Rockin' Cuban food

For all you folks out there looking for a culinary treat, let me introduce you to Habana. It is a fabulous Cuban restaurant in Austin (2 locations - 6th St. and S. Congress near St. Ed's). I first went there for the first time a number of years ago with a coworker who grew up in Miami and eating Cuban food. The best thing there can be summed up in 1 word - PORK! Yowsah! Lechon asada...it is fork tender perfectly seasoned pork heaven! In pork heaven also is there Cuban sandwich - ham, pork, Swiss cheese, mustard, and pickles all between Cuban bread and squished to heat. I personally don't like pickles so I get mine without but it is fantastic. Moving into the beef portion of the show, ropa vieja! It's delicious! Again, perfectly seasonsed and very tender. They also have great appetizers. The best one is mariquitas served w/ mojo sauce. Mariquitas are very thinly sliced plantain chips that are fried. The sauce, mojo, is crack! Okay, not really but it is so addicting that it might as well be. It is a thick, pork seasonsed w/ some tomato and seasoning sauce that is seriously incredible. To help get the food down, they have great drinks. Mojitos and Cuban martinis (black cherry rum, cane sugar, and lime)are the best. To finish off the night, they have my favorite tres leches in town. It has cinnamon on the top and just the right amount of "leches" so it isn't too wet or too dry. It's perfect.
Should you ever want to go and can't find anyone brave enough to go with you, just give me a call. I'll be very happy to accompany you!
Let me know what you think of this restaurant or any of the others I've reviewed. Let me know if I steered you right!

Life

Some days do you just wonder if life is the way it should be? I don't mean anything bad but just curiosity. Am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing? Am I where I'm supposed to be? I don't know. Don't get me wrong. I like my life. A lot! But some days, I just wonder. I guess this was brought on by a couple of things. A friend I've known for a very long time just lost her dad. It is such a sad thing. I know. I still miss my mom so much - every day! And it just brings forward the inevitability of things.
I think about what my life would have been like if I would have been born closer in time to my brothers. What would I have done for a living? Would I have been married? Would I have had kids? Yikes! I'm not so sure how that would have been. I guess it would have been okay because it would have been the only life I would have known. But since I know that could have been with my current life, I get to ponder it. Not too seriously, though.
Then I think of what would have happened if I would have stuck with my original plan of just being back in Austin for a few years after I moved back in 1991. Where would I have gone? Would I have stayed there? I guess my answer to that question is I'll never know because I didn't do it. Why didn't I? Lots of reasons...very good ones. Family - friends - comfort.
So I guess all this wacky pondering just has me at the fact that I am where I am supposed to be, doing what I'm supposed to do, and being the me I'm am. I don't know about you but I feel better now. It's good to think these things out! Thanks for listening...well, reading! It might be good for you to try should you start pondering wacky things too!

Get over yourself!

Sorry for the rather rude title but it is very fitting for this blog topic. I have a little rant for the drivers that feel they need to cut in line. Seriously, who do you think you are? Do you think you are more important than me and all the other people waiting in line like we're supposed to? Do you think you're special? Let me just give you a clue...YOU AREN'T! What you ARE is a jackass! A really big one! Get over yourself and your false sense of self-importance and sit in line! And if you think you're going to get in front of me, you're wrong! mwah,ha,ha,ha!!!! Consider that the evil laugh of the day!
I'm sure you can't wait to see what the next dumb driver is going to do so you can read about it here!
Happy Monday! ;)

More on Mexican food

As most of you know, Austin has a plethora of restuarants and a lot of them are Mexican food. Most people have different favorite places for different favorite foods. In my last blog, I told you about my favorite place for fajitas. Well, my favorite place to go in Round Rock is Morelia Grill. It is a little mom and pop place that makes some seriously fantastic food. Everything I've tried is wonderful. Carne asada, carnitas tacos, chipotle chicken, queso flameado w/ chorizo, homemade tortillas. YUM city! They also have great red and green salsas. One thing I haven't had yet is the fried avocado stuffed with chicken, beef, or shrimp. I keep saying I'm going to have it but keep finding other things to try. I WILL try it, though.
They also have really good margaritas. They are $3 all the time! You can get fruity ones for a little more. One of the other cool things about the place is that they have live music. During the dinner hours, they have some quiet background music but recently, after 9pm, they have bands play. They move tables and make a little dance floor. I hope they keep that up because it was a lot of fun.
Remember Morelia Grill when you are up in the north reaches of the area. It is definitely worth the trip!

