I spent my Labor Day weekend visiting my parents in Denton. There were a couple highlights that deserve mentioning in this blog. First, I made the corn risotto that I promised I would post a few weeks ago. It turned out very well again, so I think the time has come for me to stop being lazy and give the recipe its proper write-up. Second, York Street in Dallas is a tremendous restaurant. I had asked my parents if they’d like to eat out in Dallas on Saturday night, and they said “sure” as long as I picked the place. We were going to try Stephan Pyles but couldn’t get a reservation. After doing a little research, I found out York Street is a small restaurant that focuses on fresh, seasonal ingredients.  I also remembered reading a blurb about it in GQ a few years back about it being an up-and-coming restaurant in Dallas.  The restaurant is tiny, with 42 seats crammed into a space that seemed like it once was a large one car garage.  I started with a prosciutto-cantaloupe salad that was a nice combination of salty and sweet.  For a main course, I had a pork loin on top of glazed endive.  My parents went with fish, which went better given the warm weather, but I couldn’t resist the pork.  I thought it was excellent, very juicy and moist, something that’s difficult to achieve at home using the ultra-lean cuts found in supermarkets these days.  For dessert, we ordered “The Pie,” which turned out to be one of the best blueberry pies I’ve ever had.  After we finished dessert, the chef, Sharon Hage, walked through the restaurant.  We chatted with her for a couple minutes and found out it’s possible to request a chef’s tasting of 5 or more courses.  My parents and I enjoyed the meal so much that we decided we’d be back over Christmas for the special tasting menu.

The other culinary adventure we had was roasting a whole fish.  I’d never done it myself, only had it before in a restaurant, most recently at Hungry Cat.  My dad and I stopped by Central Market, and I saw whole red snappers.  We thought it’d be a fun challenge to grill a whole fish, so we bought one weighing in at 3.5 pounds.  Grilling the fish couldn’t have been easier.  I looked up a recipe on Cook’s Illustrated for smaller whole fish, then made a minor adjustment for a larger one.  The original recipe called for grilling the fish over hot coals for 7 minutes on a side.  Since ours was larger, we grilled it for 7 minutes on each side, then let it cook off the coals with indirect heat for another 15 minutes.  We also made a few scores in the flesh and stuffed it with lemon and thyme wherever we could.  We served it with a wild rice pilaf and grilled corn.  Overall, I think it turned out to be one of the more memorable meals I’ve had at home.

I’ve been wanting to post something recently, but have been extremely busy with preparing for the Solid State Lighting and Display Center (SSLDC) research review that concluded today. When I have had free time, it was spent relaxing watching some TV or playing Xbox. I think the review went pretty well. We’ve been struggling to make a respectable device out of these nanopillars, but we finally made some progress that at least gave us a non-embarrassing IV curve (a plot of current vs. voltage for all you uncool people out there). Here’s a picture of the poster, with a link to a larger version on my Flickr page:

Now that the review is over, I’m planning on doing a little traveling. First, I’m leaving for Denver tomorrow to meet up with my parents and Howard. We’re doing the usual dinner on Saturday night at Morton’s. On Sunday morning, we’re driving up out to Vail to check out the development Howard has been working on. We’ll have a lesiurely brunch and walk around the village to get a feel for the village since none of us have been there before. Then it will be back to Denver Sunday night to watch the Broncos play the Chargers. I’ve been slowly becoming a Broncos fan over the years, but still love watching the Chargers thanks to LT. In other words, I really don’t know who I’m going to be cheering for.

I get back into Santa Barbara on Monday afternoon, only to turn around and fly to Texas on Tuesday. I’ll be in Denton from Tuesday night through Saturday afternoon. I have no plans as of yet, other that watching UT crush the worthless aggies and eating a lot of food. The following weekend I’m flying up to Minnesota with my parents for my birthday weekend and to see a couple of Christmas conerts. I’ll be back in Santa Barbara for a couple weeks before flying back home to Denton on December 20. Hopefully, the next long update will include some pictures and amusing stories.

I’m back from a weekend in Austin. Overall, I feel it was a pretty good weekend, although I didn’t get to do everything I wanted. On Friday, my parents picked me up at the airport and we checked into the Hyatt at Town Lake. We had some cocktails, and my dad and I smoked cigars looking at the Austin skyline. For dinner, we headed to Wink. I’ve been to Wink once before. It was over my graduation weekend, and the executive chef signed the night’s menu for me. Nothing as special as that, but I did have hamachi (yellowtail) tartare and hanger steak. For wine, we went with the Mettler petite sirah. That night, I hung out with Brooke and a couple of her friends.

