Bonjour Ma Cherie!

My husband's response makes me laugh every time.

Food for Fun

I remember when I used to really love food. 

I loved trying new restaurants.

Reading menus for fun. 

Eating for enjoyment. 

Wtf has happened to me?

What Asians Do: Eat Crawfish and Reproduce!

YaYa wishes she could eat crawfish too.

The critters.

Aunt Xiao is preggers with #3. She wins.

Oh, those kids and their gadgets.

Sweet Renee is growing up so fast.

If I ever reproduce, I'd like one of these please!

A very nice little girl named Emily.

Kari is a big time trouble maker.

Cute little stinker.

Scottsdale: Where the Pretty People Live

 

Food I Eat: Tacos and Mojitos

My bestie made fish tacos and mojitos for lunch today. I love when other people make me things to eat.
 

What I Ate: Poutine

Poutine
French fries, a very delicious thing on their own, are amped up to the nth degree with a healthy douse of gravy and an extremely dangerous portion of cheese. This is poutine.

This is what I ate today.

What I Ate: Perma Food Baby

Today, I consumed:

Brie
Pistachio ice cream
One glass of white wine
Chicken Brochette
A cheese pie
Garlic toast
French fries
A lemon cupcake

Hello food baby.  

Lick It Bite It or Suck It!

Lick It Bite It Or Both
11101 Burnet Rd
Ste 140-A
Austin, TX 78758
www.lickitbiteitorboth.com

2/5 stars

What's worse than a dry, stale cupcake?

Being served a dry, stale cupcake by a dour faced, unwelcoming, and unhelpful employee.

No smile, no hello, no happy greeting. Nothing! The girl literally said three words to us the whole time we were there: red velvet and 10.83.

I don't expect to be coddled or showered with pleasantries, but come on. You work in a cupcake store. Everyday should be a freaking jolly day.

Anyway, I bought a key lime cupcake and an Italian cream cupcake and took them home to eat later.

Fast forward to 2 AM. It's cupcake time. I take out the cupcakes and leave them on the counter to let them hang out.

215 AM, I approach the cupcakes. They look super cute. The key lime cupcake has a glittery looking frosting, which is appealing, but I have my eye on the Italian cream.

The first bite: the cupcake was hard, dry, heavy, and a little stale. I liked the coconut bits in the cupcake, but that's nothing to be proud of - hello, it's Italian cream.

The frosting was also heavy and sweet, but didn't offend me as badly as the cupcake.

Okay, so maybe the key lime cupcake will be better.

Wow. It wasn't.

Whereas the Italian cake was super dry, the key lime was super wet. Bizarre. There was a very mild lime taste and an overabundance of sugar.

Where's the refreshing, zesty lime taste? Where's the tart bite? Where's the flavor???

I'm not a cupcake snob. I don't eat cupcakes professionally.

In fact, I hardly ever eat them, but when I do indulge, I want a cupcake that's rich, moist, flavorful, and well made.

And I want it served with a smile.

Since Lick It Bite It or Both does neither, I doubt I will ever come back.

Travel Planning

Rule #1 of traveling: plan ahead. There's nothing worse than standing around in a beautiful city, wondering, "What should we do?" or "What should we eat?" or "Where are we?"

Okay, there are worse things, but still.

This doesn't necessarily mean that you need to create a detailed itinerary for every day of your trip, but it does help to have a general idea of the things you'd want to do and the places you'd like to eat.

For me, food is important. My memories from traveling are easily evoked from my food experiences. Some of my favorite food memories are from Vancouver:

eating soft, buttery, fresh Toro in a hole in the wall Japanese sushi bar;
strolling through downtown eating sweet, creamy, frozen custard on a hot summer day;
sipping rich, hot Belgian chocolate on a chilly August night;
drinking cold, crisp peach cider (and Kokanee) while watching the sunset over the English Bay. 

It brings back happy memories. 

So, before I embark on our summer vacation (see my sad map!), I've compiled a list of places I'd like to try in each city. Most of these are from running mental lists of restaurants I've read or heard about over the years, and some are ones I've specifically searched for (e.g., best gelato in Chicago).

Anyway, with that all being said, here's my list of food places I want to visit in each city.

Chicago

Lou Malanti's
Frontera Grill
Morton's
Blackbird

Toronto

Mystic Muffin
Mother's Dumplings
Spadina Garden
Yung Sing Pastry Shop
Banjara Indian

Montreal

St. Viateur Bagels
Fairmount Bagels
Jean Talon Market
Crepe Cafe
Narcisse Bistro

Quebec

Paillard
Le Lapin Sauté
Pain Beni

Vancouver

Zero One Sushi
Guu
Kingyo
Kintaro
Toshi Sushi
Aljisai Sushi
Guu with Garlic
Banana Leaf
Cioppino's
Nuba

Truthfully, I really just want to eat deep dish pizza in Chicago and heaps of crepes, bagels, pastries, and French food in Montreal/Quebec City. Oh, and fresh sushi in Vancouver.

That would make me a happy, fat camper with loads of jolly memories.

Cheers to food and travel!

Hello Julia.

I recently missed out on a good friend's birthday, and had been promising to make him dinner for awhile now, so I figured tonight was as good as any other night to make it happen.

What's for dinner: beef bourguignon.

Ingredients

- 1 tablespoon olive oil

- 1 pound stew chuck beef

- Salt

- Freshly ground black pepper

- 1/2 pound carrots, sliced diagonally into 1-inch chunks

- 1 yellow onion, diced

- 2 cloves minced garlic

- 1/2 bottle Pinot Noir

- 1 cup beef broth

- 1 tablespoon tomato paste

- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (1/2 teaspoon dried)

- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature, divided

- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

- 2 cups sliced mushrooms

Steps

Pre-heat oven to 250F.

Dry the beef cubes with paper towels and then season with salt and pepper.

Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven on high heat.

In batches in single layers, sear the beef in the hot oil for 3 to 5 minutes, until they are brown on all sides.

When done, remove the beef from the heat and put aside.

Cook the carrots and onions in the fat in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes until the onions are lightly browned. Season the mixture with salt and pepper.

Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

Add the wine plus enough beef broth to almost cover the meat.

Add the tomato paste and thyme.

Bring to a simmer, cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid and place it in the oven for about 1 1/4 hours or until the meat and vegetables are tender.

Mix 2 tablespoons of butter and 3 tablespoons of flour with a fork and stir into the stew.

Saute the mushrooms in 2 tablespoons of butter for 10 minutes until lightly browned and then add to the stew. Bring the stew to a boil on top of the stove, then lower the heat and cook for 15 minutes.

Season the stew to taste.

Voila! Eat while hot.

Yo So Good

Frozen yogurt: ice cream's skinny friend. 

Frozen yogurt: my new favorite friend. 

Dozens of frozen yogurt shops have cropped up all around Austin. Because I'm a huge advocate of education and quality assurance, I've taken the liberty of sampling as many frozen yogurt places as possible.

The following four are the best based on my froyo experiences:

1. Yogurt Planet: Has dulce de leche and fresh bananas. Nuff said. 

2. Yo Yo's: Solid creamy yogurt with a good selection of fruit and toppings. 

3. The Yogurt Spot: Excellent yogurt consistency and some interesting seasonal flavors (tropical, lychee, lemon, and green tea).

4. Yummy Yo: Small selection, but solid and typical offerings.

The rest kind of suck and all suffer from the same downfall: icy, watery yogurt consistency. Steer clear or consume only if absolutely necessary.

Swirll

Austin Berry

Frutti Frogurt

Tomunchi

Yo So Cool

Yogo Bowl

Yolly Yo