Austin Food Journal

Dehydrated for a couple days then pulverized in a spice grinder. Great sprinkled on top of Thai salads.

Not sure what is going on here with this special edition Le Creuset set. What recipe would you even make using this?

Caramelizing this cheese adds a sweetness to play off its salty profile. Wonderful grated on top of enchiladas.

Pad See Ew. Stir fried wide rice noodles with garlic, chicken and Chinese broccoli.

Rice flour, Tapioca flour and water.

Stir like crazy. And, you need to stir right before portioning. These flours doesn’t do a good job of staying in solution.

One teaspoon Red Boat fish sauce and one teaspoon dark Soy Sauce.

Add to that one tablespoon regular Soy Sauce. This with be the wok sauce.

H Mart in North Austin carries any Eastern ingredients you need. Tons of Chinese broccoli and other greens. They also have Broccolini, if you want to go down that road. It’s fake Chinese broccoli that costs twice as much as the real thing.

Greed. Don’t be greedy and think you can make these noodles and, Bang!, pull them up, slice them, throw them into a wok and have then not stick. Why the hell are you in such a big hurry? Make them a day ahead if you are pressed for time on the day of. It’s worth it. Take the time to let the noodle chill, literarily. If it cools all the way down, it isn’t sticky when you pull it off the sheet pan. You get to control the ingredients and that is worth it. What would you rather have, Bob’s Red Mill and Austin filtered water or mystery ingredients from other continents from suppliers that maybe don’t care about what they are feeding you?

I have been chickening it up for a while now, probably should try this dish again with the traditional pork.

Battered and fried fish tacos with Aleppo aioli sauce on Central Market flour tortillas.

Other ingredients are diced lettuce, red onion and tomato. Lime, cilantro and cotija cheese.

This is magic water. Everyone will say, “you have to try this Tequila, its the smoothest you have ever tasted”. Last week, that sentence was uttered to me and it turned out to be true. Fortaleza, my new favorite.