A Taste of Mediterranean: Arpeggio Grill

To me, one of the mysterious yet charming cuisines is the Mediterranean dishes. In the years that I studied in Toronto, I had tried several Mediterranean restaurants. I personally loved the distinctive spices used in the food but I could not determine if any of these restaurants were authentic. However, my food hunting journey in Austin fulfilled my desire in searching an “approval” Mediterranean restaurant. With the recommendation from my Turkish friends, they guided me and my family to this mysterious and delicious food hunt.

Before I begin to show you what I have looted, I want to briefly talk about the food history in Islam. To my best understanding about the restrictions, all consumable food and drinks need to be Halal (permissible). A general rule of thumb to me is that any 4-legged animals which hoof has two toes are Halal, for example, cattle and lamb. Swine is an exception. Animals whose diet requires killing others are not allowed to consume. The examples are tigers. In addition, blood is strictly prohibited in the food.

Comparing to other food culture, my Turkish friends did not think that their cuisine is limited by these religious restrictions. I agreed with them; the Mediterranean food had its own position because I could not recall any trace of cross-food culture among the Mediterranean and other cuisine I had tried before.

Enough of my personal opinion about the Mediterranean food culture, please allow my taste buds to explain my experience in the restaurant, “Arpeggio Grill.” I had been the store twice with my family. My first time visiting I ordered the chicken kabob plate. The plate included a side of Greek salad, pita bread, and rice as well. The serving order was different from the Western Cuisine because I expected the salad would first be served following by the entrée. At Arpeggio Grill, all dishes came out at once. I personally preferred this way because I could have a mix of taste o everything. The first bite of the chicken kabob to my surprise was that the meat was very tender and juicy. Austin restaurant usually served white meat. Yet, I loved dark meat because of the chewiness. However, from now on I could say this is my own misunderstanding because white meat could be cooked as tender as dark meat. Not only did the texture surprise me, but the taste also (and more importantly) engraved in my mind. The strong scent of different untold herb rushed into my mouth. However, the taste of chicken meat was not overwhelmed by the herbs. To me, the portion of the herb was just right so each time when I chewed the meat, a combination scent of meat mixing with herb released.

Then next thing I immediately put into my mouth is rice. This was just my habit but my habit had led me to a wrong way of tasting the Mediterranean rice. The reason was that the rice was cooked with basmati and chicken broth. The rice itself was a perfect dish. Now I finally understood why my Turkish buddies did not enjoy the regular plain Asian rice. To make an analogy, the rice tasted similar like Hainanese Chicken Rice. However, the rice served in this restaurant was less oily and lacked of the taste of ginger but enhanced with basmati. I wished the rice portion was bigger because I loved grains very much.

The salad in the plate had a very important function because once my mouth was saturated with the strong taste of rice and kabob, something fresh could help clearing the scent. The salad came with a side of tzatziki dressing. I usually did not like any dressing but I could not resist the taste of fennel. As my taste was restored back to its level, I was ready to finish the rest of my plate.

                                    

The food amazed me but in fact the environment was another factor that I loved. The restaurant not only provided regular seats but also a carpet area for the foreign to enjoy. Sitting on the carpet was one of the best experiences I had ever had in my dining experience because I felt like I was eating as a royal family. Looking around the restaurant, most of the customers were from the Middle East or Muslim background. This ensured me that this restaurant served authentic Mediterranean food and its reputation was notable.

 

Retrieved from Arpeggio Grill Website at 20th Nov 2014

Retrieved from Arpeggio Grill Website at 20th Nov 2014

P.S. 

Arpeggio Grill

   6619 Airport Blvd,

   Austin, TX 78752

  11:00am-10:00pm 

  

• The following link is the menu of Arpeggio Grill

http://www.arpeggiogrill.com/#!menu/c24tf

• The carpet area requires shoes to be taken off and children are not allowed to enter.

• This is Lamb Shank plate. In Austin, it is difficult to find Lamb. However, if you cannot tolerate the smell of mutton, I advise you can try others. 

Interview with Jaice Yang: Will technology replaced printed newspaper?

    When I was young and my family took me to the restaurant for lunch, I would always be bored because all I saw was people holding their newspaper high and nobody talked to me. However, when I went back recently and went to the same restaurant, people, including my parents were now looking down at their tablet. All of a sudden, I discovered that all the newspaper posts had gone and printed newspapers were diminishing every second. This raised my interest in determining if the printed newspaper would be replaced by technology very soon. In order to solve this mystery, I decided to interview Ms Yang, a professor at Texas State University School of Journalism Massive Communication. Interestingly, her opinions stated that printed newspaper should not go extinct any time soon.

