Flavors of the Month: September 2018

Austin restaurants and dishes are featured in my monthly Flavors of the Month posts. Check out this post for recommendations!

From celebrating three birthdays to eating lots of noodles, this was a fun month for food!

Dining experiences are very subjective. I want to remind you that no matter what restaurant review or awards list you read, remember that we all have different taste buds, preferences (taste and cost), standards, and moods that affect an opinion. When I’m trying to decide where to eat or what to order, I consider where the recommendation is coming from, how many people agree or disagree, and how my preferences compare to it all. I usually order what I want to eat instead of what will look pretty in a photo. I usually don’t adhere to a meal budget while others might be cost-conscious. Remember to take reviews with a grain of salt and ultimately, follow your heart…and taste buds!

Eats in Fort Worth
We started out September in Fort Worth, so go over to this post to get all the recommendations!

Ramen at Daruma Ramen
It’s always ramen season and you always insta the ramen. Though I’ve tried the ramen at Kome, I wanted to try the ramen at their smaller and ramen-focused restaurant Daruma. I’ve heard great things but on this first visit, I wished it was as good as I had it at Kome! They specialize in chicken broth, and I had the Shio Ramen, the classic dish with chicken chashu.

Sunday Dim Sum at Lin Asian Bar + Dim Sum
Wu Chow’s chef opened her own restaurant Lin Asian, so my friend Janna and I came to try their dim sum for the first time. Maybe the ingredients are of a higher quality but I found myself preferring other dim sum places. We tried a bunch of things and the har kow (shrimp dumplings) were my favorite and I would definitely come back for a x3 order of these! The restaurant is small, so if you’re coming for Sunday dim sum, be sure to arrive before they open at 11 am!

Dinner at Balkan Café
Boyfriend and I have been curious about this restaurant on Lamar so we gave it a try for dinner. They serve Serbian food and the beef stew was good! The meat plate and dessert crepes were good but I’m not sure I’d go back for them. However, there is a cake I was eyeing.

Dinner at Swift’s Attic
To celebrate my friend David’s birthday, we did dinner at Swift’s Attic. I had this okonomiyaki (a Japanese savory pancake made of cabbage) all to myself and it was really good! It was a special of the night so I’m not sure how long it will be on the menu.

Cocktail Punch Bowl at Small Victory
Get a group of friends together and get the Philadelphia Fish House Bowl at this bar! It’ll come in a big bowl with a mesmerizing block of ice and it’ll have enough for everyone (around 8-10 people) to have at least two cups. For $60 a bowl, that’s a great deal! Plus if you’re a cheese and charcuterie board aficionado, this is the place to visit!

Make-Your-Own-Bowl Lunch at Chi’lantro BBQ
It’s been a while since I’ve been to Chi’lantro, but I was thrilled about the lunch I had here this month. I usually get their kimchi fries, but this time, I got glass noodles with a bunch of veggies and beef. Lots of flavors but next time I’ll probably leave off the spicy mayo sauce.

Late Night Snack at Burro Cheese Kitchen
This grilled cheese sandwich has brisket in it. Do you need to know more?

Brunch at Irene’s
To celebrate my friend Ashley’s birthday, we had brunch at Irene’s. I am glad I finally tried this restaurant because it’s true that their strawberry cake with cream cheese icing is delicious! I also enjoyed their massive biscuit sandwich.

Oodles of Noodles Cookoff Event
The Austin Food Blogger Alliance noodle cookoff happened! There were so many great noodle dishes that I’m glad I wasn’t one of the judges. (Did you see my noodle post last month?)

Dinner at Tomo
It’s been too long since I’ve been back to one of my favorite restaurants – Tomo! I’ve written about their sushi magic before. Honestly, we get very similar dishes each time we go, varying by the type of fish sometimes. We did try this new dish – tuna in a jalapeno avocado sauce.

Dinner at Brama
For my cookbook challenge this year, I had to make pelmeni. This Russian dumpling took a long time to make and while it was somewhat edible, I wouldn’t say it was something I wanted to make again. Thankfully, a new Eastern European restaurant opened in Austin and now I can get 15 pelmeni for $10 without spending hours trying to make decent dough!

We ended up ordering fried pierogis with mushroom, which were so good, and herring and potatoes, which was very fishy and while very traditional, not something my taste buds loved. Boyfriend got the beef stroganoff with spatzle, which I loved, and I tried the grilled veal tongue, which ended up being big medallions of tongue on a plate of raw greens and I was not a fan. If you want a safer choice, schnitzel, similar to a chicken fried steak in my opinion, was a popular dish around us and smelled wonderful. There were many other dishes I wanted to try like borsch and golubtsi, so I can’t wait to go back to Brama for another try!