bingsy's Profile

avocado margarita at Curra's

I found it in my oatmeal - luckily before I ate it. My mom had cleaned out her pantry, and to be nice gave me a bunch of it. There were some stowaways. Getting rid of the food did the trick. It wasn't as traumatic as it could have been, thankfully.

My husband gave me a Tojiro,and it was wrapped beautifully, courtesy of the shop from which it was purchased.

I also liked receiving a box full of spices. I had never heard of za'atar before. For months it was wonderful because I would often have all needed spices on hand for even the most exotic dishes. It likely cost less than ten dollars, but was really used and appreciated.

My favorite gift to give was truffle salt. The recipient loved it.

I watch the first Bridget Jones on New Years.

Shop Around the Corner is a beautiful old/black and white Christmas movie, but I was very surprised at how much I loved Elf.

My mom taught me to rinse the rice three times before having it soak in the water it will ultimately be cooked in for a bit.

This was the short grain, Korean white rice.

I will say I have never ever been able to make rice like her, rinsing or no rinsing.

I guess this means that ratio of water to rice is a lot more important.

One last thing - and you'll thank me.

Panaderia Chuy - I just found out that the baker for Mandola's has his own bakery. It has been rumoured that you can buy lots of items for low dough. It's likely worth a trip.

I know this is a while after the original post, but I'm thinking there might be someone that uses this post before a trip to Austin.

1. Quality Seafood - aka Eaves Brothers - on Airport. If you go when it is not busy the owner/fishmonger will talk to you about the fish that they sell, and he will give you cooking tips or recipe ideas. It's just a fun little store anyway with a happening restaurant connected.

2. Right next to Magnolia's on Congress there is a shop called Prima Dora. For $4.95 they sell a packet of hibiscus tea that is the blend used at Magnolia's. They call it hippie tea. Many Austin restaurants sell iced hibiscus tea, and it is really refreshing. One packet will last you a while, depending on how often you drink iced hibiscus tea. If you plan on drinking a lot, just go ahead and buy all the ones they have out front. I let them know that I lived out of town, and they went in the back to get a stash they had there. Every now and again they are sold out both out front and back, so just know that is a possibility. It is a high quality blend, and I give them away as lagniappes to every present if I think the recipient is sufficiently hippy.

I am reading a box on child rearing that gives the following advice when buying supplies: take an older relative and ask them what they actually needed and used - anything more is perhaps nice but not at all necessary.

In our world we obviously have too much of most things.

I think the above advice is good for kitchens. My mom had very little, but she was extremely inventive and had great dexterity as well as knife skills. With that said, my mom did in fact use a garlic press. However she didn't use it for garlic. I have a distinct memory of her using it to get juice out of a piece of ginger root. (She is Korean, so she used a lot of ginger.)

I read the comments that links should not be specific restaurants but tips for cooks:

MT Grocery Store: It is this huge ass Asian grocery store in North Austin - on North Lamar specifically. It is out of the way from the center of Austin, but I can tell you that the last time I went (I know longer live in Austin, so it has been about a year) I stocked up on Cafe Du Monde coffee at almost half of the price elsewhere ($3.99.) I bought the cheap coffee because they were also selling those individual coffee presses that you use to make Vietnamese coffee drinks for $5. I bought several and gave them as gifts with the Cafe Du Monde. They have an extensive Ramen aisle, and I used to find these really delicious, low sodium ramens there (although they weren't consistently there, you had to check through the many high sodium bags first.) They have fish in the tanks, although for vegans this could be depressing as some didn't look so happy and they were all going to meet their end soon. They had durian fruit and all kinds of happy looking Asian produce. You can also find some pretty decently priced cooking tools. If you have a great Asian area in your town this may not seem special, but to me it was such a blessing - an Asian grocery that was actually the size of a regular grocery.

Vino Vino - because the wine I've tasted here has been go to wines for my kitchen table since I started going here. I taste the wine here, buy a bottle, but then I go to the grocery store or Grapevine (Spec's is fun, but they don't have as much control over what they stock. Grapevine does have control, and the workers will do everything they can to get you the bottle you want) and buy it for much less afterward. Every time I will hear about the wine far after the fact. The wines are just a step ahead of the trend.

Just one shout out to a restaurant - there is a drink called the chilango that I love. It is a margarita with spicy red pepper. You can find it at El Chile on Manor.

If you are making anything that requires great bread, Mandola's bakery in the Triangle has the best. If you can get the Pugliese, then I think that would impress any dinner party guest. I always volunteered to bring the bread. If you want to make the best bruschetta, then buy your Italian loaf here.

Having a margarita with chips and queso at any Mexican place with an outdoor patio is pretty Austiny, and I must agree with jessekl, the beer or margarita makes the food better. I personally like the Mexican martini, but some people - real martini lovers I imagine - hate it.

Having a breakfast taco is Austiny.

Visit the flagship of Whole Foods.

Austin now has Ethiopian, Asters, off highway 35 and Dean Keaton.

Little New Orleans in Austin? Casey's Snowballs on 51st and Aiport because if you are lucky the owners will be your servers, and they definitely have the New Orleans accent and are often easy to chat up - depending on how busy they are. Speak loudly, so they can hear you.

coriander