Mark L. Van Name's Blog, page 65

Top 5 lessons from today's trip home from Austin

5.  Anyone who tells you that 10:00 a.m. is too early to eat Amy's ice cream is wrong.

4.  If you want to sell breakfast tacos, don't let them sit out so long that they look dusty.

3.  Continuing to work frantically on a laptop while a plane bounces from turbulence can make your row-mate feel sick even when he's not doing anything except turning green.

2.  False eyelashes (no, not mine) can be so long and so wet that they can get stuck to your eyebrow.

1.  Some people think the right reaction to bouncing their luggage off first your head and then your stomach (yes, my head and my stomach) is to say, "What's your problem?"

I do not like those people.

Emmer & Rye

is a new (to me) Austin restaurant that I visited tonight for the first time.  Its serving style is one I had not seen before:  a short printed menu that the chefs augment with carts of additional dishes, about ten a night, that waiters bring to your table.  As their site explains, the ever-changing dishes on the carts let the chefs prepare dishes that reflect exactly what is available from their source farmers each day.

We sampled several dishes from the main menu and quite a few of the small plates on the carts.  I enjoyed all of the dishes, with the lamb belly (from the menu) and pickled vegetables (off a cart) being my favorites.

No dish, though, gave me that magic "wow" moment in which you realize the chefs have created something wonderful, surprising, and still amazingly delicious.

For my taste, Emmer & Rye is a good restaurant and a fun place to eat, so I recommend it on those terms, but it is not at the level of the very best Austin has to offer.

COUNTER 3 . FIVE . VII wows once again

If you live in Austin or visit here, and if you are interested in great food, you need to book a dinner reservation here.  COUNTER 3 . FIVE . VII, which from now on I'll call "Counter," offers only three menu options:  a three-course, a five-course, or a seven-course meal.  Each totals about the same amount of food, but the larger the number of courses, the more work for the restaurant's half dozen or so chefs, so the higher the price.

I've tasted one each of the three- and five-course menus, and I've now eaten the seven-course option three or four times.

Every single meal has been fantastic, and tonight's was no exception.

The menu relies heavily on local ingredients and always leaves a bit to your imagination.

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Every bite of every dish was delicious.  A particular standout was the dish titled "Rhubarb,"


which blended Newsom's ham with brown butter and many presentations of rhubarb.  I had no clue how good that vegetable could taste.

As you eat, you get to watch the chefs both prepare and then present your dishes, so it really is dinner and a show.

I've now been to Counter enough times that I recognize the chefs and a few of them recognize me.  Tonight, while talking with the pastry chef, I mentioned that growing up I thought the only way people ever ate cauliflower was as a stringy, snot-like mass, and so I hated that vegetable.  I was in my twenties before I ever tasted a piece of the vegetable raw.  One of the chefs heard me and treated us to their cauliflower dish,


which presents the vegetable almost as a main meat course.  Various takes on cauliflower are all over that plate, and they combine into an amazing, rich, meaty dish that was also a highlight of the meal.

Go to Counter.  Pick the menu you want--I'll always recommend the seven-course--sit back, and trust the chefs to present you with amazing dishes that you would otherwise never have experienced.

Uchiko continues to be great

For dinner tonight, a group of us tried the omakase, or chef's tasting menu, at Uchiko, one of my favorite Austin restaurants.  The meal was once again delicious, a wonderful blend of hot and cold dishes.

A highlight was one of the day's specials, which we added to our menu: the gyutoro nigiri.  This little gem was a piece of Wagyu short rib that they cooked sous vide for 72 hours and then quickly and lightly seared before presenting it atop a perfect bit of warm rice.  The beef literally melted in your mouth.  We were all smiling as we slowly consumed our individual bites.  I probably could have eaten a plate of these rascals, but at the same time, one bite was perfect and so was exactly right.

As I have before, I once again recommend Uchiko to anyone who lives or visits here.

Upping my first-night barbecue game

It's my first night in Austin, so as usual I went out for barbecue, a food sure to raise the IQ and gladden the heart.  This time, though, I decided to up my game by moving from The County Line By the Lake to (the relatively new) Cooper's in downtown Austin.

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The reason is simple:  as much as I love the County Line for historical reasons, every single dish at Cooper's tastes better than its counterpart there.

As always, I went for the brisket, sausage, and beef rib, this time with a side of mac 'n cheese.


