#92 - New restaurant

Ok, so this one probably shouldn't count, but its a new discovery and I enjoyed it and I really need to post something on this blog (slacker!) so I'm tallying it up.

My friend Beth and I just grabbed lunch at The Spicy Pickle near campus. Its a bit hidden and for someone who usually brown-bags it, I'd never noticed it. But Beth apparently loves this place. I had a super-thin crust pizza with a pesto sauce, mozzarella, tomato, artichoke hearts, and feta cheese. Mmmm, feta... And I totally at the whole thing (I'm kinda regretting that fact now). She had some panini that looked really yummy too.

If you're within walking distance, its totally worth the little hike. 4 down, 16 more to go.

#92 - Aquarelle

Oh my goodness. It was so, so yummy. And such a cute, little place.

I had soft shell crab as an appetizer, snapper with shrimp for the main, and then carmelized poached pears for dessert (I'm drooling again just thinking about it). Greg had melt-in-your-mouth foie gras, smoky scallops and profiteroles. And they also brought out these little complimentary bits and pieces throughout the meal - a bisque, a sorbet and then these tiny little pastries. Very nice touch.

Of course, everything was to die for.

Now I just wish we could make the other 17 new restaurants that we'll visit be of that caliber. Of course, we'd be flat broke... and probably quite fat. But it'd sure be fun.


p.s. As we were sitting there, an older couple came into the restaurant quite late and just ordered coffee and dessert. Is this done? For some reason, I've just never thought of that as an option for nicer restaurants. But what a fantastic idea for when you feel like treating yourself but don't want to break the bank! Maybe we'll try that some time for some other swank restaurants in town.

Aquarelle

Oh my God. I just looked at the menu.

I'm drooling already...

#92 - Visit new restaurants

Greg eats out way more than I do. He will usually have fabulous lunches with his coworkers, while I'm eating leftovers in my office. Blah. (Okay, correction. Greg just snuck up behind me and pointed out the fact that he only goes out twice a week most of the time -disputable- and one of those is Double Dave's for pizza so its nothing special. Whatever. Its still more than me.) And when we do go out, its usually to the same restaurants we know we like. Boring...

So one of my goals is to try new places.

This wasn't exactly the level of quality I had in mind, but its new to me so it counts - Red Robin for burgers and bottomless fries. We were out shopping and drove by so Greg insisted I needed to try it. We split a spicy buffalo chicken burger (delish!) and a turkey burger with feta and lots of good stuff. Very yummy.

The second place was Bombay Bistro. Its right next to our local HEB so we'd see it all the time and say that we needed to try it but never did. Well, we finally made it. I was having a really bad day from work so Greg suggested we go. Its Indian food (obviously) with a nice ambience and decent food. The best thing though was the margarita and the mango martini. :)

18 more to go! And one of them is tonight. Tomorrow is our 5-year anniversary from when we first started seeing each other. (Honestly, I don't know how he's hung on for this long...) Greg is treating me to dinner at Aquarelle, a fancy-schmancy French restaurant here in Austin. I can't wait! Yay!