Saturday, May 22, 2010

more austin, more fun

I am lacking a creative post title. So the above is a simple summary of my past few days. Austin! Fun!

The world has turned into a weird place when a cupcake trailer, at least in a city, no longer seems like a novelty. I'm too jaded. But still, Hey Cupcake is among the first, is in an actual airstream, and has a giant cupcake on top. Pretty great. We wandered around South Congress and I continued my cowboy boot envy (the real deal is crazy gorgeous, and also upwards of $300... on sale)


















Last night we were going downtown to see Casablanca on the big screen (so much fun- it was the Paramount, an old theater where they start you off with a cartoon. It was also crazy, because in our group of five Rachel and I were the only people who HAD seen Casablanca. I thought it was such a standard! Have you seen Casablanca? Do you love it? I do!).

We decided to eat downtown so we wouldn't have to worry about parking later in the evening, when the drunken revelers head to 6th Street, one part of Austin I have no further interest in exploring. We went to Chez Nous, which was French, but completely unpretentious and comfy and fun. Plus, even at Austin's so called "fancy" restaurants, everyone wears jeans. Sounds good to me.

The inside was adorable and muraly.


















And Richard decided that the light streaming in was lovely and he had to capture Rachel and Katie in it. They loved that.


















Their price fixe meal (app, entree, and dessert) is like $1 more than one of the entrees, so it's a really obvious choice for anyone with a good appetite. Buttt, I was STILL feelin' the breakfast tacos from earlier in the day, plus my favorite things to partake in in French restaurants are wine...























(No idea what this was, but it tasted yummy!)

... and bread and buttah....


















(They had real European butter, which has more fat than American and is thus infinitely more delicious. Multiply this quantity by at least four. Plus add some of Katie's pate. Mmmmmm this trip is reminding me that I don't use enough butter in my life)

So yes, I decided to just get a soup and a salad. The hot soup of the day was carrot-ginger, and it was quite lovely...

















I asked our waitress whether to get the soup or the salad first, and she gave it VERY serious thought and said the soup. Which made me think the Salade Lyonnaise which I ordered was more entree-y, which indeed it was.

Dressed in a lovely herby Dijony vinaigrette were nice fresh greens, cherry tomatoes, red peppers,


















But for suresies the most beautiful part, which I have yet to adequately create in a home settig, was the perfectly poached egg on top.
















Which I then broke open to mix the rich egg yolk with the vinaigrette. Wow wow wow wow wow it was really really really good.
















Richard and Rachel had both gotten the special (which sounded blissssful but my stomach just lacked the ambition to tackle) which was a steak in a roquefort cream sauce. Richard, backseat photographer, said I had to take a picture, and I was like "Here, you do it". His are blurry, hahahaha.






































Then their hilarious friend Bowman decided to get in on it and silliness ensued. The salmon was pretty, Bowman is a blur.























My camera was out of pictures at this point (normal memory cards don't work in my terrible Fuji and I'm too lazy to get the special one for a camera I hate) so everyone started playing with Rachel's iPhone, particularly between Richard and Bowman.


















And then more food. Rachel got a good one of the HUGE BUCKET OF BAGUETTE that the waitress was periodically slicing on the table behind us (a beautiful, beautiful thing)























And Richard's cappuccino and mousse au chocolat.

1 comment:

Gabriela said...

What a fun looking restaurant! I love that it was so authentic but yet causal- it's difficult to find real French food outside of expensive places. The ginger carrot soup sounds especially delicious!