yelp drinks week and potluck party pinata
reader, I must admire your patience. what started as a modern-green home construction blog seems to be focusing on food and beverage... with the occasional home project thrown in here and there, and some cars and bars and live music... pretty asian girls too. but all that variety is what makes life interesting.
this past week was yelp drinks week. yelp works with some of the top beverage purveyors to offer their signature cocktails at discounted prices for a week, like happy hour, all the time, all week.
we met a group of yelp friends at imperia...
they shuttled out several plates of dim-sum appetizers and sushi for us to enjoy. thank you imperia!
then we agreed to go to the belmont. unfortunately they were very inhospitable to us there, so we left (full story here)
we walked around the corner to betsy's bar. fun place but the top-40 country music was a bit too loud for my liking. at least they were hospitable to us.
we enjoyed watching her shake those drinks. they offered a tito's and pickle juice drink, tasted a lot like a dirty martini, only $2! also had good micheladas.
plenty of sofa space for casual conversation.
if lounging was an olympic sport, this would be your gold medal winning team.
then kat announced: "it's time to go", so she and I hit the street.
"she wears her sunglasses at night..." (girl on the street sang that to kat) "blublockers actually work well at night" kat replied.
after walking off those drinks, we topped off the tank with a korean spicy kimchi chicken burrito complete with runny egg. that is some good late night eating!
YELP POTLUCK:
yelp folks love some good food and drink. everything at the yelp potluck was delicious. somebody even brought moet chandon white star.
the kids flew kites and ran around being kid-like.
even the pinata was food themed. we gave our visually impaired friend first whack at the pinata. she was a bit surprised to find she was given a real baseball bat as the tool for which to strike it. felt up her opponent and .....
BAM! she knocked it down on her first attempt!
I have some pinata repair experience, poked a new hole to fabricate a new attachment point and we strung it back up. #1 son was ready for his shot.
#1 son was feeling confident...
he got some good hits.
knocked it down on his third swing.
he quickly filled his pockets with candy, the adults scrambled to scoop up all the condoms. I assured them that condoms have no effects on children that have already been born, but it made the adults feel better to hide them. all the kids could see was whoppers and tootsie rolls...
AUSTIN RESTAURANT WEEK:
we went to happy hour and artist's reception at Jeffrey's. our friend caroline wright is showing there. it was also the first night of austin restaurant week (similar to yelp drinks week, but fine dining oriented) so we stayed for dinner (jeffrey's austin restaurant menu link here).
crispy oysters were fantastic! kat enjoyed her quail leg confit. everything was fantastic.
I don't like sweet desserts after dinner, maybe after lunch is OK, but not before bed time. this foie gras torchon with pickled pear puree and vanilla salt was an excellent savory option for me. kat enjoyed the passionfruit & white chocolate semifreddo with warm hazelnut torte & creme anglaise.
quick tip: casa chapala has negro modello on tap! used a groupon for lunch there. kat also liked their menudo and the nopales salad.
HP made an amazing strawberry pie, not too sweet! topped it with freshly whipped cream. doesn't get any better than that.
and since kat and I have been dining out more than usual, I'm passing the torch on the salad dressing duty. we make fresh dressing every meal, daughter is learning vinaigrette.
picked up some beads from nomadic notions, daughter made herself a new necklace.
don't mess with the baby...