Texas Restaurants~Lawry's The Prime Rib

One of my friends that I go running with recommended Lawry's The Prime Rib restaurant.  She's a deal-hunter too and told me that there is a coupon for a BOGO Sunday brunch in the Entertainment Book.  So what did Mike and I do?  We went there at 1:30pm for "lunner" (lunch +dinner).  Of course Mike did not agree to skipping out on dinner, but he was excited to go to this fine dining establishment for lunner. 

We started the meal off with complementary orange juice and mimosas, blueberry muffins, and sourdough bread. The blueberry muffins were delicious, soft on the inside, and crunchy on the outside. 

Each entree came with a starter. Mike chose the Wild Mushroom Bisque.  It was a rich, potent soup that was a bit on the heavy side. It kind of reminded me a cross between gravy and a mushroom soup. I enjoyed sampling Mike's soup and thought that it could be a meal on it's own. 

I chose Lawry's famous "spinning bowl salad" as my starter. Our waiter put all of my vegetables into a stainless steel mixing bowl that was atop crushed ice and then started spinning the bowl. While the bowl was spinning he added in the dressing. 

I ordered the crab cakes egg benedict (~$18) with my hollandaise on the side. I know I know, why did I do that?  I am not a fan of soggy textures. I want to enjoy crispy crabcakes, not crabcakes soaked in hollandaise sauce. 

Mike ordered a cut of roast prime rib ($32), which was served table side.  Doesn't his food look wonderful? I'm not a connoisseur of meat, but I felt like I've tasted better prime rib.  Mike felt the same way as I did, but then again he finished his meal. 

Yorkshire Pudding

The service at Lawry's was superb! There was never a time when my water glass was less than half empty.  The food up until the main dish was wonderful. I'm on the fence whether I would recommend this restaurant. The prices were reasonable too, especially when we used the coupon. The entree prices included the mimosas and the starter dish. 

I think that we may have ordered the wrong dishes, but how could you go wrong with prime rib at a prime rib restaurant?  Mike said that he doesn't need to go back to Lawry's, but I'm willing to give it another chance.   

Lawry's The Prime Rib
14655 Dallas Parkway
Dallas, Texas 75254
(972) 503-6688

Fresh Express Salad Mixes

A few weeks ago, I was fortunate to receive coupons to sample Fresh Express Salad Mixes through Foodbuzz's Tastemaker Program.  I even received extra coupons (good for one free bag of Fresh Express salad mixes up to $4 in value) to give to lucky readers of this blog. So if you want a free coupon....just scroll down to the bottom of this post to see how you can win a coupon. 

I decided to try out the Strawberry Fields kit, which included fresh spinach, strawberry vinaigrette dressing, dried strawberries, and almonds. I decided to glam up the salad mix by making it into a warm quick and easy dinner that's part salad-part pasta. Surprisingly, Mike really enjoyed this dish. I've been trying to incorporate more vegetables into our diet and I'm glad I found another way to enjoy fresh spinach. 

Here's the dish that I created with this mix. I call it my warm spinach, goat cheese, and strawberry pasta

Ingredients
2.5oz dry-Whole wheat thin spaghetti noodles
1 bag of Fresh Express Strawberry Fields Salad Mix
1/4 c. Goat Cheese (crumbled)
3 T. balsamic vinegar
Black Pepper-to taste

Directions
1. Place the contents of the Fresh Express Salad Mix into a large bowl (of course open up all the bags and pour out the ingredients).  Keep the dressing on reserve until the end. 
2. Cook the pasta noodles according to the instructions on the box. Drain the noodles and then place the hot noodles directly on the spinach, strawberries, and almonds and mix together.
3. Once the ingredients are well-combined pour in some of the salad dressing to taste. I used about 1/3 of the bag, but I usually lightly coat my salad.  If you really like dressing, pour the whole bag of dressing into the mix.
4. Add the balsamic vinegar to the mixtures and lightly toss.
5. Lastly add the goat cheese crumbles and then serve. 