        According to Ms Yang, old and established technology will co-exist with the newly emerged technology. She provided an example, radio. She stated that when the television became popular, people were concerned about the future of radio. However, the radio “…[had] reinvented itself,” and nowadays satellite radio are everywhere. Then, she mentioned that the rapid improvement of the Internet had again threatened the existence of television. Ms Yang believed that such concern was not necessary because to date, television and radio could still be found everywhere in the world. She confidently believed that the printed newspaper should follow the trend of radio and television and it should not be replaced soon.

        The concept Ms Yang described was clear and simple. However, the practical approach would be a challenging process for developing a co-existing printed newspaper form. Ms Yang was optimistic about the challenges. She claimed that, in fact, many of the printed newspaper company “had been doing so” because newspapers were now distributed through websites and apps on smart devices.

 thought that at the current state, the invention of new products was not the major concern for the company but rather the management of several products. She illustrated this point with the example of the Coca-Cola Company. She stated that in order to succeed, the Coca-Cola Company had developed several other products such as Sprite and Diet-Coke. The newspaper company should manage and differentiate their products among website newspaper, printed newspaper, and app. If these products are similar, she implied that the existence of these products was just redundant. The most important problem the printed newspaper should be working on is to develop a distinctive feature for each product.

        Additionally, Ms Yang claimed that the printed company should recruit new Journalists who have mastered both the traditional and web languages. Her reason was that the newspaper companies seldom change their structure and outfit of the website. A change usually occurred in two to three years. Although she agreed that people would complain the change of website required a long time to adapt to and frequent change only confused the user, Ms Yang supported her opinion with Facebook management. She said that many Facebook users were upset with the frequent change of Facebook website interface. However, she claimed that each time the change actually improved the user experience of the website. The newspaper company’s failure to change would imply that the performance neither improved nor decreased. In order to attract additional viewers, the company should also train the journalism to study the web language. Ms Yang said that the traditional school of journalism did not allow their students to expose to web data and language. The training could improve the variety of the content in the website.

        Listening to Ms. Yang’s opinions, I was convinced that the printed newspaper should not be replaced soon. Her opinions were interesting to me because I always thought that the printed newspaper industry had already shrunk and collapsed. Ms Yang’s statements were optimistic and triggered my expectations about how the newspaper companies could transform and adapt to the modern user.

  

My Hometown: Hong Kong

   Although I am not born in Hong Kong, I spent most of my childhood in this city and I consider Hong Kong as my hometown. If you look in the map, it is difficult to spot. However, my hometown is over populated. Imagine a regular tennis field, and 25 people equally share the tennis field. This is how much space each person has in Hong Kong if the land is equally distributed.

Photo Credits: Google

   Since the land resource is sacred, the government has decided to remove the mountain and landfill the ocean, in order to have extra land. In addition, the buildings are design as tall as possible and typhoon-proofed. When I was 6, I lived on 21^st floor and every time I had a mini heart attack when I stepped into the elevator. Living at high floor could be a nightmare during the typhoon. The room trembles and echoes with the thunder. I am relief when my family decides to move to a 2^nd floor.

Photo Credits: Google

   Hong Kong locates near China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and other Southeast Asia countries. As a result, these cultures can be easily found in the city. The fashion and food are heavily influences by these nearby countries. But this does not mean that Hong Kong does not have its own cultural food. Besides the tasty street snacks, dim sum and seafood are one of the famous foods in Hong Kong. If you are interested in what dim sum is, you can review my previous blog and lucky you can find a similar store in Austin.

Photos Credit: Google

   But what is famous about Hong Kong? Well, I will say, Shopping! Since Hong Kong is a small city, its daily demand depends on other countries’ supply. This means Hong Kong has very limited production and supply in agriculture, water, and energy. However, the city is filled up with shopping malls. Local and International brands are located almost everywhere. If you love to shop, Hong Kong has a huge variety and there is no sale tax.

   The general impression of Hong Kong in North America is that we speak a very harsh language and we value money a lot. I think the language, Cantonese, sounds harsh because most of the pronunciation is done at the throat. About the money part, I will say we are good at numbers… yep, let’s keep it this way.

