the same lot as La Regiomontana and El Pollo Regio, Janitzio is more of a proper sit-down restaurant that serves free chips and salsa. The menu states open from 6am everyday but doesn't mention when they close; though I've been there fairly late around 11pm. Coctel campechano. Shrimp, oysters, octopus unfortunately drowned in store-bought over-sweet cocktail sauce. Pretty good, if you can get over the cocktail sauce. I'm not the type that's scared of raw seafood from a Mexican restaurant. Caldo de mariscos. Packed to the gills with jumbo crab legs, imitation crab, catfish, shrimp, squid, canned mussels. I can't help but compare this to the seafood gumbo from Quality Seafood, which is a little better because they have fresher ingredients, but this must be the second best seafood soup in town. Molcajete. A whiteboard special, not on the menu. The molcajete is the mortar and pestle typically used for grinding spices. Here, the molcajete is placed in an oven and serves as a sizzling platter for steak, sausage (unfortunately tastes more like a American/German style than a Mexican chorizo), nopal and a nice white cheese. Superb. Carne asada con nopales. I like the bigger chunks of nopal in the molcajete, but this is pretty good. Barbacoa, al pastor Overall, an excellent Tejano-Mex restaurant and is second only to Quality Seafood in the seafood department. Sounds like they're trying to copy Chuy's or Trudy's, two popular local Gringo-Mex chains.

Most Chinese restaurants serve cheap tea. Would it be rude of me to bring in my own tea and ask for boiling water? Has anyone else done this? How do you transport your tea? Do you buy the packets (loose-leaf, not bags of dust) or bring a small sealed container?

As I read over this thread, I marvel at how much I've learned about barbecue in the last few years and how much my opinions have changed over the course of visiting all the barbecue meccas. I don't plan to stay in Texas for long, so I feel fortunate that I have had the opportunity to enjoy such a rare and unique cuisine in my time here. I recently reviewed Beaver's (Houston) barbecue, which, although I found it mediocre, the review provides a good summation of my thoughts on what good barbecue should taste like.

Thanks, Sam. I'll post a pic here when I find one I like. BTW, I noticed that the bar at Jean Georges uses silver (not sure if solid or plate) Boston shakers, unchilled.

Is this similar to the salt-pressed (yan shui ji) or drunken chicken? I prefer these chilled. For me, all foods should be either heated or chilled, not room temperature, as it is more interesting.