bluegrass to lonestar

In keeping with the trailer theme, I biked down to the Hat Creek burger trailer Saturday to grab some lunch.  I am slowly whittling down the list of these places I want to check out.

Hat Creek sits behind the Star Bar on E. 6th St.  There is a covered patio area with picnic tables to eat at.  Everything is cooked to order, which makes a huge difference.  The burger was delicious, nice and moist with fresh toppings.  The fries, on the other hand, were a let-down.  They are hand cut and looked like they were going to be great, but half of them were a bit greasy and limp.

FUCK Austin and their late show-start times.  It’s ridiculous.

End Rant.

Dirty Projectors played a show at Red7 last night and I attended.  The doors opened at 9 so I decided that 10:30 would be a good time to show up.  The first band would surely be finishing up by then.  Wrong.  They hadn’t even started.  Luckily there was plenty of space on the concrete to sit.  When they did start they kept up the Austin tradition of opening acts by being terrible.

The next act was Greg Ginn, of Black Flag fame, which should have been awesome but apparently he now just likes to free-form noodle on the guitar.  Part of the Dirty Projectors joined him on stage for his set.  They proceeded to have a jam-session circle jerk that seemed to last an eternity.  I didn’t realize I had paid for a Phish concert.  At this point it was almost midnight and I was in a pretty rotten mood and tired.

Dirty Projectors finally took the stage and they were amazing.  They opened with just Dave and Angel performing “Two Doves”.  Ahh Angel, sigh.  It cheered me up immediately.  They played most of the incredible Bitte Orca, and a bit of Rise Above.  The sound was surprisingly good for an outdoor set.  All would have been perfect if Ginn hadn’t returned to the stage to add some jam to a couple songs.  Luckily his appearance was short lived and I was able to head home without a bad taste in my mouth.

I biked down to south congress this afternoon to have lunch with Gesse and Kady at Mighty Cone.  Mighty Cone is a trailer that shares the parking lot with Hey Cupcake!.  The concept on the place is that they serve all their food in paper cones, the kind you usually find holding sno-cones.  I have no idea what the point of this is, other than to be quirky.

The crust that coats all of the food is the main draw.  It’s sweet and extra crunchy with a hint of spice.  It worked especially well with the creamy avocado in my chicken & avocado combo cone.  It’s topped with a mango slaw, and a secret sauce.  The cone starts to impede the eating after a while but it wasn’t as messy as I thought it would be.  The fries are “chili-dusted” but as Gesse pointed out they taste like they tossed them in the bottom of a BBQ chip bag.  This isn’t a bad thing, just unexpected.  I need to go back to try the burger w/ fois gras and they have venison dog that’s sounds tempting.

I came across a recipe for a honey bourbon caramel peach pie on the interwebs, that sounded way too amazing not to try.  Plus, local peaches are in right now.  I watched my Grandpa make countless crusts over the years but I have never had much luck in that department.  Lucky for me, there are many useful food blogs around these days.  I studied up here and my crust came out great!  I still think I prefer my peaches in cobbler form but this is a pretty delicious variation.

bourbon makes everything better

i need to work on my crimping

fini

~ 1lb of butter per serving

The inaugural meeting of the “Manly Tea Club” took place yesterday afternoon.  My friends Jonny and Scott both enjoy tea, so it was decided we should get together and sip.  We met up at Jade Leaves Tea House to sample their choices.  The dark wood interior is nice and it’s quiet and comfortable inside.  They have a crazy long menu of teas to choose from.  It’s a bit overwhelming, but the menu is descriptive and helpful.  We decided on a pot of Golden Lilly Oolong.  They let you have as many steepings as you want, so we shot the shit and ended up with several cups of tea for like $4.