Da grande cacciatore - Ciao~

My name is David Chui. I travel, I eat, I play, I eat, I sleep and then I gain weights.


This week, we are changing our focus on the European Cuisine, Italy, the country of Romance.  Yes, the romance about pizza is the only love I am going to approve. However, this week I am not going to talk about pizza but rather I will talk about the meat (which is still romantic) - Prosciutto.


To my understanding, Prosciutto is a traditional ingredients can be found in Italian dishes. The process usually takes up more than nine months to be ready. Usually the butcher cured the ham or boar leg with salt. Sometimes they like to put on some smokey flavor onto the Ham. The taste of prosciutto is unique that I cannot able to find anything that has a similar taste and that I have tried before. It generally gives you the salty taste at the beginning but sooner enough the next thing your tongue can feel is the thick sense of meat. A strong taste meat that gives you a oil-free feeling but the texture of Prosciutto is soft but chewy. As you chew the meat slowly, more and more flavor of the meat is released inside your mouth. The scent and taste is so strong and unique that you do not easily forget.
 

Now, I am lucky enough to find a restaurant that sell Italian cuisine and is not far away from where I live. The restaurant does not look like a high-end dinning place but the food is definitely five-star rated.

So this does not work like an ordinary restaurant as well. In fact, you need to order at the cashier and then find a seat. When the food is ready, waiters or waitress will bring the food to your table. At the mean time of waiting for your entree, you can always stuff your mouth with the bread. A little special about the bread in Italian food culture is that they usually do not spread butter on top of the bread; instead they dip the bread in olive oil

Although the olive oil looks greasy but it actually does not give you a heavy feeling. In fact, the combination of olive oil and bread are fresh. With the addition of herbs, any plain bread can be a mouthwatering appetizer. Fearing that the pure Italian dishes can give you too much surprises? you can always order fries.

Yet, the "garlic fries" does not disappoint me at all. The Parmesan Cheese on top of the fries creates a flavor of salty taste that no table salt can ever be matched. The creamy sauce is the Pesto garlic sauce. I do like the paste very much and I was thinking if I could spread it on the bread. Then the Pesto sauce gives me additional surprises! It contains nuts (Yep, I am allergic to nuts.)


However, Staring at my menu, I cannot be stopped by my (minor) allergic. I believe my body will find a way to deal with it. The entrees comes in very soon.

  The Sandwiches is call " Dirty Pig". The picture does not tell much but I can tell you if you like Panini and cheese very much, you sure don't want to miss this sandwiches. The rich cheese can also overwhelmed your sense but the spinach and prosciutto can manage to stand out from the thick cheesy taste. Now, everything is just prologue to me. I am waiting for my surprise dish, the Traditional antipasto.

A selection of Italian cured meats, Italian cheeses, olives, assorted relishes & marinated vegetables


This is a plate of snack that is full of meat and cheese! If someone tells me Italian guys are romantic, I am going to tell them nothing beats the love of Prosciutto.  This plate gives you a variety choices of four of cured meat. Although I do not clearly know the procedure to eat the plate, I am still amused by eating each item separately. The marinated vegetables are Zucchini, Eggplants, Olives, Spinach and Peppers & Onions.  Again, the marinated vegetables taste very unique but I can only tell they are a little bit sour but at the same time, the vegetables are able to maintain its original taste. Hard to imagine? I am also having a hard time to describe as well. However, when you taste is numbed because of the strong scent of meat or cheese, these vegetables help you to stimulate your feel of hunger and refresh your taste bud. As a result, every taste will be strongly contrast to the previous one (if you eat in a random order). Now the cured meat, I would just leave the picture and imagination with you and highly recommend you to try it.

The restaurant itself has offered other traditional Italian food such as Lasagna, Pasta and flat bread pizza. In addition, they have the Gelato- Ice cream in Italian version.   

Photo credits travel.jomaslounge.com

I do not have the stomach to take a bite on the dessert but when I saw the line up at the line. I feel a bit regret that I stuffed myself with too much bread and prosciutto. I need to abandon the dessert menu and I wish there will be someone else can pick up my will and tell me how Gelato tastes like.



Restaurant:   Mandola's Italian Market 
Location:       4301 W William Cannon Dr Bldg E-1, Austin, TX 78749
Website:　　http://www.mandolasmarket.com/

  

Da Food Hunting Diary, Dim Sum

My name is David Chui. I travel, I eat, I play, I eat, I sleep and then I gain weights.

This week we are heading to an oriental restaurant. To be more specific, we are looking into the Cantonese traditional lunch, Dim Sum. Dim Sum in Chinese meaning suggests "Snacks". However, these snacks are not equivalent to the North American snacks such as cookies, chips and candies but are more similar to a appetizer. In fact, the Cantonese Dim Sum are called snacks because of their small portions and delicate appearances. Before I take everyone into the restaurant, I want to just say why do these small Dim Sum consider as a breakfast or lunch to a person who has a Cantonese background. In the early 20th century, elder Cantonese enjoys excising in the dawn of the day. After they are exhausted with playing Taichi or walking around the park. Most of them tend to bring their lovely pets, birds, to the restaurant. Since their age does not require them to eat a lot, the restaurant decide to supply teas and Dim Sum instead of a large portion of food. The other reason is that the elder actually enjoy sitting in the restaurant and chat with everyone inside. Sometimes, one believe that the favoured Dim Sum restaurant is not only about the taste of food but the members of the community.  Regularly, an elder is willing to stay in the restaurant for two to three hours.