*How to Win Free Fresh Express coupons*
If you are willing to disclose your mailing address to me via email at a later date, just post a comment on this post by Friday, October 22.  If there are more comments than I have coupons for, then I'll just have to draw names.  If you do receive a coupon, it'd be nice if you could post another comment letting me know your thoughts about the salad mixes.  No pressure or anything, it's just to let others know that there were actual readers who received the coupons.

99 Ranch Market

As you all know, I like love grocery stores.  A few months ago a 99 Ranch Market opened up in Plano, TX. We now have several Asian markets within a 30 minute drive from our house.  Now we have a choice between Asia World Mart, Ko-Mart, Hmart, and 99 Ranch Market.  Apparently there must be a lot of Asians living in Dallas because to support all these stores. 

Wooo..wooo.woooeeee!!! I told Mike that it was just like we were back home in Hawaii (except 99 Ranch is no longer in Hawaii). 

After looking around the store, I've concluded that this is the Asian market to go to for natto (fermented soybeans), tofu, meats, and seafood, and sauces. For the most part, the prices seem to be cheaper than Asia World Mart (another close Asian market). 

Oh my goodness, it's Hawaii in a box.  Not really, but it's Hawaiian Host Chocolate covered Macadamia Nuts!  Can you see the price of that box?  $7.79!!!!

And look, other Hawaii sightings.  Aloha Shoyu. There were at least three different Aloha shoyu bottles there!

I thought this danish looked neat. It's a "Teriyaki Danish." It looks like a pastry on a stick with bonito flakes on the outside.

This 99 Ranch location houses a bakery, a sushi stand, dim sum station, a Chinese food station, and a noodle bar.  It's one stop shopping. One day after work Mike and I checked out the dim sum and Chinese food there, and then ended our night shopping for groceries. 

99 Ranch Market
131 Spring Creek Parkway
Plano, 75023
972-943-8999
9:00M-9:00PM (Monday to Thursday)
9:00am to 10:00pm(Friday to Sunday)

Kansas City Barbeque~Oklahoma Joe's

Way back in July, I spent a week in Kansas for work travel.  On the way back to the Kansas City airport, my co-worker and I stopped by Oklahoma Joe's for some BBQ.   Oklahoma Joe's is housed in a hole in the wall gas station in the middle of suburbia. If you blink, you'll miss it and have to backtrack to find the place. 
BBQ is one of those foods that boils down to the region you live in and personal preference.  Kansas City BBQ is known for slow roasted meats covered in a sweet tomato-based sauce.  In South Carolina BBQ incorporates a vinegar-based sauce.  Texas barbecue is a compilation of many different kinds of flavors and styles of BBQ.  Depending on what restaurant you go to in Texas, you could order a dry rub type BBQ or one slathered in sauce.  If you want a more in depth look at all the kinds of BBQ out there, check out Wikipedia. 

According to Anthony Bourdain in a Men's Health Magazine article, Oklahoma Joe's is on the list of the "13 Places to Eat Before you Die."  Joining Oklahoma Joe's on that list included restaurants such as "El Bulli", Thomas Keller's "The French Laundry", and other famous restaurants. 
People in line at the restaurant also told me that the week before we visited the restaurant, President Obama had been there. 

Sm"Okie" Joe-Beef and pork in sauce

I ordered the Adult Kid's Meal with Fries

BBQ Beans



Onion Rings



Pork Ribs

Unfortunately Mike could not partake in all this food. If I were to have brought some home on my flight, it would have been at least 8 hours before he could taste it.   I enjoyed the BBQ at Oklahoma Joe's more than the BBQ that I have tasted in Texas. Of course Mike and I haven't checked out very many BBQ restaurants in Texas yet. Another factor why I liked Oklahoma Joe's BBQ was because I am familiar with barbecued foods being slathered in sauce (I love ketchup and tomato-based sauces).  I guess back home in Hawaii, we are so distant from American BBQ, that Kraft's KC Masterpiece sauce was the closest thing to BBQ that I knew. 

