Char siu:

"Char siu" literally means "fork roasted," which is the traditional cooking method for the dish of the same name. Forks hold long strips of seasoned boneless pork in a covered oven or over a fire.

The meat, typically pork shoulder, is seasoned with a mixture of sugar or honey, five-spice powder, soy sauce, red food colouring (optional) and sherry or rice wine (optional). These seasonings turn the exterior layer of meat dark red, not unlike the "smoke ring" of American barbecue.

Char siu is typically consumed alongside a starch, whether inside a bun (cha siu baau), with noodles, or with rice (cha siu fan). The accompaniments served with char siu are strongly influenced by regional variation.

This is the BBQ pork that I love so dearly from our own scrappy Din Ho.

As an aside, one of my personal challenges in Toronto was to find places where I could get a decent meal for at or under C$5. This turned out to be more difficult than one might think. Luckily, I was walking distance from one of Toronto's two (!) Chinatowns, where there were several restaurants where one could get an ample serving of char siu pork on white rice with a pot of tea for right about $5. Man, what a discovery that was.

The other day, I got my hands on a jar of char siu sauce and some pork from the HEB at Parmer & Mopac. I'm gonna take a stab at some roundeye chinese bbq in the next couple of days or so.

The Mean-Eyed Cat needs your help:

A new apartment and retail complex being built on West 5th Street will intentionally build around the Mean-Eyed Cat in order to preserve this unique local business. However, we need a zoning change to continue to serve alcohol at this location.

In exchange for this zoning, which will only apply to the .17 acres where the Mean-Eyed Cat is located, we will continue to limit our alcohol sales to beer and wine only and if this business ever closes the zoning will roll back to only allow retail use.

Stay Mean and support the Mean-Eyed Cat by supporting our re-zoning request.

For those of you who haven't been to the Mean-Eyed Cat yet, you really should drop by. It's exactly what an Austin bar should be: it's cool, laid back, and just really friendly; it's one of those places you can go to just be a human around other humans. This place is pure classic Austin in the making.

Some articles for those who'd like to know more:

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:492082
http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2007/06/11/daily6.html
http://news8austin.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=186256

Seriously, an omelette.

With spinach and ham and hollandaise (?) -- you know, like at that one place. Kerbey? Magnolia?

Google says: the Benedictine Omelet at Kerbey Lane.

Although frankly, and I truly mean no disrespect, but I'd love to swing by Magnolia, circle 1998.



Too many of my memories are lonelier than they should be.

But the flavors are outstanding.

[Daniel] Johnston gained a cult following in Austin, Texas. Some regarded Johnston as little more than a quaint curiosity, but others regarded him as a genuine talent: Johnston has a knack for creating quirky melodies, while his lyrics are evocative and often use clever wordplay. His songs have been covered by a number of admirers.

A 1985 MTV special on Austin brought Johnston wider attention, and a number of record stores outside Texas began selling his cassettes.

In 1990, Johnston played at a music festival in Austin, Texas. On the way back to West Virginia on a small, private plane piloted by his father, Johnston became manic and wrestled control of the plane away from his father removing the key from the ignition and throwing it out of the plane. His father, a World War Two fighter pilot, managed to successfully crash-land the plane in a wooded area. Although the plane was destroyed, Johnston and his father emerged unharmed. As a result of this episode, Johnston was involuntarily committed to a mental hospital.

In 1991, Johnston was able to air his music on a radio show while being hospitalized at a West Virginia mental hospital. While hospitalized, Johnston sent requests to his manager to have Yoko Ono produce his music and to contact Mountain Dew about the possibility of becoming the soft drink's spokesman. Johnston wrote a song praising Mountain Dew during this hospitalisation, in which he claimed to have been locked up for being "crazy about Mountain Dew."

(Very circuitously via bluemamie)

Where in Austin can a dude get a decent Lobster Thermidor?

There was a time, a few years ago, when I was kind of lonely and emotionally adrift. When I was feeling down or aimless at night, I would often go down to my favorite coffee shop, get a piece of pecan pie, a cup of coffee or an americano, and read some Kurt Vonnegut for a few hours.

I mean, I'd also do that when I was feeling good, too. And really, I'd still do it, but I'm not near a proper coffee shop, and it really wouldn't be quite the same. And obviously, I also read his stuff when I'm not at coffee shops. But now I'm rambling a little bit. I guess the point is that I don't usually identify emotionally with public figures, even authors and artists, but, y'know, he made a part of my life a little bit better. I never met him, but I have fond memories of him.

Also, he was a good writer and social critic and all of that.

Thanks a lot, Kurt. RIP.