Sunday, July 27, 2014

My "I"s (Iron Cactus & In-n-Out)

It was too much to narrow down my list so I settled for 2 "I"s on the restaurant list.



While I'd heard good things about Iron Cactus happy hour and since was on work travel in Dallas when I went (can you say reimbursement!) I figured it would be a great time to check this off my list. In my defense there are Iron Cactus restaurants in Austin so I didn't think I was cheating too badly being out of town technically for this one...

Ugh, what to say? The best only good part about this was the $2 house margaritas on Sundays.

The queso topping the veggie enchiladas, whose description was cleverly crafted to sound delicious, was incredibly thick and fatty with stale-tasting tortillas and not saute'd, but rather completely soggy veggies inside. The canned charro beans were better...


Austin has seen a recent invasion (no PC strikethrough) of Californians in the last few years. They've demanded their Trader Joe's and In-N-Out Burger restaurants, so of course I had to find out what the hype is all about :)
  
The double cheeseburger was good: small patties but no gristle and the veggies were crisp and fresh. I was a little confused with the thousand island-esque spread, though... Fries were cold within a few minutes (I saved calories not finishing them) but wow wow wow on the strawberry shake. They may be fooling me, but this actually tasted like real strawberries not just flavoring. Very yummy. 

McDonalds < In-n-Out < Dan's Hamburgers

Austin has local hamburger joints for all budgets to need another chain that was just so-so. 

Sorry Californians. Well, not really.



Thursday, July 24, 2014

Torchy's Thursday




Tacos for me are like stranded-on-a-desert-island-last-kind-of-food-you'll-ever-eat good.

On our menu:
(LUQ) "The Vagabond"
The taco of the month was a grilled beef fajita on a bed of oh-so-sexy bacon topped with grilled onions, chimichurri sauce, feta cheese, and pico.

(LLQ) "Baja Shrimp"
Hand-battered fried shrimp with cooked cabbage slaw, beautifully done pickled jalapenos & onions and queso fresco with chipotle sauce.

(RLQ) "The Trailer Park"
Of course, when I was asked if I wanted to "Make it Trashy" I absolutely agreed.
Fried chicken with green chilis and pico de gallo topped with their famous queso (the "trashy" part)...and more cheese on top for good measure :)

(RUQ) "The Brushfire"
Grilled Jamaican jerk chicken with grilled jalapenos, mango, sour cream & cilantro. With the spicy diablo sauce because I wasn't the scaredy-cat with these tacos.

Let's not forget Lonestar Tallboys too :) A perfect compliment



Wordless Wednesday: First Solo Trip

First time ever for a solo trip: Denver did not disappoint!!