Tuesday Nov 04, 2008
A few weeks back I was listening to my local NPR station KUT and got to hear Fresh
Air, something I don't usually get to hear as I'm working
when it's on here. I happened to catch Michael Pollan talking
about his
"Farmer in Chief" open letter to the next U.S. president.
It was an interesting discussion, so went to check it out on
line. Pollan ties our food system to cheap oil, global warming
and national security and suggests rethinking the way we grow,
sell and even define food to something more sustainable. He
also suggests turning about a third of the White House lawn into
a small farm, about 5 acres. Interestingly the CSA from which
we're getting our vegetables for the next several weeks has
about 4 acres in cultivation.
I thought the article was good "food for thought" :).
Monday Oct 27, 2008
Last night we went to a "meet the farmer" and potluck event at
the community supported agriculture (CSA) farm we joined for the
fall harvest season. The farm is Hands of the Earth, not too
far from the Austin airport. Our boys were impressed by the
planes going by overhead. Having grown up near the
Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, I can tell them it's not always so
much fun.
The farm is pretty small, probably around 10 acres, and I think
they said about 4 were cultivated. We had a tour from a long
time member and after dinner another tour from Marisol, the
farmer. She was obviously really into it, and most excited by
the carrots that were growing in about 5 rows at one end of the
farm. Nice to see the person growing your food getting really
into it.
The potluck was interesting and fun, as they usually are. My
wife Karen brought some chili she made that day using beef from
our grass-fed beef (cattle?) CSA. She got some compliments, and
I agreed, it was quite good. There were lots of other good
dishes, a great blueberry pie, wine, beer, etc.
Karen thought we were a bit out of place with this crowd, which
mostly seemed younger and more urban. Some had kids, but many
couples did not, or didn't bring any kids. But really, the
thing that brought us there was a love of good vegetables,
right?
There were also lots of dogs at this event, and Nick and Sam
loved it! They particularly liked this male gigantic lab
cross. He was the biggest lab I'd ever seen, more the size of a
heavy Great Dane. Funny thing, his mother was also there, and
she was a lab-sized black lab or lab cross. There were lots of
other dogs, and they were all pretty well behaved, which was
nice. There was a little terrier that was zipping around the
fields having a great time!
This is our second time with a CSA. We joined a CSA in the
spring, and while it started out okay, that farm didn't
communicate very well. After the season was over, we signed up
for another half share, and didn't get any of it, despite
repeated attempts at communicating with that farm. We're hoping
this goes better, and I have a pretty good feeling about it
after this potluck.
We start getting our vegetables on Wednesday at the Triangle
farmer's market in Austin. Since Sun is at least part of the
way there, I'll be picking up the veggies. I'm looking forward
to it.
Thursday Jan 11, 2007
My wife Karen and I had lunch yesterday at Alborz Persian
Cuisine. I've been dining at Alborz for a few years now,
and I really enjoy it. Persian cuisine is interesting, a bit
like Middle Eastern/Mediterranean and a bit like Indian food.
Alborz has a buffet for lunch and the buffet usually has several
types of rice, tabouli, salads, and lots of stew-type dishes.
At any rate, good as usual. There are other interesting
restaurants, food places and an interesting drum shop in the
area:
Wednesday Jan 10, 2007
I had another hill workout near La Frontera, so I was
again tempted to try Wingstop. I was waffling
about whether to get wings or soemthing else. I walked into
Wingstop, and there was a line ahead of me to order, so I walked
out and walked a couple of doors down to Chipotle. I'd never tried
Chipotle, but had been told it was along the lines of Freebirds World Burrito
so I thought I'd check it out.
I was impressed in that the menu was fairly simple and the
service was fast. I probably spent all of about 60 seconds in
line while they built my fajita burrito and took my money.
Also, the charge was $6.06 with tax, not bad for what looked to
be a big burrito. Unfortunately, that's where the positives
ended.
I took my burrito home and started to eat. First off, the only
tortillas Chipotle appeared to use were flour tortillas.
Freebirds offers flour, wheat, spinach, and cayenne. Size wise
I think that the Chipotle fajita burrito was a bit larger than a
Freebirds regular, but not as big as a Freebirds monster. The
other problem I had with the Chipotle fajita burrito was the
feeling I was eating a spring roll rather than a burrito. I
think it had to do with the white rice, which Chipotle calls
"cilantro-lime rice" on their menu, and the tortilla had a kind
of sticky feel to it. Oh, and according to the menu I should
have been offered pinto beans or black beans, but I don't recall
anyone asking.
So, while my experience started out well, I'm not very tempted
to go back. The burrito just didn't do that much for me,
especially when I can get something so much better at Freebirds.
Wednesday Jan 03, 2007
Yesterday evening I had a hill workout in the La Frontera area, so
after that I paid a visit to Wingstop in La Frontera
(okay, I know, after a workout I should eat healthy :)). I
tried 5 atomic hot wings and 5 original hot wings. I started
with one of the atomic wings, and that was certainly a shock!
If I do this again I'll work my way up by starting with an
original hot. Anyway, after a while my senses got used to the
heat and I was able to finish. I also had veggie sticks with
bleu cheese dressing and fries. Wingstop's fries are a bit
unusual, in that they have sugar on them! All in all, pretty
good, once I got beyond the shock of the first atomic wing.
One of these days I'll even remember to order some bourbon baked
beans, which certainly smell good, but I always forget to order
them.
Thursday Dec 21, 2006
One of the Indian grocery
stores here in Austin opened a restaurant Curry in
Hurry several weeks ago, and I've been going there most
every week since. You get one of the three curries of the day,
dal, bread and rice for $4.99 plus tax. Every is made before
the restaurant opens at 11, so if you really are in a hurry,
it's pretty quick.
Today I arrived around 1 p.m. and there were a couple of guys
ahead of me getting a large order to go, and then a large group
of about 8 guys came in behind me. I thought 1 p.m. would be
quiet, but perhaps it being near the holidays is causing people
to change their schedules, as kids are out of school and that
ripples into the lives of parents.
From today's menu I chose
paneer kadhai, chana dal and roti. Very good, expect the dal
was really quite hot and I burned my tongue.
So if you're somewhere near Parmer and Mopac, in the mood for
curry and in a hurry, check it out.
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