This Week in Food

Some of the food that I've enjoyed over the last week...well couple of weeks. In case you are curious, starting from left to right starting on top, Torchy's Taco's September special taco the "Mr. Pink," Hyde Park Bar & Grill's famous french fries (Meh), some delicious special from Magnolia Cafe that I could resist eating before I snapped a pic, and last but not least a $3 pizza from Pizza Patron.

Red Lobster & gluttony

Endless Shrimp at Red Lobster may seem like a good idea when you see the commercials on TV, but when all is said and done it is ultimately a grave mistake. Restaurants like Chili's and Red Lobster are one of my guilty pleasures, I hate that they are big corporately run chains and that they hurt local economies but boy do I love their cheese biscuits.

Today was a pretty successful day for me so when I got text message from a friend seeing if I wanted to eat at Red Lobster tonight I decided it would be a nice way to celebrate. The day finished and by eight I found myself seated at the location of S. Lamar. Myself, and three other friends, decided to order the limited time only endless shrimp. After enjoying a salad and some biscuits the waitress arrived. We each had our own little army of dead shrimp looking up at us.

Three hours and around 100 shrimp later I found myself here on my bed clutching my stomach hoping the pain will end soon. In all seriousness though the shrimp tasted fantastic. Each time we ordered more we got to choose from teriyaki, cajun, coconut, garlic, and hand battered. I tried all but hand battered and was, at the time, happy with my decision to spend the $15 on the special.

Do I regret my decison? Yes. Would I do it again? In a heart beat. What can i say, I'm a glutton for...well...gluttony.

Another sweaty house show

A few weeks ago my girlfriend and I went and saw one of our favorite bands play at a dirty sweaty house show, this weekend we went and saw one of our favorite friends play with his new band at a dirty sweaty house show.

My friend Justin was the first friend I made here in Austin and the dude is awesome. He’s a really great friend so when he invited us to come see his new band at a house show we where onboard. Cut to Saturday night as we walk up to a house a few blocks south of campus and are greeted by some acquaintances that I knew from school.

One of them, who I had had a couple of classes with last year, was really excited to see us and told us that it was some guy’s birthday and the party was western themed. I thought that was strange seeing as he was wearing nothing but a few plastic grocery bags and some duct tape…but I went a long with it.

We hung around in the house for a while and chatted with some friends until it was time for the band to play. The music was pretty good; in fact I was surprised by how well they played for it being their first performance. I would go into more detail but this isn’t about the music, it is about something I never thought I would see.

Towards the end of the performance things started getting weird. There was a few guys collecting money for another keg and they where barely clothed. There was the very drunk birthday boy dancing around with nothing but a “Come and Take It” flag wrapped around his waste. And there was someone flinging glow sticks around on strings.

In a matter of seconds all of these things combined into one of the most insane moments of my life. The band started jamming louder and the glow sticks where flying when all of sudden the birthday boy fell on to the ground and exposed himself to us. The band kept playing and the glowsticks kept spinning…but the genitals didn’t move. They just stayed there on display in front of everyone to see for what seemed like minutes. The flashing probably only happened for 3-4 seconds but for those of us in the front row it is an image we will never forget.

3 Days without my computer

For the last 3 days my girlfriend has had my computer and it has made me realize how much computers have become a huge part of our, or more specifically my, day to day life. Not being able to do small things like quick google searches completely changing how I function. I'm sure analysts and doctors would comment on how bad this is for our future...but I really don't have a problem with it. Computers are a very important tool and it is up to us as individuals to decide how reliant we will be on that tool.

Tomorrow is going to be a big day for posting. All the stuff I wanted to post yesterday and the days prior.

Sea Dog Raspberry Ale: Raspberry or Mustard?

A few weeks ago I turned 21 and since then I’ve been slowly dipping my feet into the pool of alcoholic beverages. So far I’ve been pretty unimpressed. Beer tastes pretty gross. Didn’t really like white wine. But I’m still trying things.

