Food Adventures in Austin

Austin likes to present itself as the “live music capital of the world”. For uncultured heathens like me who don’t know enough about live music to really appreciate it, Austin is more like the food capital of the south. Virgin America was having a sweet deal on tickets so M and I jumped on it to take a nice long weekend trip over President’s Day weekend. It ended up being a great trip characterized by some interesting sights, beautiful weather, and most of all, delicious, glorious food.

Great weather in Austin 

We arrived in Austin-Bergstrom International Airport mid afternoon on Saturday, hungry after the four hour flight. Before we even left the airport, we stumbled upon our first BBQ place, The Salt Lick. Having decided not to rent a car for this trip, we most likely would not make it to the original branch on the outskirts of town, so we stopped by for a “little afternoon snack”. We got the three meat platter for $18. It was a little pricey, but to be expected for airport food. It was also among the best airport food I’ve had, so no buyer’s regret here. 

First "meal" in Austin

After checking into our hotel and walking around the Capitol building and grounds a bit, our BBQ adventure continued at Rudy’s Country Store & Bar-B-Q on the south end of town. It’s a casual place where you order at the counter and bring your food to long dining hall style tables to eat. The employees were all very friendly - when they heard we were newcomers to the restaurant, they introduced us to the menu with generous free samples. We ended up getting a quarter pound each of the turkey and moist brisket, and a half rack of baby back ribs, and it was honestly the best BBQ I’ve ever had. The turkey was moist and flavorful, and worked great with the free bread. The ribs were great too - there was BBQ sauce available at all the tables, but the ribs were already seasoned to perfection so I ended up eating most of it dry. Everything was good, but my favorite part of the meal was definitely the brisket. I don’t know how they got it so moist and tender that it would practically melt in your mouth. Best part was that all this meat for two cost us only about $30 total. Definitely a place worth revisiting if I’m ever back in town.

Best ribs ever at Rudy's

On Sunday we spend the morning taking a tour of UT Austin. We followed a friend of mine who’s a student there all around campus, working up a nice appetite a big lunch at Torchy’s Tacos. Turns out Torchy’s Tacos is a chain that was founded in Austin by some big name chef who quit his fancy executive chef job to chase his dream of making tacos. The guy’s skill definitely shows in the quality of the food there. We ordered a basket of nachos and a bunch of different taco flavors. The nachos were okay, but I would recommend forgoing those and saving the stomach space for more tacos. All the tacos were phenomenal, though the Baja Shrimp stands out as my favorite by far. 

Amazing Baja Shrimp tacos on the right

We walked around campus some more after lunch, checked out the LBJ Presidential Library, and then walked back to the downtown area. Our destination? Gourdough’s Public House on 5th street. Gourdough's sells sandwiches and burgers like many other restaurants, but unlike most other restaurants, in place of bread and buns they use fresh piping hot donuts. We ordered a Mother Clucker (fried chicken on top of fried dough covered in grease) and a Miss Shortcake (donut topped with cream cheese and strawberries - we like to think the strawberries make it somewhat healthy). Not something you could have everyday without your arteries screaming in protest, but quite tasty and worth a try. The donut burger is on my list of things to try next time.

Donuts at Gourdough's

Monday was our last full day in Austin. We grabbed a quick breakfast downtown and then took a nice long morning walk along Lady Bird Lake over to Zilker park. When it started getting too warm around noon, we hopped on an Uber over to “SoCo”, or South Congress Ave., a street south of the river lined with great restaurants and interesting shops. For lunch we went to Hopdoddy Burger Bar. Of course, there was a line that snaked all the way through and halfway around the outside of the restaurant, but the wait didn’t seem too bad after a waiter brought us a girl scout cookie milkshake to enjoy in line. After we finally got inside and got seated, we ordered a Magic Shroom and a Primetime burger with a side of Truffle Fries. The wait was long, but the food was worth it. I’d rank these among the best burgers I’ve ever had.