Oklahoma Joe's BBQ
3002 W. 47th Ave.
Kansas City, KS 66103
(913) 722-3366

How to Cook Massive Tons of Bacon...and then bacony-cornbread

A few weeks ago we had some friends over for dinner and a game night and decided that we would have a baked potato bar.  Of course to make a baked potato bar complete, you must have bacon bits.  So, one Saturday I spent the morning cooking bacon bits. Okay, I exaggerated, I didn't cook TONS of bacon, just two packages of bacon. 

If you are ever placed in the situation in which you have to cook a lot of bacon, the best way to cook it is in the oven.   That's one of the many tips that I learned while attending culinary school at KCC.  Cooking bacon in the oven is quick and easy and also decreases the chances of being splattered by bacon grease. 

Make sure that you do not lay the bacon flat on the pan. If you do, your finished product will be flat sticks of bacon.

Bake the bacon in the oven for ~15 min at 400F.  The amount of bake time varies, depending on how crisp you like your bacon. 

I was moderately grossed out at the amount (it was over 1 cup) of bacon grease that resulted from all my bacon cooking.  At the same time I was intrigued at this source of saturated fat. I started thinking, "hmmm....butter is a saturated fat....what if I replaced butter with bacon grease in a recipe?"

I decided to use all of my bacon grease to make a "butterless" cornbread.  Mike was eying out my concoction with curious and concerned glances (man, he has no faith in my kitchen experiments).  I started to doubt myself and thought, well if this is going to be a fail, it might as well be an epic fail. I proceeded to then add my newly made bacon bits to a part of the cornbread. 

Here's the resulting product.  My "Butterless Cornbread."  I paired this bread with a sweet maple whipped butter.  It actually tasted pretty good and my friends who ate it said they enjoyed it. 

Texas State Fair aka "Fried Food Madness"

Mike and me in front of "Big Tex" the Texas State Fair mascot

The Texas State Fair is Texas's annual fair that is filled with exhibits, a car show, farm animals, and TONS of fried food.  The fair usually runs for about one month between the months of September and October.  Last year we had just moved to Texas around the time of the fair, but missed checking it out because we were vacationing in Italy. 
   This year we were excited to attend and prepped ourselves for a day full of gluttony.  Just like our friends who we attended the fair with, we ate a small breakfast so that we could partake in all of the fried food.  We had also planned to go as a group so that we could share and sample small portions of the fried foods. 
  We decided to not try the any of the fried drinks (beer, lemonade, etc) because we heard that these items were not that good and who wants warm beverages?

Fried Frito Pie~Winner of the 2010 Best Taste Award

If you're not familiar with Frito Pies, It is a bunch of Frito's corn chips topped with chili and cheese.  These fried nuggets of goodness were composed of chili and cheese, coated with a batter of crushed Frito's chips. 

Chicken Fried Bacon~2008 Best Taste Award Winner

I got this because I really enjoy onion rings/strings.

2009 Most Creative Award 

Can you see that pool of butter in the middle of the nugget? These nuggets were actually like warm buttery biscuits containing a large amount of butter. I opted for the garlic flavor. Other flavor choices included: honey and cinnamon, strawberry, and chocolate. 
Last year I remember hearing that these nuggets were made by freezing whipped butter, then battering and then deep-frying them. 

The fried chocolate was in the running for an award but didn't win one.

I thought this was a decadent mass of chocolate. A piece of brownie was stuffed with chocolate, and cherry, battered, and then deep-fried. 

There were soooo many other food items that were available at the fair but we didn't try. Here's just a smidgen that I remember: fried pizza, fried peanut butter, jelly, and banana sandwich, fried grilled cheese sandwich, fried moon pies, and fried peaches and cream.
Other food items that we tried but my pictures came out blurry included: Fletcher's corndog, texas caviar (black-eyed peas). 