Today I was at Central Market and I saw a bottle of Sea Dog’s Raspberry Wheat Ale. I figured regular beer tastes kinda gross…but throw some raspberries into the mix and maybe it’ll taste better? So I bought it.

After a few hours I popped open the bottle and poured it into a glass. I did a surprisingly good job of pouring into the glass, there was a good amount of head and the beer was a nice shade of amber that looked like John Hammond’s fly cane in Jurassic Park.

I couldn’t smell any particular flavors at first so I took a sip and definitely didn’t taste raspberry. The first flavor to hit my tongue was spicy deli mustard and then a pretty standard beer taste. I was surprised. I thought it would be a lot sweeter. It wasn’t the worst beer I’ve ever tasted, in fact it wasn’t bad at all but the raspberries on the bottle had me hoping for something else. The mustard taste eventually went away towards the end I started to taste the raspberry.

Maybe it was my imagination, in fact it probably was, but by the last couple sips of the glass the raspberry almost overshadowed the gross beery taste that still grosses me out.

I still don’t like beer but this bottle was halfway decent.

Keanu Watch 2009

I've decided to take on an a new challenge, it is something that I'm calling Keanu Watch 2009. I've spent my whole life watching Keanu Reeves movies and wondering why people cast him in movies. In all the Keanu Reeves movies that I've watched I haven't seen a shred of evidence that he in fact has any acting talent. He's charismatic...sometimes...but I want to see his acting chops. If you have any leads as to what movie the talent may be hiding in let me know. The hunt begins!

Trashy

Today I had the best taco of my life.

Around four my girlfriend Emmy and I decided to stop at Torchy's and grab a quick bite to eat. Torchy's is my favorite place for quick food that's under $5. Emmy ordered the baja shrimp taco on corn and I got a trailer park on flour.We where really hungry and it took longer than usual for our food to come so by the time it came out we where more than ready for the sweet taste of tacos.

As soon as the tacos hit the table my hands went to work. I grabbed the back half of the taco with my right hand and craddled it so I could catch anything that fell out the back of the taco and used my right hand to guide it to my mouth. Usually the trailer park is just a good taco. Fried chicken, queso, and green chilis all melted to together. Today's was phenominal.

After finishing up Emmy and I went back to the front desk and we each ordered another to go, drove home, and enjoyed.

Friends, Sweat, and the greatest band in Texas

The greatest band in Austin playing an incredible show last night, and it wasn't at some fancy club downtown. Nobody had to pay for parking, with the exception of the one guy whose car got towed. And everyone looked and smelled terrible by the time the show was over. The band was The Eastern Sea and the venue was some beat up house on Cole Street that may forever be cursed with the sweet aroma of Lonestar beer.

If you've never been to house show then you are missing out on something incredible. Sure it is crowded and sweaty and the sound is sort of terrible, but the concert becomes something completely different. It becomes something much more intimate and personal. It becomes a story that you can tell you're friends. I've been following The Eastern Sea since their creation five years ago and I've seen them more times than I can count (Not in a bragging kind of way, but an embarrassing obsession way) and last night was easily one of the most memorable shows that I've seen them play.

To listen to The Eastern Sea check out their Myspace.

Sega does what Nintendon't

Yesterday marked the ten year anniversary of the release of Sega's Dreamcast system. I bought and loved a Dreamcast a few years after it was released and even though I don't have it anymore I will never forget the system.

My parents bought me a Sega Genesis when I was a did and it changed my life. It was my first experience with video games and from that point I was in love, and because my parents bought me a Sega I would become a Sega fan for life.

When I got my Dreamcast I really wanted it to be the best console I ever played. It had some of my all time favorite videogames. Sonic Adventure, Shenmue, and Powerstone are games that I would still play today if I had them.

Unfortunately the console wasn't as succesful as Sega, and myself, had hoped. The system died and Sega announced that they would no longer be making consoles and only create software. The announcment was sad. And I was sad.