The Magic Shroom burger

We spent the next few hours wandering around SoCo exploring the wide range of shops, ranging from Mexican souvenirs to cowboy boots. After we digested enough to eat again, we walked over to Home Slice Pizza, a nondescript dimly lit restaurant with the smell of freshly baked pizza that greets visitors right at the door. We ordered a half Margherita and half Sausage, Ricotta Cheese, and Red Pepper pizza. Both flavors were good, but we both surprisingly agreed that the Margherita was better. It had a nice blend of spices and off-the-vine fresh tomatoes, and was a great finale to our food adventures in Austin.

Pizza at Home Slice

Our trip to Austin was almost purely opportunistic, but we were pleasantly surprised to discover a veritable food paradise. Almost all the meals we had were top notch. Not sure if I’ll have the chance to visit again, if I do I’ll definitely make sure to arrive on an empty stomach!

Goodbye East Coast

Six months ago I relocated to upstate New York for work. It was my first time living on the east coast, and I didn’t really know what to expect. The whole experience ended up being a great adventure, and I’m thankful I had the opportunity to come out here. All things must come to an end though - in a few days I will be returning to California. It’s sort of a bittersweet goodbye. I’m glad to be going home and spending time with family and friends that I haven’t seen in awhile, but at the same time there are definitely things I’ll miss about my life these past six months, so this post is dedicated to all those nice things that I will miss about upstate NY when I leave:

Abundant Nature - The first thing one notices when getting off the plane is how many trees there are around here. Everything is green (except in the winter when it’s covered in snow), a nice contrast to California where all the vegetation has long since dried up. My apartment building was literally next to a small forest, providing plenty of great places to run. Parks and hiking trails are everywhere, and you actually see more nature than people on the trails due to the lower population density. 

Saratoga Springs - I really liked this city. Just ten minutes from my apartment and thirty minutes north of Albany, downtown Saratoga Springs has the charming atmosphere of an artsy cultural center without the suffocating crowds of the bigger cities. Restaurants here were great, I never had a bad meal here. And there would often be fun events going on in town, from the horse races in the summer to the huge New Years Eve celebration at the end of the year. 

Proximity to Major Cities - My location was a convenient three hour drive away from several big cities, including NYC and Boston. I definitely took advantage of the location to go on multiple weekends trips to these major destinations. 

Traffic (or lack thereof) - When bad morning traffic means being stuck at the roundabout for an extra two minutes, you know you have it good. I’m definitely going to miss not having to plan my day around traffic patterns.

Overall, I enjoyed my time out on the east coast. I met/reconnected with some amazing people, went on incredible adventures, and learned what it means to live in a place with weather. It’s time to head home now, but I sincerely hope I’ll be able to come back here someday.

Vacationing on the Cheap (Free) in Washington DC

The last stop we made on our winter break trip was the DC area. We spent some of our time there visiting and hanging out with M’s relatives, but we also had an opportunity to do some sightseeing. The great thing about Washington DC is how much you can see without ever paying an admission fee. All the Smithsonian museums and the monuments on the National Mall are free to visit, a pleasant change from the high prices of NYC.

Washington Monument on the National Mall

One of the Smithsonian institutions we visited was the National Zoological Park. It was a decent sized zoo, and the abnormally warm weather at the end of December meant that we actually saw a lot of animals out and about. We made sure to visit the panda exhibit because that was the whole point of visiting, and I was pretty impressed with their setup. We were able to see three different pandas, each with their own large habitat. It was amusing to see that despite the separation their behavior was largely the same - beeline towards food, snatch it up, then turn away from the throngs of tourists and start munching.

