Project Austin Food Trailer Tour: The Odd Duck Farm to Trailer

The Odd Duck Farm to Trailer has a name that is very much “odd”, but that did not steer me away from finding out more about it. I heard some pretty decent reviews from friends and acquaintances and, after reviewing their menu online, I was excited. They had a pork belly slider that caught my attention and took my interest to a new level. After consulting with the dining group, we agreed that the intriguing name and menu made it worth putting on our Project Austin Food Trailer Tour list as the next stop. 

Upon our arrival, I noticed a gravel lot with three food trailers. The outside scenery was very relaxed and provided a great atmosphere. I was also pleased that it was BYOB. I was the first one to jump in line out of my group and after looking at the menu I decided on the four following dishes:

Quail w/ Carrot & Napa Slaw

Quail is one of my favorite game birds to eat which made the Quail w/ Carrot & Napa Slaw an easy choice for one of my selections. The portion was half a quail which I thought was a little on the light side. However, it was well-seasoned and still moist, which can be a challenge since the meat is so lean. The quail sat on top of a slaw that consisted of carrots, napa cabbage, pecans, and feta cheese. I gave the slaw many chances to gel with the quail but it just never happened. The two components didn't highlight or enhance each other in any way. The dish probably would've been better with the quail by itself or maybe even a whole quail on its own. Maybe next time they'll let me substitute the slaw for another half of the quail.



Cheese Grits w/ Soft Boiled Duck Egg

The Cheese Grits w/ Soft Boiled Duck Egg was probably the biggest surprise of the night. I've had grits maybe once or twice before and have never been fond of them. The grits I had before today were bland and I guess you can say "gritty". To tell you the truth it wasn't the grits that attracted me to this dish on the menu, it was the soft boiled duck egg. The cheese in the grits definitely gave it a natural saltiness and great flavor a long with a creamy texture. The grits were smooth and defied the very nature of its namesake being "gritty". The grilled Portobello mushrooms added another layer of texture and flavor to this dish and did well to enhance it. The soft boiled duck egg was cooked to perfection. The inside yolk was soft, but not runny, which was great as a hard boiled egg would've dried up the dish with its gritty yolk. I personally like my egg yolks to run a little bit so the only way you could probably change this to make me any happier would be to poach the egg. The grilled turnips were an after thought and rightfully so, as it was bitter and didn't add any substance to the dish.

Pork Belly Slider

The Pork Belly Slider was the main reason I wanted to try out The Odd Duck Trailer but, as usual, with so much anticipation it ended up being a slight let down. The slider consisted of a zesty mayo, tomatoes, bacon, and pork belly. The bread and the zesty mayo were delicious but the pork belly itself lacked a little flavor. However, the pork belly was tender and easy to bite through so there was some time and preparation taken in preparing this dish. I just wished it had a little more kick to it. It may be that I'm just more partial to the Asian preparation of pork bellies which is normally slightly sweet and savory.

Pulled Pork w/ Sauerkraut

The Pulled Pork w/ Sauerkraut was another nice surprise next to the cheese grits. My first bite took my palette to a familiar place; the tanginess of the sauerkraut combined with the savory-ness of pork tasted like cured Laotian sausage. Laotian sausage, in my family, is normally served on Sunday afternoon when no one really wants to spend a lot of time preparing and cooking food. It is normally served with a side of sticky rice and papaya salad, of course. To be able to have a dish that brings back memories served on a bun is always a great way to end a meal.

The Odd Duck Farm to Trailer can be marked is one of the best places on our tour so far. Even though I went for the Pork Belly Slider, I was very pleased to have been surprised by the two aforementioned dishes. The Cheese Grits w/ Soft Boiled Duck Egg totally changed my opinion on grits and, with the Pulled Pork w/ Sauerkraut, it was great to have a dish that was prepared so differently but yet took me back to a familiar place with its bold flavors.

Project Austin Food Trailer Tour: Crepes Mille was Run of the Mill (Austin, TX)

Over the holidays, my nephew from Iowa posed a question that I was ashamed to answer truthfully, "Do you know how to make crepes?" After a short and brief pause, my simple answer was no and we moved on to the next subject. What I didn't tell him was that this actually bothered me. In order to enhance my culinary abilities I made myself a promise to learn how to make crepes- if not for me, then at least for my nephew.


After doing some research on crepes, I learned how versatile this dish could be. Crepes can be filled with not only sweet dessert fillings but savory meats, as well. The more I thought about it, I realized that a crepe is nothing more than another serving vessel such as tortillas, rice paper, etc. Okay, maybe it's a little fancier than the two mentioned but it pretty much serves the same purpose.


On that note, before attempting to make crepes I decided our next stop on Project Austin Food Trailer Tour should be Crepes Mille off of S. Congress.


