Lamberts

Lamberts-Austin

The first BBQ we ate on our trip to Texas turned out the be the only place we visited that had silverware and linen napkins.
Lamberts is in the heart of downtown Austin and it has a great modern/rustic/artisan thing going on. Great drinks, upscale beer list and a menu that showed these guys really care about food.

 Spareribs

Homemade BBQ Sauces

You know what else? These guys also turn out some kick ass BBQ too. Terrific brisket, succulent ribs, amazing sides (in fact, these were the best side dishes we ate on the entire trip).  As amazing as the meat is in the little out of the way places we visited throughout Central Texas, the quality of the side dishes border on pathetic. Lamberts served up an amazing apple/cabbage cole slaw, a great potato salad and they even did a fresh riff on the ubiquitous pickle component that is seemingly always served up with BBQ. Lamberts had pickled carrots, cauliflower and they were fantastic!
If you are heading to Austin and BBQ country you really need to make a stop at Lamberts. 

Congress Avenue Bridge

Another note of interest is that Lamberts is just blocks from the Congress Avenue Bridge (home to the largest urban bat colony in the USA). These bats take flight at dusk and you really need to witness the sight of 1.5 million bats taking off.

Central Texas BBQ Pilgrimage

 Franklin BBQ-Austin, Tx.

 I was in Central Texas two years ago on business and had  the chance to see this amazing part of the county and also experience my first taste of the BBQ that this part of Texas is known for. 

At that time I decided I needed to make a trip back for a real "BBQ pilgrimage". For my son's 16th birthday I told him my present to him was going to be a road trip to Austin and the surrounds for a weeks worth of the Travel Channel and Food Network hotspots.

Central Texas and Hill Country were settled by Germans and Czech's in the mid 1800's and those immigrants brought old world butchering skills  with them. Central Texas also happens to be the beginning of the Chisom Trail and as you might imagine the BBQ in this area leans heavily towards the beef side of the equation.

BBQ sauce is a rarity  and the meat is often seasoned with just salt and pepper (Dalmatian rub). Hardwood is  used to smoke this meat with (post oak). What I love about this type of cooking is that it takes simple and inexpensive ingredients like brisket, salt, pepper and local wood (post oak, pecan) and elevates it to a level to where a small town local BBQ cafe called City Market in Luling was recently named by Newsweek magazine as one world's 101 best places to eat....(un-freaking-believable!)

 The hot beds of Central Texas BBQ are in the small towns in and around Austin. Luling, Gonzales, Llano and Lockhart (the holy grail) will be names familiar to people serious about Central Texas BBQ.

Over a 7 day stretch we hit 18 of the areas best BBQ spots.  Below are the spots we selected from a bit of research via the Food Network, The Travel Channel and from a bit of back and forth with Daniel Vaughn at Full Custom Gospel BBQ.

All of these places come highly recommended and my son and I will write about the 7 standouts of the all star lineup.

Friday

Lamberts Downtown Barbeque-Austin

Saturday

Snows-Lexington

Son’s of Hermann Hall-Deanville

City Meat Market-Giddings

Prause Meat Market-La Grange

Zimmerhanzel's Bar-B-Que-Smithville

Southside Market-Elgin

Sunday

Franklin Barbeque-Austin

Salt Lick, Driftwood

Monday

Opie’s BBQ-Spicewood

Cooper's Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que-Llano

Fredericksburg-Becker Vineyards, Pedernales Cellars

Tuesday

City Market-Luling

Gonzales Food Market-Gonzales

Kreuz Market-Lockhart

Blacks Barbecue-Lockhart

Smitty’s-Lockhart

Wednesday

Fargo’s Pit BBQ-Bryan

Monday

Louie Mueller- Taylor

Cacio e Pepe

Cacio e Pepe

In the decade that was my 30's I cooked almost exclusively Italian food. Northern, Southern, Peasant, etc. Last night I tried a recipe I had seen on a Travel Channel episode. Oddly enough, I had never cooked this recipe before. After inhaling this amazing dish I will add that the only other Italian dish that punches this much above it's weight is Aglio e Olio. I blogged about the Aglio e Olio recipe a few years ago and if you haven't seen that recipe you might want to check it out. My version has enough garlic to ward off any lurking vampires that might be coming around in anticipation of Halloween.

Cacio e Pepe is Roman staple and this dish can be ready in the amount of time it takes to boil noodles. Try out this version from Bon Appetit (you might want to add a touch of olive oil too).

Open a Chianti or a Barbera and revel in how great something so simple can be.

Zankou's Garlic Sauce Clone

Grilled Game Hen w/Garlic Sauce

I had come across a news story about an Armenian-Lebanese restaurant called Zankou Chicken. This Armenian-Lebanese rotisserie chicken restaurant with a store in Anaheim, California (home of Disneyland) Little Arabia, is widely known for its white garlic sauce.  
At first I was thinking "how good could this possibly be"? After a little more reading I figured that a tiny shop that nets over $1 million annually must be doing something right. As good as the chicken is supposed to be, this sauce defines what they do.
Last night I did a simple grilled game hen that I cooked with just salt, pepper over hardwood charcoal that I added a couple of sticks of applewood to. This chicken was moist and juicy and the Zankou Garlic sauced absolutely killed.
Before you break this out for a special date please keep in mind that this recipe calls for an entire head of raw garlic.

Zankou Garlic Sauce Clone
1 large, peeled russet potatoes
1 whole head of garlic, peeled
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice, reserve half
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup canola oil

Zankou Garlic Sauce 

• Make sure the potatoes are completely peeled, with any green or brown discoloration is removed.
• Boil the potatoes in salted water until soft, then mash to a smooth consistency. Allow to cool.
• Pour the oil into a measuring cup with a spout to allow for easy administering.
• Place the peeled garlic cloves, salt and half of the lemon juice in a blender. Be sure to secure the lid.
• Turn the blender on high, and slowly stream the oil through the hole in the lid until the mixture combines into a smooth consistency.
• Pour out the garlic "mayo" into a bowl
• Add the mashed potatoes to the mixture 2 tablespoons at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon until it's the consistency of loose, mashed potatoes. 
• Add the remaining lemon juice a little at a time until the tartness tastes balanced to you.
• Cover the bowl, and chill the sauce completely.
• Temperature will affect how salty foods taste. Adjust the salt after the sauce has cooled.

This sauce had the consistency of frosting. The starch from the potato when pureed gets a pasty texture and next time I might not use a ricer to mash the potato. The sauce keeps its texture when cooled and the flavor is out of this world. This could easily become a "go to" for sandwiches or just about any other protein dish you want to give a garlic kick to.

Anaheim Hills on Dwellable

Whole Bowl

The Whole Bowl

There is a small restaurant (that started as a food cart) here in Portland called: "Whole Bowl".

The ingredients are basically a burrito, but without the tortilla wrap.

Brown rice, red and black beans, cheddar cheese, avocado, onion, cilantro, salsa, sour cream and and addictive mustard yellow sauce they call: Tali Sauce. Locals also call this sauce "Crack" sauce as it is something you just want to keep eating.

I did some digging around on the interwebs and came up with a recipe that is close to the original. If you are going to the trouble to put this sauce together go ahead and scale it up.....this stuff seems to disappear way too fast.

(Almost) Tali Sauce

• 1/4 cup almonds
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup garbanzo beans
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup large flake nutritional yeast
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 TBS whole grain Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup lemon juice

Blend all the ingredients in a food processor and then add 1 tsp each of:

• curry powder
• onion powder
• turmeric
• chili powder
• cayenne

Blend again until combined and serve with your bowl ingredients.