Panda at the National Zoo

Another big one we visited was the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. The exhibits were pretty nice, but it would have been nicer if we weren’t tripping over strollers every few steps. It’s one of the more family/kid oriented museums, so I guess it tends to be more crowded with families. We found some relative peace and quiet in the Special Exhibits section, which actually turned out to be our favorite exhibit in the museum. They were displaying some of the winning photos of a nature photography competition, and the photos were nothing short of breathtaking. We spent a good hour or so just walking around, looking at all the photos, before going back to the regular exhibits.

The special photography exhibit at the Museum of Natural History

We also made a brief stop at the National Portrait Gallery in downtown. It ended up being a lot bigger than we expected, and I would definitely recommend more than the one hour we had to look around. The building is divided into two halves - the actual portrait gallery section, and the more traditional art museum. We spent the bulk of our time in the portrait gallery, where the installations ranged from portrait paintings of historical figures to modern day photographs of the important people of today. I found the modern photos to be interesting, maybe because it’s not typical of what you would find in other museums. The top floor was dedicated to modern art, and also contained a lot of unique pieces worth seeing.

Modern art at the Portrait Gallery

The last museum we visited was the National Air and Space Museum. We ended up going to the one next to the Dulles airport instead of the one on the National Mall because apparently the Dulles one is bigger and has more actual planes. I can believe it - the museum was huge, with literally hundreds of planes and spacecraft on display. Some of the highlights included a full size blackbird and the space shuttle Discovery. The tour we joined ended up being a bit long - about 2 hours - but contained great information and hit on all the highlights and more.

Lots of planes at the Air and Space Museum

Next time I visit the DC area, I definitely want to explore some of the other Smithsonian museums. There are nineteen Smithsonian museums total, and I’ve only seen four so far (in recent memory), so there’s still much more to see. If possible, I’d also like to tour some of the federal government buildings. Many, such as the White House, can only be entered by securing reservations in advance. But for the price of $0, it’s something that shouldn’t be missed.

Reliving the Revolution in Philadelphia

As the original capital of the United States, many noteworthy historical events happened in Philadelphia in the early years of the nation. A lot of important sites are now housed within the Independence National Historical Park, a collection of buildings and grounds spanning much of the old town district. 

Liberty Bell 

We spent a few days in Philly last week, and since we only had one real full day in the city, we decided to loosely follow the 1-day itinerary featured in my AAA guidebook. We started the day by heading over to the Independence Visitor Center right at 8:30 when it opened. There, we watched a slightly corny intro video because nothing else was open yet. After the video finished, we headed next door to the Liberty Bell Center. There was a mini museum there detailing the history of the bell, and then at the end of the hall the famed bell itself. It was a nice little exhibit that didn’t take much more than half an hour.

Independence Hall

The bell center exit was almost right next to our next stop, Independence Hall. We jumped on one of the free half hour tours of the building, and got to see the old meeting rooms and offices of all three branches of government. The tour deposited us behind the building, in a little square with access to various other buildings. One of the other buildings was Congress Hall where we took another guided tour, this time of the old House and Senate chambers.

Cheesesteak from Ishkabibble's

By this time we were getting hungry so we went to get lunch at, of course, a Philly cheesesteak place. After lunch we headed over to the opposite side of the park to see the National Constitution Center, a large museum dedicated to all aspects of the Constitution. I was a little skeptical at first about how you could make an entire museum about one document, but there were actually a lot of great exhibits there. The main attraction was a live dramatic narration of the founding, followed by a huge exhibit talking about the nation’s history and how different events led to various amendments to the Constitution. 

National Constitution Center

After visiting the Constitution Center we walked around the old town a bit, looking at Christ Church and the Betsy Ross House from the outside (they closed early for Christmas eve so we couldn’t actually go inside). We also took a stroll down Elfreth’s Alley, a cute little street that has retained the old 18th century style of architecture. By this time everything was closing, so we went and had a nice sushi dinner at Morimoto’s, the product of a former Iron Chef contestant, and then went for a walk around the Penn’s Landing waterfront to see the nice holiday decorations.