Upon our arrival to Crepes Mille, I noticed that there were several familiar items on the menu. Foods that I'm used to seeing because of my ethnicity; Thai dishes, such as Panang Curry (chicken curry), and sweet-sticky rice dessert crepes. I didn't choose those dishes because they would have needed to be more than spectacular to earn a great review from me. I tried my best to not be subjective from the get-go, so I took a different route. I chose one savory crepe, barbecue pulled brisket, and one sweet crepe, caramelized pear. Between my friends, they ordered the rotisserie chicken crepe, the berry delight, and a Nutella filled crepe topped with ice cream. I managed to sample all of these except the rotisserie chicken, but for the purpose of this review I'll focus on the two dishes I ordered. 


BBQ Beef Brisket

  

Caramelized Pear



Berry Delight



Rotisserie Chicken

Crepes Mille did a great job on presentation; all of the dishes above were served on thin paper plates and looked very appetizing. They would look even better on white ceramic plates if given the opportunity. On that note, it’s also important to have your flavors well-balanced to compliment the plating. With that aspect in mind, Crepes Mille was mediocre at best.

The barbecue beef brisket was a great idea for a savory crepe, however, the execution of the dish was slightly disappointing. The meat inside the crepe did have some flavor but it was masked by the dryness of the meat. The sauce on top of the crepe tasted like your standard barbecue sauce and it probably would have served a better purpose inside the crepe to help give it a little moisture. Cutting into the crepe and trying to get a decent bite size also became a challenge because of the fibrous meat. In this case I think that a finely chopped beef or thin slices of brisket would've served as a better filling than the pulled beef. The actual crepe that wrapped the beef lacked flavor and could have easily been fixed with maybe a little more salt and sugar in the batter. As I stated earlier, the idea behind this dish was a great one but the execution of it needs a little tweaking. A little more barbecue sauce on the side would have greatly been appreciated and needed.

The next dish I tried was the caramelized pear crepe. I love caramelized fruits such as pears, peaches, and apples. The cooking of these fruits brings out their natural sweetness that balances well with a slight acidity tone. After all, who doesn't enjoy a bit of sweet and sour together. This crepe was topped off with a caramel sauce and whipped cream sprinkled with inklings of corn flake. My first bite surprised me a little with its sweetness. I made sure not to get any caramel sauce the second time to see if it was the caramelized pears inside the crepe that were overpoweringly sweet; indeed they were. The next couple of bites I incorporated the whipped cream with the pears and it helped tone down the sweetness a bit. Some might enjoy this and even make a case that a dessert is supposed to be super sweet but I'm going to make a case that a little acidity and a little bit less sweetness would've made this dish almost perfect. The caramel sauce looked great on the plate but I didn't need anymore sweets to add to this dish so I could have done without it. The whipped cream was too small of a serving for me since I needed a lot of it to try to tone down the sweetness. The corn flakes on top of the whipped cream added visual appeal but nothing constructive, taste-wise, to the dish.

To recap our visit to Crepes Mille I want to start off by saying that these dishes we tried weren't too bad. Each of them could use a little tweaking or maybe even tasting prior to being served. These are all easy fixes that can be done, if made aware. Now that I've thought about it, maybe I should have tried some of the Thai flavored crepes. I might do that on our next visit but that probably isn't going to be anytime soon.

Project Austin Food Trailer Tour: The Mighty Cone was a Mighty Disappointment (Austin, TX)

This past weekend a group of friends and I started Project Austin Food Trailer Tour, where we’ll attempt to sample as many things as we can at a food trailer we have chosen. We hope to do this every week or every other week- depending on the weather, of course.  The idea behind this is to help promote one of the great things about Austin; being able to find good food from not so ideal locations. I’ll provide reviews from each of the establishments we visit and also try to recreate some of their signature dishes.

This week we visited the Mighty Cone- located at 1600 S. Congress Ave. My friends in the group had been here before and wanted me to start the tour off with a bang.  At first glance, of the not so extensive menu, I knew it would be easy for us to make our choice. We ordered two variations of the Hot & Crunchy Cone (chicken with avocado and shrimp with avocado), a beef slider, chili-dusted fries, and an order of fried pickles. There were three and a half of us (three adults and one toddler) eating, so it’s not as much food as it sounds.

I started off with the Hot & Crunchy Cones; both were prepared the same way- shrimp or chicken covered with corn flakes and sesame seed breading topped with a spicy aioli sauce. The avocado was breaded in the same fashion and deep-fried, as well. These ingredients sat on top of your standard coleslaw wrapped in a flour tortilla and served in a paper cone.

Sounds delicious right?

That’s what I thought until I took my first bite- I paused- and took a second bite. Maybe my palette wasn’t fooling me, could it be true that this wonderfully textured meal wrapped in a tortilla could be so bland?