Now, the Dim Sum restaurant has become a cultural concept in Cantonese culture. Thanks to that, we can see large restaurant serving only Dim Sum around and innovative dishes are pumping out every year. And then, of course, we can also find such places in Austin as well.

Now I have to say you don't have to worry about if you don't speak any Chinese; the restaurant also serves a menu both in Chinese and English. In the photos, we can see Dim Sum are served in bamboo basket and you can see the waiters and waitress are pushing the steaming cart around the restaurant. If you are interested in what they are severing, you can also ask them to show you what is inside their cart. In the photo, there dishes that are most famous among Dim Sum are Shrimp Dumplings and Pork Dumplings (HaGao and SiuMai) but there are also a lot of derived dim sum such as spinach shrimp dumplings, mushroom dumplings. Sometimes, the Dim Sum comes with specific sauce to dip in. For example, if you order Shanghai pork dumplings (XiaoLongBao), a cup of vinegar will be served on the side as well. The tricky thing of Dim Sum is that each Dim Sum comes with it own specific sauce on the side and these sauces look alike but they taste differently. Make sure you don't dip in the wrong sauce and ruin your experience.

 Now, the Dim Sum looks very normal to a food hunting person because all of them contain are shrimp and pork. Sounds very unexciting for someone always asking for a surprise. However, if I have decided to post a restaurant, there must be something we don't usually see. One good example will be the chicken paws (or we call them the phoenix paws). In North American, these chicken paws are considered meat-less and are thrown away from the meat processing factory. In fact, the factory ships the chicken paws to China and Hong Kong because we have a such strong demand on this specific part of chicken. Phoenix paws are a very famous Dim Sum in the history. Now if this does not horrify you, I introduce you the beef stomach.  Especially in Hong Kong, the organs are considered as a gourmet dishes or snack to everyone. You can see pork intestine cooked in deep-frying, marinating and boiled. Yes, I don't want you to imagine the picture as they may disgust most of you already but yet if you have a chance and see them, I encourage you to take a small bite before you judge them just by their appearance. Chances are you may be surprise or you will feel puking for the whole day.

Now, the other famous thing about the Dim Sum restaurant besides the food is the drink. Yes, tea it is.  The tea we have are totally different from the British Earl Grey or breakfast tea. Instead, our tea do not have the taste of spice. There are a lot of famous tea in Chinese culture and we categorize them into green tea and black tea.  The one I have shown in this picture is the Jasmine green tea.

The good thing to always have a tea next to you is that sometimes your taste bud can be numbed by the strong taste of one Dim Sum. A tea can help you to get rid of the strong taste in your mouth so you can taste the other better. It is the same concept as Japanese drink Sake (an alcohol) when they eat raw fish. Another good thing about tea is that tea can help you to get rid of the greasy and oil feeling in your mouth.


May I remind you that Dim Sum are usually made of pork, and chicken. If you are not supposed to eat some kind of meats, please ask them what the Dim Sum are made of before you order them. Since they ground the meat sometimes that you may not be able to tell at the first sight. I think a thousand of words still are not as meaning as a bite. So, I will like to end at here and encourage to try the special Dim Sum when you are ready for surprises.


The address is 3407 Greystone Dr. Austin Texas 78731
and the name is called Chinatown on MOPAC.
Reminder: they only serve Dim Sum during 11:00am - 2:30 pm every Sat and Sun only.

Food Hunting Diary, Salt Lick

My name is David Chui. I travel, I eat, I play, I eat, I sleep and then I gain weights. I like to go into restaurant and randomly order their famous items or dishes that is written in languages I don't understand. In my blog, I would like to share with you some of my unique experiences during the exploration in the city of Austin. To begin with, I introduce the famous Texas barbeque, Salt Licks, to all of you.

What are the usual cuisine you can find in Austin? Tex-Mex, barbeque, Mexican, barbeque, Vietnamese and barbeque. Yes, barbeque is something you should never miss in Texas but what makes the Salt Lick so special among others? I would say the unique taste.

First of all, Salt Lick has the most traditional grill that is fueled by burning logs. The burning woods add a special flavor to the food and provide a natural smoky smell. Also, just like every barbeque restaurant, Salt Lick has its own barbeque sauce that comes with mild or spicy. The sauce is so famous that the restaurant decides to sell them in bottles as a souvenir for their customers.

For the food item, I highly recommended their sausage. The sausage is so addictive that I forgot how other sausages taste like. Also, having a bite of their sausage makes hot dog permanently retired from my food-list. The brisket comes with dry or moist. The difference is just moist brisket contains more fat so it gives you a better texture. Moist brisket will be a better choice if you cannot tolerate white chicken meat. Lastly, I need to give the credit to the coleslaw. I am always not a big fan of mayonnaise but now I finally find my perfect coleslaw. The special thing about Salt Lick's coleslaw is that they are mayonnaise-free. It only made of fresh cut lettuce mixing with oil, vinegar and sesame, a very oriental appetizer indeed. 

Lastly, if you are interested in trying this restaurant, there are three locations. It locates in the city of Driftwood, Roundrock and in the Airport of Austin. I have been to the Driftwood and I enjoy dinning in the restaurant. The decoration looks very rural and gives you a relaxing environment to enjoy your food. If you are a meat-lover, I recommend you to order their all you can eat section. You can also order as a plate (that comes with bread and sides) or separated meat types. Just remember, they took only cash in the Driftwood area and avoid the rush hour in the weekends because I have waited for two hours just to get seated.

SaltLick Official Website