Sushi at Morimoto

View of the waterfront

Philadelphia may be somewhat overshadowed by NYC in terms of sheer number of attractions, but it’s still a big city with a rich culture and lots to see. I hope to make it back someday to explore it more thoroughly.

The Three Star Experience

There are doubtless many financial bigwigs in New York City who can afford to have gourmet dinners every night. But for the rest of us mere mortals, visiting a three star Michelin restaurant is still a big event in itself. Last week M and I went to Le Bernardin, one of the great holy grails of fine dining, spending as much in one meal as our entire 5 night NYC hotel bill. Was it worth it? Well, we definitely can’t make a habit of eating there regularly, but between the superb service and fabulous food, we had no regrets.

Even the outside looked fancy

The moment we walked into the restaurant we were greeted by an attendant asking to take our coats in the coatroom. It only got classier when we walked into the actual dining room. Our waiter led us to our table and shifted our table out, making it easier for us to take our seats. This was only the first of many actions taken that were entirely unnecessary but worked at making us feel like royalty.

We decided to order the Chef’s Tasting to make the most out of our visit. After ordering, the waiter came around with a complimentary pre-appetizer dish. There were three parts of the dish - a tuna tartare, a piece of sashimi, and a creamy mushroom soup paired with a parmesan cracker.

Complimentary pre-appetizer

After finishing the pre-appetizer, our actual tasting dishes started coming out. The first dish was a yellowfin tuna carpaccio. It tasted delicious, and the texture was really interesting. The soft, almost chewy texture of the gelatin base contrasted nicely with the crunchy bits of bread and asparagus embedded within.

First course

The second appetizer was a warm king fish sashimi topped with osetra caviar and served in light mariniere broth. The sashimi was great, and the caviar practically melted in your mouth. But my favorite part about this dish was the broth. It had a vibrant buttery clam flavor, and yet avoided being too heavy to drink. 

Second course

The third appetizer was a pan roasted langoustine topped with truffled foie gras and served with aged sherry-versus vinaigrette. We were trying to figure out what exactly the langoustine was - some sort of cross between shrimp and lobster? Turns out it’s a specific type of lobster that can be found in the waters around Europe. Either way, it was tasty.

Third course

We got a brief reprieve after finishing the last appetizer. In the meantime, the man with the bread basket continued to make his rounds. Everyone got a piece of bread at the beginning of the meal, and basically every time we finished our bread he came back around to give us more. They had really interesting flavors, from tomato basil to cranberry walnut. It was a challenge controlling ourselves with the bread. Gotta save room for the rest of the meal…

For the first part of the main course, we got lobster tails with lemongrass consomme served with herb spring roll. The lobster was super tender and fresh.

Fourth course

The next main dish was poached halibut in wild mushroom soup. I’m normally ambivalent towards halibut, but this one was great, best halibut I’ve had.

Fifth course

Last main dish was a “Surf & Turf” consisting of a black bass and braised veal cheek. It’s hard to choose a favorite dish because they were all delicious, but I really liked this one in particular. The sea bass was cooked to a nice tender finish with a crispy layer of skin left on top. The veal was even more tender to the point where it almost melted in your mouth.

Sixth course

By this time we were pleasantly surprised to find that we were actually starting to get full, considering each dish was a relatively small tasting size. Guess it adds up after awhile. It was also worth noting that the waiters took the time to switch out all our utensils between every course, and even re-covered part of our tablecloth because there was a tiny smudge on it. Such incredible attention to detail.

We started our dessert part of the meal with a “matcha ball” made with green tea custard, with jasmine ice cream and preserved lychee on the side. A very Asian dessert following a mostly French meal. The different flavors matched well together and were sweet but not too sweet.

Seventh course

The second dessert course was apple themed. We got a apple slices topped with caviar, more ice cream, and a ginger-scented apple “bomb” - applesauce encased in a white chocolate shell. It made sense why the apple dessert came second because this was a lot sweeter than the matcha one.