So, I started to deconstruct my “cone” (it’s really just a taco) to taste each element individually. I came to this conclusion:

The super crunchy texture was great on both the chicken and shrimp but lacked any flavor whatsoever; this is a case where a little salt and pepper was really needed. However, both proteins were not over cooked so that was a good thing.

The spicy aioli really disappointed me; this could have been the one thing that brought the dish together. Instead, the aioli was a bit watery and lacked any garlic or chili flavor. It was just a very pretty orange sauce that served no other purpose than to add color to the dish.

The deep fried avocado was an over kill when it came to using the corn flake and sesame breading. It didn’t add anything constructive or flavorful to this dish.  If anything, the large chunk of avocado was a bit hard to eat just because of the size.

The use of the coleslaw was a bit confusing to me. It was pretty much your standard coleslaw that you can get anywhere in town. Its place at the bottom of the cone conflicted with the use of the aioli on top. They’re both mayonnaise-based sauces; one with garlic and the other with sugar. There was one good thing about the coleslaw- it wasn’t bland like all of the other components of this dish.

All-in-all, the texture was nice but the flavor was non-existent.

Next, we moved on to the beef slider which consisted of all natural beef, red onions, and tomatoes squeezed between a dinner roll. Yes! I was so excited because there is now way you can mess up a simple beef slider, right?

Wrong again.

First, let me complain about the cost which is way over-priced for the amount being served. You get one slider- and it really is a slider- not a hamburger for just under six dollars. I’ve had Kobe burgers that tasted a hundred times better and were cheaper than this slider.

I took a bite and the first thing I noticed was that the meat was a little dry, as if someone was really pressing on this patty to get it to cook faster. The second thing I noticed was that, once again, the food was bland.

As I sigh in disappointment, my internal thoughts keep reverting back to, “How do you screw up a slider, an expensive one at that?”

I moved on to the sides and the fried pickles were okay. They were breaded in the same corn flake and sesame breading and at this point I can’t help but feel like the breading is getting to be a little bit of overkill.

The chili-dusted fries were the highlight of the meal and not because they had tons of flavor, but because you could drench them in ketchup.

Our tour started off with a bust instead of a bang, but that’s ok because there are still a lot of other places to eat in Austin and I’m going to try to find them. I’m sure I’ll find a dish that I love and give the ultimate compliment of recreating rather than trying to find a way to improve on their dish, concept, or flavors.


Click here for the Bistro 331 Version of  "Hot and Crunchy Shrimp and Chicken with Avocado Cone"

Austin's Restaurant Week Fall 2010 - Cru Wine Bar Review (The Domain - Austin, TX)

Okay, so I don't do many reviews here but I thought it would add some content to the blog.

Last night I went to Cru Wine Bar for restaurant week. For months now my friends have been raving about their steamed mussels. Fortunately for me, the steamed mussels were part of the 3 course meal (which was only $25). We decided to eat at the bar since the all the tables were full and it didn't seem like anyone was leaving anytime soon. We started off with several flights of wine, which I wasn't impressed by, a couple of appetizers - goat cheese beignets and Ahi Tuna tartare. The beignets were absolutely delicious. I was told that the goat cheese was mixed with marscapone cheese as well and the creaminess definitely came through in the filling. The outside was fried to perfection, nice and crispy and just a touch of sweetness from the honey glaze. As for the tartare, if you've had one you've just about had them all. It definitely lacked that extra kicked to set it apart from other tuna tartares.

For dinner we opted for the steamed mussels, petite filet mignon, and the chocolate chip cookie cake with vanilla ice cream. For the rave that I've been hearing about the mussels I can't say that it lived up to my expectations. Don't get me wrong they were good, but they weren't the best I've had. Coming from a person who loves tart and sour dishes, this dish was over the top with its tartness. In my opinion, it definitely needed a more delicate balance to showcase the white wine and lemongrass broth that were both drowned out by the tartness of the dish. The petite filet was a hit, it was cooked perfectly medium-rare and fork tender as can be. The veal/red wine demi glace was probably one of the better sauces I've ever tasted. It was neither too sweet nor too salty and was perfectly balanced. It was great to see that even though the sauce was superb the chef didn't drown the filet in it.

For dessert were initially going to have the chocolate lava cake, but by the time we ordered, they were all out. So they substituted the lava cake with a chocolate chip cake and vanilla ice cream - which was a blessing in disguise (I'm not a real big chocolate fan anyway). The chocolate chip cake was nothing more than a really thick cookie, however, it was delicious and a great ending to a wonderful meal.

I'd recommend anyone to Cru Wine Bar located at the Domain in Austin, TX, especially when you can get a great meal for just $25 during restaurant week (September 19-22 and 26-29, 2010 (FYI - The wine flights and the other appetizers are not part of the $25).