Delicious Mexican Food

I am very sorry for not posting since last week. It's been a busy but I'll try to be better!
So today I'm going to tell you about one of my favorite Mexican food restaurants. I would normally keep this a secret but the cat's already out of the bag. Has been for a while.
Enchiladas Y Mas is a fantastic Mexican food restaurant. They have the BEST and I do mean BEST fajitas in town! They rock! The beef ones are the best but the chicken ones are pretty darn good too! They also have this little dish called enchiladas con queso that are cheese enchiladas covered in chili and chili con queso! Can you say heart attack on a plate???? I knew you could! They have tasty margaritas and of course beer. They also have a great salsa that is generally a little on the warm side. They are open Tues-Sat 7am-9pm and Sunday only until 2pm. They usually close for a week during the summer for vacation (usually in July) so keep that in mind if you are going around then.
Check it out and let me know what you think! You won't be disappointed!

Attire

It's official. I've become my mother! Well, at least on part of one subject - attire.
There are days I don't want to dress up. Lots of them. There are some days I don't. However, some days you need to. Today, I went to a conference. Granted, it was at the university and it was for students mainly. I'm not saying you need to wear a suit or wear your Sunday best. But are shorts really appropriate? There were graduate school reps from many big schools in addition to Doctors without Borders, US Public Health service, CDC, etc. at the exhibit hall for people to talk to about jobs or more schooling. Don't you think that you need to have on pants at the very least? Or at least nice shorts, like ones made of something other than material you see in the gym! I tell you, it was my mother's voice in my head. Scary, though it was, it was there! Yikes!
I think enough said!
LB out!

Salumi vs. Salami

A dear friend read my blog the first day. She nicely pointed out that I had misspelled 2 words. Well, I did misspell one but not the other. I thought about it and realized that lots of people, especially Americans, don't know the word SALUMI. So today we are going to learn what that is.
No, I didn't misspell salami. I really mean salumi. The word "SALUMI" is an Italian word that describes meat products that are usually cured and mainly pork. Meats that fall under the salumi category are salami, prosciutto, salsiccia, bresaola, ham, mortadella, capicola, pancetta to name a few. In Italy, to buy these things you go to the salumeria.
Now you can impress people with your new knowledge of cured meats! This is a very good thing to know! Get out there and check out the salumi section in the store nearest you!

License check, please!

Before I get to the subject of this post, I have to say 2 other things. First, I'm sorry that I haven't been on here in 2 days. I've had really long days and just didn't have it in me to get here. Second, a friend reminded me that I forgot a very important part of the review I gave in the first post. I forgot about the pretzels. Now soft pretzels aren't usually one of my favorite things, but the ones at Flying Saucer are fantastic! They have a great flavor and I really enjoyed it.

Okay, now onto the subject of the day. I will apologize in advance because this is just the first in what I'm sure will be a LOT of venting about people and their lack of driving skills.
Today, it is a vent about people not understanding how to merge onto a highway. When you are getting onto a highway, you need to accelerate. Push the long, skinny pedal and GO! Now the exception to this rule is if there is so much traffic that you have no way in. Then you are allowed to go slow and slowly merge in. But when there is NO one there, move! I got behind this person the other night who was going 40mph getting onto I-35. 40? Seriously? That isn't going to cut it! And then they had the nerve to give me a dirty look when I passed them going the actual speed limit! ARRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!! Maybe it is my not-so-secret desire to go fast but still - you are getting onto a highway with traffic moving much faster than 40! You are going to get yourself killed as well as others! So lesson of the day - MOVE when merging onto the highway!

Rant of the day is done! Enjoy it! It looks gorgeous outside. I'll know for sure in a few minutes.