Texas sized meals

It's been nearly a month since our weeklong trip to Texas, but I wanted to mention some of the restaurants we visited there.

We watched the 49ers lose to the Packers at Pluckers, an Austin-area chain that pretty much just serves wings. I particularly enjoyed the Jamaican jerk and Spicy BBQ flavors. Their onion rings were yummy, too.

The next day we ate lunch at Hoover's, where they served us cheap and generous portions of chicken-fried chicken (good!) and steak (so-so).

Then, we had dinner at El Chile Cafe, where they served their chips with a delicious mole sauce. The margaritas were also excellent.

As if that wasn't enough, on our last day in Austin, we went to Salt Lick, a BBQ place with nice juicy beef ribs.

Sadly, we did not have enough time to check out the Alamo Drafthouse. Apparently it's a combination movie theatre and restaurant which is quite popular. I've seen the concept in Taipei with fast food (beef noodle soup, etc.) but never in the US before. Next time!

Our experience in San Antonio was a bit different; we had dinner at Il Sogno Osteria, which is a high-end Italian place. By Bay Area standards it was still quite inexpensive, and they had a fun antipasti sampler option which we enjoyed very much. The white bean & garlic mousse, roasted red peppers w/ anchovy sauce, and potato & octopus salad were especially memorable.