Texas Cuban - Austin, TX

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I'll sheepishly admit that swinging by the Texas Cuban trailer on South Lamar was not my destination, but became my destination once I found that Trey's Cuisine, where I hoped to try their mint and sweet soy marinated lamb kabob with feta Greek sauce, had closed for the afternoon given the extreme heat.

Not so at Texas Cuban, where I'm not quite sure if it was the oppressive Castro regime or the sole insanity of the owner that put the nice young man inside the tin sweat lodge at the peak of this 107 degree day hovering above a searing hot griddle and press making hot sandwiches for the few nuts who dared venture outside.  That said, it's nice to know that weather can't shut down some people, and I'm glad to say that for his effort and the quality of the food, I'll be back, rain, shine or hell-like heat conditions.

I ordered the El Cubano, which is a half of their signature sandwich, the Texas Cuban, which feeds two easily.  As he finished up the one other sandwich he was working on, and started on mine, I asked him how hot it was in the trailer, to which he replied, "a little cooler than outside, but probably around 95 or 100".

Dedication.

The sandwich was well worth the ten minute wait in the shaded, but still cruel, heat, though next time I'll be sure to call ahead with my order.  Not that I've had a lot of them, but this Cuban is absolutely the best of it's kind that I've ever had.  Juicy grilled pork tenderloin sliced in quarter inch thick medallions, topped with ham, swiss, provolone, pickles and mustard, pressed between an incredible garlic Cuban flat bread which retained it's outer crust and crunch on the ten minute drive home, despite being wrapped tightly in foil and bagged with some smoking hot, and perfectly cooked plantain chips, which, despite being labeled as chips, were actually half inch thick plantains smashed and deep fried to a perfect crisp on the outside with a moist and sweet inside, finished off with kosher salt.

I mean, damn.  This is an incredible sandwich.  And despite the assortment of hot sauces available outside of the trailer, I brought it home and dipped it in my favorite hot sauce for just such sandwiches, Matouk's Calypso Sauce, which is perfect for a sandwich as good as this.

I urge you to try this if you haven't, if at the very least just to reward a highly dedicated team determined to brave the weather to introduce us to one of Cuba's finest exports.

And after that nice Cuban music, I'll swing you to the other side of this trailer...

Summary:

Atmosphere:  Africa-hot, food trailer, shaded picnic tables

Food:  Cuban sandwiches

Crowd:  gluttons for punishment on this day

Dog Friendly:  yes

What to Order for the First Timer:  El Cubano

Best Time to Go:  Lunch

Lumi Empanada & Dumpling Kitchen - Dallas, TX

Had a chance to break out the skin tight black shirt today, as I had a scheduled lunch at this trendy new place in Uptown.

Actually, I can't knock this place.  It's one of three places which have been developed on a stretch of McKinney that I always thought was a terrible waste.  Old houses between Hall and Lemmon, which for years have housed worthless retail ventures, have long been ripe for being turned into a series of restaurants to complement the Quarter, Primos, and those in West Village.  I'm extremely glad to see that it's been done, and am sorry that it has taken me this long to get over there.  With these in place, it's easy to make an evening of just this block.

Destination.  Lumi.

You're right.  I didn't take this picture, though I do take most of mine.  Dark = night.  Light = day.  Simple rule of thumb.

I had lunch there.

So remember this picture, and I'm going to ask you all to close your eyes.  I want you to listen to me.  I want you to listen to yourselves.  Go ahead.  Close your eyes, please.

This is a story about a little restaurant on a previously underdeveloped piece of land.  I want you to picture this little restaurant.

Suddenly, a car races up.  A six foot white guy jumps out and walks up to the porch.

He looks around.

No one is there.

But it's only 11:20.

He sits down on the porch.  He's given a menu.  He's given silverware.

Now comes the ice water.  It's cool.  It's refreshing.  It's everything that the guys in the street jackhammering are not.

His friend shows up.  She sits down.  They just can't handle the jackhammering.

So they stand.  They walk into the dining room.  They sit down.

They're given menus.  They order.

Can you see them?  Their stomachs pained with hunger?  The expressions on their faces yearning for the savory tastes of the dumplings they just ordered?

Can you see them?

I want you to picture those two people, sitting in that dining room.  Sitting.  Waiting.  Waiting for their dumplings.

Can you see them?






Now imagine it's light.





Thank you, Counselor.

Anyway sorry, this place has had a decent amount of fanfare when it opened which, in Dallas, always makes me a little skeptical that it will overpromise and underdeliver, becoming one of those places that is more see and be seen than eat and be ea...well, eat and be satisfied anyway.  I will say though, more of these places have surprised me to the positive in the last couple of years, so I need to quash those fears, because Dallas seems to be evolving to the good.

