bluegrass to lonestar

Lauren and I were too hungry Friday to travel far for food so we walked down to Crown and Anchor.  It’s only like a block from our house and I had heard they had decent cheap burger baskets.  Based on previous experience, things delivered to you in a red plastic basket are generally tasty, and this was no exception.

The place was packed, so Lauren grabbed the only open table while I waited in line to order.  I got us 2 cheeseburger baskets and a couple pints.  They had 512 beers on tap which was a pleasant surprise.  I have been trying to try something from them since they opened in June.  Their pale ale was better than most of the other local brews I’ve tried.

Our table was right next to the pool tables and during the meal some dude scratched a ball off the table and managed to shatter a pint of beer on the wall right next to us.  Pretty awesome but I was on edge for flying cue balls the rest of the meal.  I didn’t really know what to expect from the Crown and Anchor, I assumed it would be mostly bros, but it was a very eclectic assortment of people.  The place itself has lots of neon beer signs a couple dart boards and the afformentioned pool tables.  They have happy hour deals everyday and a good tap list that I’ll probably check out again.

I have cooked some successful things since returning from Louisville.  Lauren and I made falafel from scratch, pita and all.  It was an insane amount of work but so worth it.

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We have a winner!  The carnitas taco at El Zunzal is (so far) heads above everything else I’ve had in Austin.  The pork was crisp outside, moist and flavorful inside.  It even competes with La Rosita, the beloved New Albany eatery that stole my carnitas virginity.  EZ is a Salvadorian restaurant off of 7th st in badass East Austin.  I went there with the intention of eating pupusas but I saw they had carnitas tacos and had to get both.  The curtido (tangy, purple cabbage slaw) that came with the pupusa was awesome, my favorite part of the meal.  Nice and spicy with lots of mexican oregano.  Lauren decided that Combo #2 (or meat plate as we now refer to it) was the way to go.  A large platter of taco, enchilada, and nachos arrived for her, every inch covered with ground beef.  Lesson: avoid combos, even when tempted with avocado laden pictures in the menu.

2008 saw some major changes in my life.  I quit a decent job in Louisville, packed up my worldly possessions, and hightailed it to Austin with Lauren.  Things were admittedly a bit rough going at first. Austin has definitely grown on me, but it’s been a slow growth, tumor-style.  I do like it here though.  I quit my job at Xbox.  The hours had been cut so drastically that is was not worth the absurdly long commute to go out there.  I’m ok with that, I didn’t really feel valued there.  So 2009 starts off unemployed.  It can only get better.  I did get to watch a lot of movies…

Top films I saw in 2008
1. Wall-E
2. The Wrestler
3. Man on Wire
4. Milk
5. The Dark Knight
6. Let the Right One In
7. The Fall
8. Revolutionary Road
9. In Bruges
10. Flight of the Red Balloon
11. Snow Angels
12. Ashes of Time: Redux
13. Slumdog Millionaire
14. Burn After Reading
15. Pineapple Express

We finally managed to follow up Pub Quiz 2 with a trip to Flying Saucer last night to try their version out.  We registered as “Charlie Calhoun” and ordered some pints.  The place was intensely crowded and very loud.  It was hard to hear the questions that were asked, and the quiz announcer was quite the d-bag.  No worries though, because this was the easiest quiz in town.  We missed 2 questions total the entire time.  Kady knew the entire first round herself.  We ended up in a three way tie for 2nd.  This was remedied by hula-hoop contest.  Luckily, Gesse’s friend Julia just happened to have taken a class on the hula-hoop.  After 2 minutes of akward public hula-hooping, second place and a $35 gift certificate was ours.  So, it will be mandatory to return.