Eating my way through Austin

Last year I was all about taking pictures of the cows we saw in Austin but since they're not there anymore (boo), I decided to try and take pictures of everything I ate. I would like to say that these are just the highlights but in reality for the meals not included, I either: 1) quickly forgot this photo-taking goal when food was placed in front of me or 2) was so desperate to eat what was in front of me (hello strawberry cheesecake ice cream from Big Top) that the picture was blurry and unusable. Oh well, you get the idea.


Quick little FYI: I love to eat. I also have zero willpower- I now know that I cannot buy chips for myself since I will most likely eat all that salty goodness in one sitting and then complain about how portion sizes are ridiculously small. I am not so good with 'portion control' aka I am AWESOME at buffets. For the most part, I eat a mostly meat-free diet but thats only because I really don't like cooking meat- raw meat totally grosses me out plus I once had a full on meltdown when I was trying to break down a whole chicken as the sound of breaking bones was so disturbing (roomie-at-the-time Bonnie was a champ and did it for me). I don't like cooking meat but I looove eating it which meant when I was in Austin that's all I wanted. On my first day there, Bus knew just where to take me- Hopdoddy's! I ended up going with the Buffalo Bill: bison, blue cheese, apple-smoked bacon and the amazingly delicious sassy sauce - I passed on the hot sauce. Their fries are also amazing.

 When we drove into Kyle and I saw this sign I freaked out from the backseat...I mean you just know its gonna be good if they are THE Texas Pie Comany:

 After visiting Nicole and Dan's future wedding venue we hurried inside to get some pie. Not only does the Texas Pie Company have 20 kinds of regular sized pies they also have an individual pie option in all 20 flavors...which you can get heated up...and with Blue Bell ice cream!!! I don't even really like pie and I was in heaven. Ah-mazing pie. The crust was so buttery and flakey and the top was so crumbly and delicious. Plus I love their slogan of 'Eat more pie' -don't mind if I do.

 After much deliberation, I went with the Strawberry Peach pie and it was perfection.

 Alyssa got the classic cherry pie and Bus got the blackberry pie. Mmmm I want to go back right now.

Austin has some amazing Mexican food so I managed to eat a lot of tacos. The top pic is from a restaurant I can't remember the name of (even googled 'mexican food austin' to try and see if anything jumped out among the many options but no luck). In my defense, we were on our way to go shootin' so I was pretty distracted and didn't take note of the restaurant name. The food was good though- I had the Al Pastor burrito and we shared the queso and chips. The bottom pic is from Guero's on South Congress- Al Pastor tacos and Puebla dinner salad. I love SoCo (is it called that? I dunno but I like it) so we always head there the first day I'm in town to do some shopping and eat- great restaurants and food trucks!

 For Bus' birthday dinner we went to the Gruene River Grill. It was kind of creepy to find since it was off the road a ways behind another restaurant and it was pitch black (cue horror movie soundtrack) but once we were inside I loved it. Cool look to it and the food was fantastic! I ordered the Balsamic Ribeye with new potatoes and green beans. I ate every single bite of that ribeye and it was delicious! Since I ate such a giant 'man-sized' portion of meat, I had little room for the sides so I passed on the potatoes (good) and beans (limp with no flavor) after a little taste. In my book you finish the meat and then worry about the other stuff if you still have room. I took this rule pretty seriously when I challenged my 6'4 fireman uncle to a sparib eating contest at the age of 14- none of the other food my Nana made was touched on my part- only the spareribs. I believe my final count was 43 (they're small- like almost bite sized)-then I made my grandma hide the rest so my uncle could not beat me and laid on the floor groaning in pain for the rest of the night. Yup I'm sure my arteries LOVE me.

 And for dessert the birthday girl got a slice of cheesecake which we all helped her eat...yum.

I'm saving the best for last but first I need to discuss Texas toast and by 'discuss' I mean freak out over. Its sooooo good! Its buttery and crispy and garlicy and oh mah god I could not get enough. We ended up going to Wataburger almost every night (which in Texas talk sounds a lot like 'water burger' which made me real confused until we actually got there). The first night Bus and I split the Watachick'n strips which comes with a side of Texas toast- not a huge fan of eating toast I almost didn't take a bite. Yup I almost missed out on the toast that has changed my life. The next night I got a side of toast with my biscuit sandwich with bacon. The third night I decided to go all out and ordered three sides of toast WITH chicken gravy...looks disgusting, tastes delicious.

 And last but not least:

Yup good old fashioned Texas BBQ. In our group of four, I was outnumbered 3 to 1 for going to Rudy's after shooting but since it was my last day they agreed to let me have a true Texas experience. We ended up at Black's Barbecue in Lockhart and I am so glad we did. It was awesome. I was not hungry at all when we got there since I ate a giant bowl of fro-yo an hour before (topped with snickers, reeses, sour patch kids, strawberries and walnuts- ya know, the works) but as soon as I got inside I was ready. There were so many sides to choose from but I went with mac and cheese, potato salad and a pickle. I was tempted by the size-of-my-arm-giant beef ribs but the guy behind the counter told me that if it was my first time there I needed to go with the beef brisket. It was fantastic all smothered in their sweet BBQ sauce...I didn't finish everything but I think I did pretty good. AND I now have a reusable plastic cup to remember this delicious meal by...good call Blacks good call.

So thats it! In an attempt to balance out eating all this amazing food, I went pretty hard on the veggies and fruit this week- totally works out right?! Yup, thats what I'm going with at least :-)