This place is exactly what it needs to be for the location.  Great porch, great little bar, spacious dining room, and food that isn't going to make you uncomfortably full as you start an evening of social drinking nearby.

The menu looks great, and after taking a look at their website, I understand it's supposed to be Vietnamese South American fusion.  Several good looking soups and salads, a couple of sandwiches, and a focus on homemade dumplings and empanadas.

I decided to try a couple of their dumplings, and my dining companion tried one of the ones I didn't.  With six to an order and nothing accompanying them, I figured two orders was the way to go, and think I was right.  I walked away satisfied, but not too full.  And I probably could have comfortably gone with one more order, or a salad or soup to start.

Classic Pork and Chive Dumplings, served with house sauce, and Chinese 5 Spice Duck and Leek Dumplings, served with spicy plum sauce.

Both excellent.

I'm not sure which was my favorite.  The duck had more aggressive flavors, the pork was mild, and both went perfectly with each of the sauces they were served with.  I recommend both.

The other one shown here was the Shrimp, Cilantro, and Jicama Dumplings, served with sweet and sour sauce.  I'm told it was great, but as much as it pains me to say it, I don't do shrimp.

As long as I'm in Dallas, I'll be back here.  It's a great spot for lunch but I think an even better spot to grab a drink, some food, and then head down the street to the Quarter for the evening.

Summary

Atmosphere:  old house converted to restaurant, bar to sit at, plenty of outdoor seating, good for a group, great for a date, great for a start to the night, good place to see, good place to be seen

Food:  dumplings and empanadas

Dog Friendly:  doubtful, despite outdoor seating, Dallas sucks

When to Go:  lunch, happy hour, dinner

Crowd:  typical Uptowners, hotchicks, businesslunchers, 20somethings, 30somethings, trendsters, Dallasites

What to Order for the First Timer:  Duck Dumplings, Pork Dumplings

Buenos Aires Cafe - Austin, TX

When you see a sandwich advertised as "The Best Sandwich in Austin" by The Onion, it's really hard to figure out just what youre going to get. Best Sandwich? Worst Sandwich? Best or worst bowl of soup? Or does the restaurant even exist? I decided to put it to the test and hopped over to Buenos Aires Cafe on east 6th to find out.

Restaurant? Check. And a pretty nice one at that in this up and coming area of town. Contemporary, new, and clean on the inside, this place blends new Austin with old, featuring colorful paintings from local artists on the wall with information aboutthe artists. The place is one spacious room with some large flatscreens (though not in positions to view from the bar, and given that they were turned off when I was there I don't know if you can catch a game or if they show anything youd want to watch or if's all soccer, sport fishing and Argentinian soaps), and a full bar with ample Argentinian wines lining the shelves. This seems like a great spot for a business lunch or a casual dinner before hitting the bars.

At 11am I was the only person in the place but I had to eat early to clear room for my dinner at Luby's with the Gerries tonight. Didn't even look at the menu just asked for The Onion's gamechanger.

Sandwich? Check. And a good one at that though I'm not sure it is THE best sandwich in town. It's a beef tenderloin sandwich on a French baguette. The steak is sliced to a thickness of about a quarter to half an inch before cooking and is then grilled to a perfect medium rare, more red than pink. Tender as hell, this thing has a great grilled flavor and tastes of high quality meat. It's topped with tomato, and I opted for no cheese though provolone is an available option, and then finished off with their own fresh chi Michigan (hmm, that's an interesting autocorrect for chimichurri, thank you iPhone). All in all a good sandwich, and though pricey at $12.99, it's filling and provides you with the best, and healthiest, piece of the cow.

What I was really impressed by though was the fries. Slightly larger than Wendy's but smaller than typical steak fries, these things were perfect on the outside, fluffy on the inside, and screamed with flavor leading me to believ these things are deep fried in te same oil as their beef Milanese, infusing it with incredible beef flavor, ala McDonalds of the mid-80s and prior. For straight up potatoes, not dependent on sauce, these very well may be the best in town, and are an understated must when ordering.

Summary

Atmosphere: new, modern, sit down restaurant, lock your car, good for groups, good for business lunch, good if you're alone

Food: south American

Dog Friendly: no

When to Go: lunch, dinner

Crowd: me

What to Order for the First Timer: tenderloin sandwich and fries

Portabla - Austin, TX

I like my sandwich shops down and dirty.  Generally.

Portabla is certainly not that, but puts out some great sandwiches.  I'm a big fan of having this in the neighborhood.

This place comes off as a somewhat froofroo (froofru, frufru, separated?) place, which has the look of (and I'm not sexist by any means I promise you that) a rather girly place which is a catering operation cranking out counter food.

See?  Salads in plastic.

BUT, I'll go there anytime, because they really know what they're doing as far as sandwiches go, which is all I've had, and I think the real secret is the bread.  It's fantastic.