(The food above, by the way, is for two people, and we ended unable to finish it.)

The sausage at the two places is close, but the brisket and beef rib at Cooper's are among the very best I've ever tasted.  The worst bite of brisket I've relished at Cooper's is better than the best bite of brisket the County Line has ever served.  The beef rib is succulent and rich and flavorful and perfectly spiced, easily the best beef rib I've ever had the pleasure of enjoying.

After barbecue on a Monday night in Austin, you have only one choice:  drive to a nearby Amy's for a small cup of ice cream.  I made that same choice, and the result was a delicious pairing of blueberry and strawberry mango ice creams.

Ah, Austin, I am ready for you now.

Now is the time of our movie discontent

because very few films of note are likely to hit the Triangle area between now and Captain America: Civil War.

This sad fact can mean only one thing:  time to catch up on films I've purchased on DVD!

Mesa Latin Kitchen

I've been meaning to try this restaurant since it replaced Gregoria's.  I'm always looking for good Cuban food, and though Mesa Latin Kitchen's offerings range over a wider culinary map, they do include some tasty Cuban dishes.  After sampling quite a few of its offerings tonight, I'm happy to report that Mesa Latin Kitchen is worth a visit.

The presentation of the ropa vieja resembled a flag, with long strips of the meat, green rice, and black beans.  All three components were tasty and flavorful; I'd go back for this dish alone.

The Cuban sandwich sticks were exactly what they sound like and delicious enough to make me wish they served the full sandwich.  The Cuban sliders with chorizo and pork belly and the cassava flat bread with exotic mushrooms were also standouts.  The lemon mojo sauce on the grilled asparagus had people wiping the plate clean.

Of the many dishes our group sampled, only one, the mussels, was a loser; at least two of the mussels were simply bad.

My only other complaint about the place was the volume of the music of the live band.  I liked the music, but it was so loud that talking was nearly impossible.

On balance, though, I recommend Mesa Latin Kitchen and hope to eat there again.

Hugo nominations are drawing to a close

The nomination period for the Hugo awards ends this Thursday night, March 31.  You can see the details and nominate works here.

A lot of controversy has surrounded the Hugo awards in the last few years, so it might be tempting to walk away from it all, but I won't.  I think that the more fans who nominate and then vote for the Hugo awards, the better.

So, if you're eligible to nominate works, please do.  If you don't, then don't complain about the works on the ballot or the fact that your favorite writers' works never win awards.




P.S. Somewhat to my surprise, each year quite a few fans ask why none of my works has won a Hugo.  The answer is simple:  none of has inspired enough people to get them to nominate the work on an award ballot.  When you consider that a hundred or two nominations will land most works on most ballots, that statement sounds particularly sad, but it's the truth.  It is also equally true of many, many writers with far larger sales than mine.  We all should write because we must, not to win awards.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,

A group of ten of us went to this movie earlier tonight.  I quite enjoyed it, though it has many, many flaws.  Honesty compels me, however, to report that I am the only one in the group who left the film not annoyed at it.

I must accept that I have a strong ability to find the good in movies and enjoy them, even when they are heavily flawed.

It's not that I can't see the flaws in films in general or in this one in particular.  I can.  Scott, for example, pointed out many problems in the movie, and indeed they were all issues.  In this case, though, they did not drag me out of it or ruin it for me.

The movie is long, dark, and, to the tastes of almost all of our group, overwrought.  Yet for whatever reason, it worked well for me, and I was alone in never for a second being bored.

Gal Godot's appearance as Wonder Woman was a highlight on which everyone seemed to agree.  I had not liked this casting choice originally, but she completely owned the role.

If, like me, you find this type of superhero story compelling, don't miss this movie.  If you're not in the mood, though, for angsty demigods in tights, give it a pass.

I am once again embarrassed by my state's government

Today, North Carolina's Republican governor signed a bill from its Republican-controlled general assembly, which met in a special one-day session, that institutionalizes discrimination against LGBTQ individuals.  You can read takes on the story here or here.  

This story started out being about bathroom usage, and the legislature tried to make it about safety, but that was BS.  The Charlotte law allowed people to use the restroom of the gender with which they identify.  The legislature argued this could open the door to any man going into a women's restroom and putting women there at risk.

In the end, the bill turned into much, much more:  denying rights to a group of Americans, and reserving to the state government the right to pass anti-discrimination laws.

Not for the first time, I am appalled at our state government.