Eighth course

The waiter surprised us with a final complimentary dessert (probably because we were spending so much already). It was a decadent dark chocolate mousse served on crispy rice clusters and chocolate branches. A heavy, but very satisfying end to the meal.

Complimentary chocolate dessert

And then just for fun we got a few more goodies after that. 

Bonus dessert - truffle, macaron, fruit jelly, brownie

After the actual last dessert, we asked if we could take a picture of the menu, and the waiter one-upped us by giving us a physical copy of the menu along with a free copy of the 2016 Zagat guide for NYC. Flipping through the guide, we saw Le Bernardin near the top of multiple lists, and from our experience, it was clear they deserve it. Everything about our meal was world class - not just the amazing food, but also the quality of the service, with servers who would get you what you wanted before you even asked. Despite the resulting hole in our wallet, it was one of the big highlights of our trip, and I would highly recommend it to be on any foodie’s bucket list.

Historical Day Trips Around Upstate New York

As one of the original thirteen colonies, New York has numerous historically significant points of interest dating back to the founding of the nation. Many battles from the revolutionary war were fought around the area, and countless historical figures made their homes in New York and the surrounding states. Lots of these historical sites have been preserved as state parks or tourist attractions, providing ample day trip opportunities for the history buffs. What follows are a few of my recommended historical places to visit in upstate New York and nearby in Vermont.

Main house at Hildene

Hildene

Located in Manchester, Vermont, Hildene is the family home of Robert Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s son. The house was purchased from the Lincoln family by a non-profit, and is now open for tourists to visit. Self-guided tour of the house takes less than an hour, but one could spend a full day exploring the entire estate. An extensive network of walking trails connects one point of interest to the next. Two of my favorite points on the estate were the Pullman car and the goat farm. An original Pullman train luxury car is open for visitors to walk through and admire. We used the free shuttle service to go from there to the goat farm on the far side of the estate, where you can learn about the cheese making process and pet some goats. There’s a lot to do, and I would recommend at least a half day to get the most out of a visit to Hildene.

Petting goats at the goat farm

Inside Fort Ticonderoga

Fort Ticonderoga

Many battles from both the French and Indian and the Revolutionary Wars were fought at Fort Ticonderoga. The fort, located about two hours north of Albany, has been rebuilt and restored over the years to function now as a living museum. In addition to the indoor exhibits featuring historical artifacts from the revolutionary era, the fort staff give tours and demonstrations all throughout the day. 

Musket firing demonstration

Beside the obligatory full-fort tour, my top recommendation would be the musket firing demonstration which takes place several times a day. Several staff members dressed up in military uniforms show firing line formations and musket reloading and firing. When we went the garden was already past peak, but I would also recommend the garden tour during peak season. Ticonderoga is another feature filled attraction that would best be visited for at least a half day, if not a full day.

View from the top of Bennington Monument

Bennington Monument

At over 200 feet high, the Bennington Monument towers over the town of the same name. The monument commemorates the Battle of Bennington from the Revolutionary War, and features some exhibits in the small museum at the base of the tower. But I’m highlighting this mostly because of the awesome view at the top. For $5 you can take a ride to the observatory at the top of the monument, where you can see parts of Vermont, New York, and Massachusetts. Visiting the monument shouldn’t take more than an hour or so, but you can combine it with other nearby attractions (such as the Bennington Museum) for a full day trip.

Artwork from the Bennington Museum

Saratoga National Historic Park

Comprised of four distinct areas of interest, the Saratoga National Historic Park is a full day attraction. The main part of the park is the battlefield. Visitors have the option of exploring the battlefield on car or bike on the main paved self-guiding tour road, or on foot via the many walking trails throughout the park. The road takes you to various historical points, including battle sites, monuments, and old army occupied buildings. I chose to drive the tour road, and it took me roughly four hours to see everything, plus another hour spent at the visitor center at the beginning of the road. 