The fried cheesecake was composed of cheese cake wrapped like a burrito in some kind of wrapper and then deep fried.  Surprisingly this cheesecake was pretty good.  I think this was my favorite fried dessert at the fair.  

Mike and his turkey leg

So Mike decided to go rogue on us and ordered a *gasp* turkey leg amidst our "fried food madness."  That huge turkey leg (I think Mike referred to it as an "emu leg") made him tap out early from all of the fried food eating.  It also triggered a game Mike quietly played at the fair called, "My turkey leg was bigger than yours."  He kept spotting people eating turkey legs and saying, "Man, I lucked out and got a massive one!"

Popping Boba

A few days ago after we went shopping at a local Asian grocery store, I felt like drinking a boba drink. We've been living in Texas for over a year (can you believe it?) and this is the first time that we've ever stepped foot into a boba tea shop. 
There were over a dozen different flavors to choose from, and I chose yogurt flavor (which wasn't even on the menu).  Yogurt is my favorite bubble tea flavor because it's usually tart and either tastes like Calpico or tart yogurt from Yogurtland.

We were then given the option of regular tapioca boba or a new boba called "popping boba."  Instead of chewy boba, these new boba are filled with flavored liquid.   I was given a choice between strawberry, mango, lychee, and some other flavors.  Without a question, I chose the lychee flavor.
When you add a little bit of pressure to them, they burst and release flavor.  I googled "popping boba" and then realized that it was not that new or trendy. I guess when you do not get out much, everything seems new.  I spoke to one of my friends about this and she said that she thinks they have it as a topping at yogurt shops.  She also provided me with a good description of these boba. The boba are kind of like ikura (fish eggs). 

Isn't this so cool?

I enjoyed the popping boba because of the extra bursts of lychee flavor intermixed with my yogurt smooothie.  If you are expecting the chewy texture of the original tapioca boba, you will be disappointed. 

The popping boba are also more delicate than the original boba, so if you move your straw around too much, you might inadvertantly pop some of the boba. 

Mike and I both think that these balls cannot be made from tapioca. These balls remind us more of those molecular gastronomy type sodium alginate spheres/orbs/caviar.  I couldn't find a website that lists the popping boba ingredients, but I have a strong suspicion that they are not made from tapioca. 

Bali Slush

240 Legacy Dr
Plano, TX 75023
(972) 468-2800

Austin, TX~Touristy Activities and El Arroyo Restaurant

This concludes the posts about our foodie trip to Austin, TX.  While we were in Austin, TX we were also able to meet up with one of Mike's high school friends and saw some of the famous tourist sights. 

View from Mount Bonnell

People on Congress bridge waiting to see the bats!!!

Mike and I went on a bat cruise to see the famous bats fly out from under Congress Bridge to go hunting for food at night.  One of our friends told us that if you have a better view of the bats from the river rather than on the bridge. 
   It was a neat experience to see millions of bats fly out from under the bridge to hunt for their nightly meal. I think the string of bats lasted for almost 30 minutes. It's amazing to see so many bats, but after a few minutes I was over the bats.  I told Mike that I only need to see bats once in my life. After a few more minutes, I become a bit dopey and thought, "gee it looks like a lot of little black birds flying....or large pieces ash in the sky."  Now every time I see a large group of black birds flying in the sky, I immediately think, "Oh bats!"

A friend at work graduated from UT-Austin and sent me a list of her favorite places to visit and eat in Austin. El Arroyo was listed as one of her favorite Mexican restaurants. While Mike and I were trying to find Gourdough's we passed El Arroyo, and decided to make a detour and eat lunch at El Arroyo. 

Appetizer Sampler~Taquitos, bacon-wrapped chicken and shrimp, Mexican crab rolls, and guacamole

I ended up ordering a appetizer sampler platter for me.  Do you notice a trend in my ordering? I like the option of trying multiple dishes.  I sometimes order plates that contain food that I will not like, but I know Mike will enjoy.  Hmmm...maybe I should not do this because that means Mike will end up eating more.