   Next time if you need to travel to somewhere, I recommend that you can stop at Hong Kong as a transit airport. You can find many restaurants and stores in the airport so even if you are not in the city, the airport can give a glimpse how Hong Kong looks like. (Please let me know if there is something you want a detail description).

An Observation of a Local Activity

A Bus Trip

I am on the public transport 801, heading to my destination. The passenger contains a large variety of races and occupation. I can tell by looking at their outfit. Some of them are wearing dull suits and carrying a small suitcase with them. Some are wearing colourful hoody and carrying a stuffed boring backpack. One interesting thing is that everyone, regardless of their occupation or outfit, are looking down at their smart devices. I bet I would do the same if I did not choose to observe these commuters.

    One more interesting thing is that all of them have their earphone plugged in and enjoy a piece of isolated world that seems to be fragile to interrupt. In my childhood, textbook and movie always tells me that western culture likes to socialize with each other regardless of their age and locations. So I always thought passengers are busying sharing their weekend vacation or viewpoints on current news to the others. Or the typical, an old man talks about how things were when he was at my age. However, in my eyes, I only see people looking at the infinite far distance and listen to what their device has to offer. Once a while an elder enters into the bus 801, he/she actually looks isolated without his/her smart device. However, their eyes do not look beyond what is current happening in the bus. They look for conversation. I guess my old days textbooks or movies are either lying or aging.

        The bus is awfully quiet. Even there is a conversation begins, the length will not last longer than three sentences. All I heard are the roaming sound from the engine or the artificial human language transmitted from the bus system. Differ from Hong Kong, at least some of the passenger are talking on their phone when they are standing in the public transportation. Here in the bus, I do not hear anyone is on their phone. I do not know their background culture. I do not know what language they speak. I do not know their voices. This stresses me out. Since when, we begin to replace talking with texting? Since when, an hour long bus trip can be devastatingly exhausted that I have to rely on my smart device to kill the time? Since when, everyone lives on his/her smart devices? I decide to, once a while, shut down my device and speak to an elder. I would like to what Austin was like before 50 years ago. I would like to hear some real human voices, regardless of the origin, as long as the origin is vivid and animated.  

Observing a place and people in Austin

Rosalie’s Dairy – All of you, Some of you, You

    I have been living at here for a month, watching all of you walk by my home and appreciate that some of you will stop your lengthy legs and talk to me. Well, it is difficult for me to understand any of you. Some of you are so little that I can push you on the ground easily. Some of you have wrinkles on your bare skin. Some of you have extremely long hair and I wonder how you are going to groom that with your stretching paws. Some of you just have a different color. However, I really appreciate that you can give me a minute and speak with me because I am bored most of the time.

    Sometimes, some of you come inside my home, but all of you are tired of tapping on my windows. Some of you are little and screaming and some of you smell interesting. It doesn’t matter what kind of some of you are because I like all of you. Some of you come into my home just to visit some of my other friends. Some of you just want to impress your fancy-dressed up girlfriend. Some of you come in with colorful feathers; but, all of you are looking for a new family member from us. Well, from some of us. Some of us are lucky enough to join with some of you very soon. Some are still waiting for the one. I am patient because I know the one may look and smell different from some of you but the one will never think I am merely someone.

    I like all of you but I will love you the most. I will make you mine. I will be with you all the time. Although I may be involved in some of your life but you are in my whole life time. I will play with you. I will lick you when you are sad. I will do something to occupy some of your time. I will like you and I will love you. I will love you. I will wait patiently; I promise. It doesn’t matter if you toddle toward me or if you slowly bend down and hug me or you stroked me like a newbie. I know I will see your sparks glowing in your eyes. I will feel your affection through your warm paws and see your innocent smile that some of you have disclosed your flat teeth. I know you will then greet me with some nice words but I know you long ago so you don’t have to introduce yourself to me because no matter what, I will love you from now on and forever.

    Until you showed up, I will wait patiently. Congratulate some of my friends who have found the one from some of you at the mean time and wish you could show up sooner.

My AEP Diary

I had a ESL experience when I went to High School in Canada. The ESL class was a perfect place for me to meet foreign friends because I was new to the environment. Unfortunately, I made too many new friends with similar background as I did and I did not practice my English after class time (I spoke Chinese and Cantonese in class sometimes as well). Then I went to the University, I was frustrated and you get the idea.