Saturday was the game, and I’ll post some pictures of the stadium on Facebook and Flickr in a bit. It wasn’t much of a contest. The game felt over on the third play of the game when McCoy connected with Sweed for a long touchdown pass. I was sitting with my parents, and they were hoping to see UNT to put up a little bit of a fight. My dad even wore a green UNT polo, but it didn’t help. UT dominated in a 56-7 blowout. The afternoon was spent resting at the hotel and recovering from the heat. We went to dinner at the Driskill, and compared to other places in Austin, this is probably the best in town. I think it’s best described as a big city restaurant, something you’d more likely find in Dallas, Houston, or San Francisco. It’s a fixe prix menu. I had a heirloom tomato salad, mushroom soup with pork belly, and beef short ribs. My dad was in a generous mood and splurged on a bottle of Ojai syrah from the Whitehawk vineyard. From the syrahs I’ve tasted from Santa Barbara, and from what I’ve heard from local wine people, Ojai is among the best you can get. My plan for Saturday night was to meet up with all the fraternity guys, but I had some serious stomach problems that had bothered me from the night before. Having only gotten about 4 hours of sleep, baking in the heat, and being nauesous to the point of vomiting, I decided against going out. I really feel like I missed out since I rarely get to see those guys, but I guess I’ll have to wait to OU weekend.

Sunday was relaxed. I had a leisurely breakfast with the parents and did some shopping at Barton Creek. I got a Robert Graham shirt and a Hugo Boss shirt, both of which I’m looking forward to wearing out in Santa Barbara. We went to Louie’s 106 for dinner, a spot my mom and I had a memorable dinner at during an ice storm in the winter of 2003. This morning I went on a walk around Town Lake with my mom, and I realized how much I missed Austin. There were some many people around walking, jogging, or riding a bike. Plus, downtown was just a few blocks away with a number of nice restaurants and bars. Not to mention it’s impossible to be in the city without seeing some kind of Longhorn memorabilia.

I have an interesting week ahead of me. Alex and I are having dinner with Kate tomorrow. On Wednesday, we’re having some people over for wine tasting. Then, I’ll just be anticipating the mammoth showdown on Saturday.

My parents were in town this past weekend, and left early yesterday morning. They got in late thanks to a mechanical problem on their American flight. We ended up eating a late dinner at Epihphany. Epiphany is a nice restaurant with pretty good food and a great ambience. We always end up having a nice meal there, which they were very nice about letting us enjoy dinner even though we didn't get there until 10 pm. On Sunday we went wine tasting up around Solvang. This was the first time I really enjoyed wine tasting. I tried to pick out flavors of each wine, but I couldn't tell you the difference between blackberry and cherry aromas, nor do I have a chance in hell at picking up a flutter of Edam cheese. We started at Bridlewood, which features mostly syrahs. My favorite was the Dusty Trails syrah, for no other reason that it was kind of spicy and complex (That's about as sophisticated as I get when tasting wine). I also bought a wine tasting party kit.

Next up was Sunstone, another winery that specializes in reds, but this time in merlots. They had six wines available to taste, which was pretty nice. The most surprising one was the syrah rose', a pink wine. It's made from syrah grapes, but the skins are removed after about 14 hours so it doesn't pick up the red color. It's rather fruity, but wasn't sweet like the stereotype for most pink wines. I convinced my parents to join their wine club, so I got a few bottles of their cheaper label at a discount. Our last stop was Gainey, which specializes in merlot, but also makes pinot and syrah plus some whites. I've never been terribly impressed with them, but my parents love them and are wine club members. We did get to try their new label, Evans Ranch, and wow, I was impressed. It's from their new vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills, and it's going to be a premium pinot noir. It was probably my favorite wine I tasted that day. I tend to like a lot of wines from the Santa Rita hills, so if you're in a restaurant and want a pinot noir, something from the Santa Rita Hills is probably a safe bet.

For dinner, we went to the Wine Cask, which is my favorite Santa Barbara restaurant, and probably the most expensive, too. I had "fresh bacon" for an appetizer, which is braised or roasted pork belly. I highly recomend it. It's basically bacon turned into a steak without the crunchiness or saltiness. On Monday, I played tennis with my mom on Monday, then we played golf at Glen Annie. We only played through 12 holes because of dinner reservations. I shot a legitimate 51 on the front 9, which certainly isn't great, but I haven't played much over the past year. I'm determined to spend more time at the drvining range and playing on some of the municpal courses around here. That night we had another great dinner, this time at Elements. The highlight for me was ordering a Firetini, which was vodka infused with habanero and passion fruit puree. On Tuesday I worked in the morning, then had lunch with the parents before playing golf at Sandpiper.

I've played Sandpiper twice, and both times have been brutal. I stopped keeping score after 3 holes, it was just too depressing. If my tee shots were a little more consistent and accurate, I don't think it would have been that bad. I still have fun, but it was a little dissapointing after Glen Annie. We had dinner at Citronelle Tuesday night, and my parents left early on the 7 am nonstop flight on Wednesday morning. I had a great time with them, as always, and will see them again around the 4th of July when I go back to Denton.