I've had two sandwiches here, the Italian Panini, and the hot All-Natural Roast Beef Panini.  I know I generally avoid paninis around these parts, having indicated before my hatred for Atdoh (Any Tom, Dick or Harry) buying a Foreman and opening up a shop.  Truth is, the paninis that Tom, Dick and Harry make are most of the time nothing more than a sandwich you'd make, on regular sliced bread, heated and pressed, but Mr. Portabla does it right, and I'll vouch for his paninis any day.

Today's Roast Beef Panini was a very well proportioned mix of roast beef, roasted tomato, cheddar, pepperocinis and red onion on fresh ciabatta bread.  The bread came out with a perfect crunchy and the insides warm and covered with melted cheddar.  The flavors of the condiments worked very well, and their texture held despite the sandwich being cooked.

Yeah, look at that!

The Italian Sub I had previously was also great.  Same great bread, cooked perfectly, with incredible flavor coming from salami, ham, cappocolla, basil pesto, roasted peppers, roasted tomatoes, provolone, pepperocini and artichoke hearts.

This is a great spot to meet someone for lunch during the week, or to pick up a sandwich to go.  The carry doesn't diminish the quality of the sandwich in the least.

Summary

Atmosphere:  fancy deli, lots of two tops, quaint, good spot to meet for lunch or to pick up food to go, no bar

Food:  sandwiches, paninis and more

Dog Friendly:  yes, a few tables outside

When to Go:  lunch

Crowd:  girls, women, businessmen

What to Order for the First Timer:  Italian Panini

Ola - Miami Beach, FL

Had a request from a friend traveling in Miami for a spot to eat dinner.

Much like LeBron, I too took my talents to South Beach last year...albeit for a quick stopover on a way to a better place, and despite ESPN's urging, I opted not to have my decision to connect through Miami versus New York City televised in an hour long special.

So my recommendation for one night in Miami Beach is a place that I went to late last year, a Latin American restaurant named Ola.  So this place is a block up and over from the Delano in South Beach, putting it smack dab in the middle of Doucherville, USA...THE Capital of all douchebags.  However, the vibe here, while trendy, which you have to be in order to make it down there, is not overly so, and doesn't come off pretentious at all, and seemed to be filled with rather normal (keep in mind relativity here, this IS Miami after all) people, generally an older crowd but not gerries, just late 30s through mid 50s, upscale and reasonable.   Normal shirts for the most part, not the skin tight unch unch unch variety.  The place has a decent vibe too.  It's not huge, has a nice little bar to sit at, and isn't too noisy or quiet.  Perfect.

The place is also very well regarded for its Latin American cuisine and its seafood, particularly the ceviches.  My Lovely Wife, Mrs. Gordo and I decided to split a couple of these, and then an entree.

We did the Fire and Ice ceviche, which was cobia tossed with sour orange, thai chiles, cilantro, and fresh  jalapenos, over pear granita.  This one was really good, and had decent heat but I would have expected more from something with two types of chiles as this has.  It wasn't quite as good in our mind as the other one we had, the Wahoo ceviche, pictured below, but a large part of that might have been my disappointment that I could still feel my tongue when I expected this second ceviche to be putting out a fire...

Thinly sliced Wahoo with watermelon jalapeno juice, basil, cantaloupe, topped with a cucumber sorbet.  Yeah, it was refreshing, and I was happy to see not overly sweet.  The red onion and jalapeno in it did a nice job of offsetting the sweetness of the other ingredients.

The entree we got was also very good, but a departure from the freshness and lightness that these seafood dishes exhibited.  We did the Puerco Asado, or braised pork.  It was served in a black bean broth with fried yucca, and a lemon / cilantro mojo.  Really, really good, but if I had to do it again, I'd probably go with either a seafood or a beef dish, as we saw several of them and they looked incredible.

I'd recommend what we had, but given the reputation of this place and the quality of what we had and otherwise saw, I'd say just pick what looks best to you and go for it.  You're unlikely to be disappointed.

Wait a minute.  Can't forget about...DA BOMB:

Semi-sweet chocolate mousse with toasted hazelnuts covered in a caramel and chocolate sauce.  Come on, I don't have to tell you that was incredible.

Good cocktails and wine list here too.  We started with a pisco sour and a pomegranate mojito.  The pisco sour was great, but the pomegranate mojito was too sweet for both of us.  I took one for the team though and downed it quickly for MLWMG before we moved on to wine.  Thank you me.

Summary

Atmosphere:  trendy, but upscale and classy and about the food and not being seen, good for a date, good for a business dinner, good for a meal with friends

Food:  Latin American

When to Go:  dinner

Crowd:  dressy, 30s, 40s and 50s, without an overabundance of chest hair and diamond cutters

What to Get for the First Timer:  split a few of the ceviches and pick an entree that looks good