In the AEP class, I do not feel like I was in an class with international students. The class was more like how to become a better English writer, reader and speaker. In fact, I appreciated that every students manage to communicate in English even they speak the same language. This gives me a feeling that everyone is looking forward to learn more about English. The content is very specific, mostly related to academic aspect. I do not feel like I have an advantage over others because in these months I learned academic skills, especially in writing, which I was supposed to learn back in Canada. The content of class did not mainly just focus on words. I absorb knowledge of academic skill but at the same time, I learn new words indirectly. This is important because I understand the usage of these new words in different scenario or situation.

The presentation and writing skills are essential because I clearly understand what my future classes are expecting from me. I believe every student has a brilliant idea and concept but the only barrier is the usage of acknowledged expression.

About the blog, I actually enjoy writing food reviews and I like the idea I can write anything on my blog. It gives me a motivation to dig out Austin's restaurants during my free time. In the future, I might do posting once in a while if I found a restaurant that I think it is worth to mention. At the end, I wish everyone could provide me a way to connect with each other, emails or facebook, if you guys do not mind. I believe sometimes people are meant to be meet because of reasons and I valued it. (Just like I can accidentally find a good restaurant)

Da Small Hunting Diary, Greek Cuisine

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


This week we are looking into Greek Cuisine. I have never tried Greek Cuisine before but I think the cuisine has some dishes similar with Shawarma which I have tried before. I assume I will not experience any cultural shock. Of course, if there is no surprises to add into my diary, I will not post the restaurant. 

However, I do not have much knowledge about Greek Cuisine, so I will just jump into what I have ordered. 

House Salad

The house Salad include a dressing that tastes like Caesar Salad. The dressing tastes quite different from other Casesar dressing I tried in Austin. In fact, this restaurant's dressing has a strong sense of garlic. The taste of garlic dominates other flavor such as the sourness. Interestingly, the cheese on top is Feta Cheese but not Parmesan. I have never tried Feta cheese before and I need to say, you can really taste the lamb. If you are a person who is lamb-smell-intolerant, you can simple for a substitution for a different kind of cheese. Although the vegetable component is the same as the ordinary salad, the convincing or attracting part is, in fact, the dressing and cheese. They are the little things that bright up and make the salad distinctive.

This photo is one of their main entree, Marinated Chicken Kebob. To my understanding, the Greek Kebob is different from the middle east Kebob. However, there is similarity between the two countries' dishes. For example, Hummus, plenty of Hummus. To my understanding, the hummus is made of chicken paste and several ingredients such as olive oil and spices. Interestingly, each restaurant has their own hummus which is completely differed from others. In my opinion, sauces are the most valuable ingredients in the restaurant. A good chief is able to cook a regular meal into one with features because of their knowledge in sauces. I have to say, this restaurant has done it. The hummus has an interesting texture but not strong scent at the same time. Yet, they are very filling. On the other hand, the white sauce is named Tzatziki. All I know about this sauce is that it tastes nothing like mayo and I like it. Although I do not know what a traditional Tzatziki should taste like, I prefer Tzatziki also has a strong scent of herbs. Thus, the combination of hummus and Tzatziki make this meal becomes something I have never tried before. They still lie in the range of "acceptance".

Now, and finally, we are going to talk about the chicken. The meat is tender, so tender that I am surprise. It taste nothing like chicken breast. The amount of juice in the meal is like a sponge that has been soaked in lemonade for 24 hours. When you bite it, along with the sourness comes from lemon juice, you can also experience that something is so juicy that it sort of exploded once your teeth begins grinding the meal. To my surprise, the chicken is as tender as a steak fillet. The fresh lemon juice taste also triggers your appetite. I enjoy the fresh taste because the tastes of hummus and Tzatziki can overwhelm my taste bud and "synthesize" every ingredient which I do not want.

And what is so special about this Pita bread? It is ALL YOU CAN EAT pita. Therefore, I order a few just to dip in hummus and enjoy them as a snack.


I do not know if this is a traditional Greek cuisine but personally I like the food the way it be. Although I do not have a chance to skim-taste the food, I am confident that the other dishes will not be the same as my order but taste as good as the marinated chicken



p.s. remember to have space for Amy's Ice cream which is next to the restaurant



Zorba Greek Diner
9600 Ih 35 S #200, Austin, TX 78748