Thursday, October 15, 2009

Surprising Septuagenarians in the South West (or "Eating Like An Asshole Week: Day 4")

Okay, lemme just tell you, if you're interested in breakfast and you're in the Austin area, you need to head up to the Original Pancake House in North Austin. My sister had told us tales of the incredible things to be found there. So we made the 20 minute trek north and braved the additional 20 minute wait time for an 11 a.m. table, by which time we were starved. However, the meal was WELL worth the wait. Original Pancake House is a wondrous, wondrous place because not only is their food fantastic but nearly every meal combination they offer comes with delicious buttermilk pancakes. And for a slight fee, you can have those pancakes exchanged for nearly any other kind of pancake on the menu. So, for instance, when I ordered my Meat Lover's Skillet, I had my buttermilk pancakes exchanged for bacon pancakes. That's right: Bacon. Pancakes. That means pancake batter mixed with chunks of bacon in it, then slapped lovingly into a skillet, fried up and served with syrup on the side. They were outEFFINGstanding!

After breakfast, the parents departed for a field trip to see some friends of theirs in the area, leaving us to our own devices. First on the agenda was to visit a comic shop we'd passed by on the way there, Capstone Comics. I'd not been to Capstone before, but it was quite an impressive place with a fine selection of books. Unfortunately, they didn't have the two collections of THE GOON I was looking for, but they did have plenty of FABLES, so I picked up the "War & Pieces" trade.

For "lunch" we hit another of our favorite places, Amy's Ice Cream, in down town Austin. Amy's is similar to Cold Stone Creamery, offering many flavors into which toppings can be mixed. I had Coffee and Heath ice cream with Oreos and Nutter Butters mixed in. It was not the only time we'd visit Amy's that day.

Our supper was at Umi Sushi Bar & Grill, a destination we'd planned after assuming the parents would be eating with their friends. My parents aren't known for their adventurous eating and in the past we've nearly had to nearly force them to try more exotic fare. (Which I always find ironic, since it was my dad who used to have to force my sister and I to try new things.) In fact, during our last visit to Austin, I'd started to feel guilty that we had insisted we would be eating Indian Food at the Clay Pit restaurant--that is, until my dad suggested we keep breakfast light one day and just eat at McDonalds instead of one of the many fantastic Austin-based breakfast establishments. However, sushi is something of a different creature, cuisine-wise. The wife and I love it, but the sister and parents hadn't really had anything beyond Chinese buffet sushi, and the real thing is not for everyone. Still, they said they were up for it, though once we were at the restaurant we learned that my step-mother's stomach actually wasn't feeling too good, unrelated to the sushi.

The sushi at Umi Austin, while pretty good stuff, did not arrive in the proportions I've come to expect from dining at other sushi restaurants. After polishing off our own double-roll orders within minutes, the wife and I wound up ordering an additional sampler plate to share with the table (i.e. my sister, as the parents were not going to stray from their chicken teriyaki).

As a refreshing palete-cleanser, we all headed back to Amy's, albeit a different location. I was even able to guess the movie quote on the blackboard ("Somebody blows their nose and you want to keep it?") and won a free topping. I love Amy's.

GASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL FOR DAY 4

Breakfast: Original Pancake House-- had a meatlovers skillet and bacon pancakes!

Lunch:
Amy's Ice Cream Heath & Coffee Ice Cream with Oreos and Nutter Butters

Dinner:
Umi Sushi Bar & Grill

Dessert:
Amy's Ice Cream (different location) Dirt Cake (chocolate cheese cake ice cream with Oreos) plus Nutter Butters.

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