Cannons around the battlefield

A few miles north of the battlefield is the Schuyler House, where General Philip Schuyler lived. Hour-long tours run throughout the day. Northwest of the Schuyler House is the Saratoga Monument and Victory Woods. By the time I got this far, the monument was already closed for the day, but there was still enough sunlight to take a quick walk through the Victory Woods trail. The trail was about half a mile one way, and included various signs you could read about General Burgoyne’s last stand in those very woods. Overall it was a nice, relatively cheap (I only had to pay $5 for the battlefield - everything else was free) day trip, and highly recommended for anyone in the area with an interest in history.

The monument I didn't get to go up

Trains, Buses, and Planes: A Beginner's Guide to Transit in the North Atlantic

In my past few months of traveling around the north Atlantic region, I’ve done a lot of individual research into the different available modes of transportation. Of course, driving a personal car everywhere is always an option, but I’m a rather city-driving-adverse individual, and tend to look for alternatives when visiting major metropolises. Below I thought I could share some of my findings, comparing the different modes of transportation and giving some suggestions based on some of my own experiences traveling out of the Albany region.

Buses

There are a lot of bus lines that operate in the area, but I usually end up choosing between two main players - Greyhound and Megabus. If you live in a big city with a Megabus hub (e.g. New York City), Megabus can get you basically anywhere you would want to go. But the coverage is much more limited for other starting points. Greyhound tends to have more destination options for smaller cities like Albany, where I usually travel from. In my experience, Greyhound seems to be a little more spacious and punctual. But where Megabus really shines is the cost. Megabus ticket prices start cheap and increase as time goes on, so if you plan far enough ahead you could potentially snag some great deals. I’ve been able to get tickets from Albany to NYC for $5 one way, versus the $40 round trip it would have cost with Greyhound. My general strategy with bus travel is to check Megabus first for any good deals, and then look at Greyhound if the Megabus tickets have already gone up in price.

A word of caution on buses though - their punctuality depends heavily upon traffic conditions, and I’ve had buses outright canceled on me before. In the latter case, they put me on a later bus also going to my destination, but it meant arriving a few hours later than expected. So if you are on a tight schedule and absolutely must be somewhere at a particular time, taking a train or driving might work better for you.

Trains

For intercity travel, most people I talk to equate trains with Amtrak. I personally avoid Amtrak because they don’t go much faster and tend to be more expensive than the buses ($42 for a roundtrip ticket from Albany to NYC, versus around $30 for the bus), but some people swear by Amtrak. Advantages of traveling by train are more leg room, more pieces of luggage allowed, and no delays due to road traffic. So if you have really long legs, a lot of luggage, or a tight schedule you could consider taking the train. I think where Amtrak really shines is extreme long distance travel - a ticket from LA to Chicago can be as low as $169, and for a 40+ hour ride like that the extra comfort you get on a train might actually make a difference.

Planes

Flying is fast, but airport security is not. My general rule of thumb is to only consider flying if the destination is more than 400 miles away - roughly the distance from San Francisco to LA. (Or if Southwest is having one of their huge sales…) Otherwise the time you spend traveling to the airport and waiting at security would negate any time savings you get from flying.

Cars

Even with all these different public transit options, you definitely still need a car to go to smaller cities and towns in the region. Many cities are only reachable by car, especially once you get up to Vermont, New Hampshire, and beyond. Other cities can be reached using transit, but may lack transit options within the city, making it a hassle to get around once you get there. And some cities are reachable via transit and have ample public transit options in the city itself, but depending on where your departure point is, there may not be a direct way to get there using buses or trains, making driving a more attractive option. (This was the case with my trip to Providence.)

Of course, all this is only a brief introduction to transit around the area. By all means use this as a starting point but definitely do some homework before embarking on your own trips. Hope this information helps, and feel free to comment below with any questions, comments, or suggestions!