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Oh look. A couple used their California home as an ATM, foreclosed and moved to Austin to drive up our prices. Marvelous.
Aug 222007
Aug 212007
We were invited to a birthday dinner party for a friend. Her husband is an owner of a local restaurant, so they prepared a special tasting menu just for the occasion. Here’s what we had (more for my memory than anything else because I’ll forget):
Reception – Veuve Cliquot
Primer Curso – Sweet Corn Pann Cotta, Cucumber Aspic and Marinated Tasmanian Crab Meat
(Wine: Sancerre, Daniel Chotard)
Antipasti – Belgium White Endive with Rabbit Confit, Concord Grapes, Marcona Almonds and Honey Aioli (Wine: Chassagne – Montrachet “Vielles Vignes”, Domaine Amoit & Fils 2005)
Pasta – Housemade Taccheroni Pasta with Tomato Conserva, White Mushrooms and Prawns (Wine: Gevre-Chambertin, Primer Cru “La Perriere”, Domaine L. Boillot 2005)
Piatti Fuerte – Prime Beef Tenderloin, Point Reyes Blue Cheese, Crispy Faro Olives and Sauce Bordelaise (Wine: Chateau Lynch Bages, Grand Cru Classe, Pauillac 2003)
Dolci – An assortment of desserts shared by everyone
The wines and food were amazing. I’m not sure who got the treat out of this one, the birthday girl or the guests.
Aug 212007
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An op-ed in the NY Times from soldiers nearing the end of their 15 month deployment. Read it. Now.
Aug 192007
Aug 182007
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“It is not the people al-Qaeda might kill that is the threat,†he concluded. “Our reaction is what can cause the damage. It’s al-Qaeda plus our response that creates the existential danger.â€
Aug 162007
I just read that drummer Max Roach died last night in New York at the age of 83. It’s been nearly 20 years to the day since I saw him at the Caravan of Dreams in Ft. Worth. I’ll never forget that performance. He was still impressive then at the age of 63. He outlasted nearly all of his contemporaries and was arguably the last survivor from the bebop era, living much longer than people like Miles, Coltrane, Bird, and Mingus, and roughly 15 years longer than Diz. It’s a great loss for music and for the jazz world.
[tags]maxroach, eulogy, death, jazz, drummer[/tags]
Mopac Rant: It's the shoulder, stupid!
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Aug 162007
Dear Dimwits travelling south on Mopac near 183 in the evening:
I know it’s difficult to grasp since the road has been repaved and they haven’t yet re-striped it yet (not sure that they will since it’s been this way for nearly a week), but there’s only two lanes on Mopac for most of the way between 360 and Steck.
That’s not your own special left lane. It hasn’t been cleared for just for you.
When you get to Steck, you’ll realize that you’ve been driving on the shoulder like a douche. It’s ok. We all make mistakes. Just merge your massive SUV back into traffic without hitting the rest of us and keep staring ahead and talking on that cell phone.
Aug 152007
Aug 142007
Oaxacan Tamaleo's New Digs
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Aug 132007
You’re probably already familiar with Oaxacan Tamaleo through its easily recognizable proprietor Leonor Banos-Stoute. If you’ve ever been to the Sunset Valley (formerly Westlake) farmers market or to their old location on Anderson between Burnet and Lamar, you may have seen her balancing a pot or vase on her head. While that’s the most visible symbol of the restaurant, it’s their amazing tamales and other fare that are the real reason to pay attention to them.
The old location was a small section of a convenience store and they only took cash. It always felt like a fly by night operation that might get shut down at any moment even though they lasted there for years. I noticed a couple of months ago that they’d vacated that location and wondered whether they’d simply moved or had gone out of business. Luckily, it was the former, as Statesman food critic, Dale Rice, apprently found out this weekend. I have to think that he’d been to the old location, but maybe not. The blog post doesn’t mention it.
They’ve recently moved to a new location on Highway 71 on the way to Bastrop. They’re roughly 11 miles east of the airport. While this location isn’t as convenient to central Austin, there isn’t much on the way between Bastrop and Austin at the moment, so they’re probably going to get a decent amount of walk-in traffic. If I don’t make it out to the new location before the holidays, I’m sure I’ll be trekking out there for some tamales come Christmas. We had all of the out-of-town relatives raving about them last year.
Image from Oaxacan Tamaleo