Relleno De La Casa Especial (Based on my limited Spanish, I think this means "The house special stuffed")

Mike ordered this extremely rich dish composed of a poblano pepper filled with shrimps, cream cheese, and a tequila-lime sauce.  I did not care for the dish because it was too creamy and rich than I expected from a Mexican dish.  Mike seemed to like this dish, but could not finish it all because he was busy eating all the food from my plate.  

El Arroyo
1624 W. 5th St.
Austin, TX 78703
(512) 474-1222

Austin, TX~Gourdough's

This was the second donut shop that we ate at during our 40-hour stay in Austin.  It's this funky food truck with dozens of donut concoctions.

Here's some examples:
*Mother Clucker-Fried Chicken Strip with Honey Butter (which I heard tastes amazing...I heard this after we returned home from our trip to Austin)
*Flying Pig~Bacon with Maple Syrup (which I also heard tastes amazing)
*Son of a Peach~Peach Filling, Cinnamon, sugar, and cake mix topping. 

 Each donut costs about $5 a piece and costs an extra dollar for a scoop of ice cream or if it is a donut that includes meat (chicken strip or bacon).  

Miss Shortcake~Cream Cheese Icing with Fresh Sliced Strawberries (Mike's selection)

Mike equated this donuts as a "fancy supped up donut dessert."  I totally agree with his assessment of the Gordough's donut. These donuts are not your traditional cop-eating type of donut.  You have to change your mindset and expect a gourmet dessert...think along the lines of eating a piece of pie, or cheesecake.  Does that make sense?  These are large pieces of fried dough (delicious goodness) that are topped with sweets.  You cannot (or maybe you can) eat a half a dozen of these bad boys. 

Black Out~Brownie Batter, fudge icing, chocolate covered brownie bites

   I ordered this donut, and had mixed feelings about it. I think that if you're a choco-holic you would think this was the best donut in your life. But for me, I felt that it was too much of a sickly sweet chocolate overload for my tastes.  I really wanted to eat more of it, but just couldn't get myself to finish the whole thing. 

The donuts were really good, but if someone gave me a choice between Gourdough's and Round Rock donuts; it would be a tough choice, but I think that I'd probably choose Round Rock donuts.  I guess I'm a "donut purist" that enjoys simple taste and wonderful textures.  Plus I think in a Calorie showdown, I'd be able to eat at least two Round Rock donuts versus one Gorudough's donut.

Gourdough's

1219 S. Lamar Blvd.

Austin, TX 78704

Austin, TX~The Salt Lick

So, the good news is that we now have Internet in our apartment! Whoo-hoo! *happy dance* Now I can continue blogging about Mike and my food adventures in Austin, TX.  Mike's highlight of Austin was "The Salt Lick," an extremely famous bar-b-que joint that has been featured on numerous television shows.  If I'm not mistaken, in an episode of the TV Food Networks, "The Best Thing I Ever Ate," both Duff Goldman and Bobby Flay said this was their favorite place for BBQ.

 

Look at all that barbecued meat!  The smoke pit was filled with sausage, brisket, and ribs!

I ordered the habanero smoked barbecue plate (~$14), which consisted of half a chicken, baked beans, potato salad and cole slaw. 

Mike ordered the all you can eat family style meal which included all you can eat beef, sausage, pork ribs, and sides (~$19).  He was in heaven! He said that this was the best beef brisket he has eaten in Texas. 

Mike did a good job attacking those ribs. 

This is a picture of my leftover chicken plate.  The portion was so huge that I was unable to finish it all.  

We left The Salt Lick with our bellies full and big huge grins on our faces. I think Mike dreams our next road trip back to Austin so that he can indulge in  BBQ again!

The Salt Lick

18300 FM 1826
Driftwood, TX 78619
Driftwood Hours: Open every day 11am to 10pm
Restaurant: 512-858-4959