Central Market picnic and bat watching, Austin, TX.

P's sister Diana made us some excellent cookies for our bat-watching adventure!

I LOVE Diana's chocolate chip cookies! Must get recipe.

We stopped at Central Market, a super cool grocery store that I definitely approve of, and got some stuff for our tailgate picnic! :)

Bats, flying out from under the bridge! SO neat!

Whoo! Finally all caught up with my Texas photos! It was a great trip with great fooooood! :)

Website

Yelp

Gelato at 360 Uno Espresso, Austin, TX.

Blood orange sorbet and coffee gelato. I wish I hadn't gotten the flavors together, or at least asked for the blood orange on top. They didn't taste the best mixed together, but separately were very good!

Website

Yelp

Rudy's BBQ, Austin, TX.

Yep. :)

All oak, baby.

Our awesome Rudy's server. They have this thing where, if you're a Rudy's BBQ newbie (which I definitely was), they explain the process and let you sample the meats! It was great.

Ribs, slaw and bread. The ribs were good and I used the bread to make a 1/2 sandwich with theb brisket!

Jalapeno sausage. This was soooooo good!

Brisket. I can't remember which one this was, but it was suuuuper tender. And delicious. We had more than enough food and they have huge bottles of sauce at every table. The sauce is tangy with a little spice and just very good. Mmmmmm...

Two bottles of sauce. :)

Website

Yelp

Eastside Cafe, Austin, TX.

Mini jalapeno cornbread muffins.

Yay! These were so cute and delicious! I'm going to have to make some of these!

Salmon Dumplings with Coconut Curry Sauce
Dumplings filled with salmon, garlic, and ginger. Topped with spicy yellow curry and served with Thai cucumber relish.

Yummy. The dumplings were dumplings--nothing special and I couldn't tell they were salmon, but the curry sauce was nice.

Gazpacho.

This was and the salad were the two sides I chose and, okay, I really didn't love this. It tasted like a weird mix of salsa and tomato soup.

Mixed Field Greens Salad
Mixed baby lettuces and bitter greens, toasted almonds and pecans, and green apples tossed in Eastside Café Raspberry Vinaigrette and topped with warm breaded goat cheese rounds.

OMG DELICIOUSNESS IN MY MOUTH!

Artichoke Manicotti
Carrot pasta filled with artichoke hearts, mushrooms, pistachios, sun-dried tomatoes, ricotta, and mozzarella cheese. Topped with sun-dried tomato cream sauce and parmesan cheese.

So good!

I want to eat here agaaaain and again. You know, getting out of SF for food is really a good thing. Here I got to order an entree, choose two sides, share an appetizer and enjoy the mini cornbread muffins--all for $20. What a steal. The food was just SOOO good, too! Really. If it were in SF (and thus, $40 more expensive) I'd still rave about the place!

Website

Yelp

Texadelphia, Austin, TX.

Cheesesteak with Texadelphia's super-yum creamy mustard sauce. P and I shared one for a late lunch. Yummy, but I might like Bruchi's back home a bit more.

Website

Yelp

Amy's Ice Cream, Austin, TX.

Amy's is a big local chain in Austin that does Cold Stone style mix-ins.

I got a coffee flavor ice cream with Junior Mints and Whoppers as my mix-ins. I love Whoppers with ice cream and love Junior Mints, but not with ice cream. I had a feeling the Junior Mints might taste a bit funny--I think it was the texture of the minty cream center. ;) The ice cream itself is a little "gummy" for lack of a better word. P doesn't like it, but I liked it just fine.

Website

Yelp

Trudy's Tex-Mex, Austin, TX.

Apparently their "green salsa" is famous. And it was reaaaally very good.

Taco salad with chicken and cilantro dressing. I'm HUGE on taco salads WITH dressing. Underdogs' (the new Nick's Crispy Tacos) is my favorite, but this comes in second. The dressing was nice and the chicken was cooked perfectly!

Website

Whataburger, Austin, TX.

Oooooh man. On our way to the lake we stopped at Chick-fil-A, and on our way back to Austin we stopped at Whataburger--another chain that I'd never seen before. Well, it wasn't amazing.. It didn't make me say "What a burger!".. Haha. I think I can only handle so much meat and it was definitely a long weekend of meat. ;)

Website

Chick-fIil-A, Austin, TX.

P and I flew into Austin for a little vaca. His family was getting together at Lake Travis for Memorial Day weekend to celebrate his mother's 60th birthday! It was my first time in Texas and I was in for a lot of good food and fun! :)

On our drive from Austin to Lake Travis we stopped to get some Chick-fil-A. I've never been to one, but P raves about it. Haha.. I have to say, it wasn't amazing. I love trying new things though so that was good! I think I tend to be disappointed with any talked-up fast food chains. Haha.

Chicken nuggets. These were fine, but nothing I'd crave.

It's not Zip's, but the fries are a nice cut.

Chicken burger. I didn't think it was anything great. Haha. I think McDonald's is probably better.

Website