Maiko Happy Hour

We recently went to Maiko's happy hour to celebrate Jamie's birthday, a happy and fun affair indeed!

This Party of 7 Speaks 6 Languages! (Birthday Girl 2nd on the Left)

However, I was disappointed to find that Maiko's food has gone from Kobe Beef Sliders to Plain ol' Beef and Soft Shell Crab Sliders to just Plain Ol' Beef and Pulled Pork Sliders. In other words, the quality of the ingredients has visibly slipped with each visit! (visit 1, Kobe Sliders from visit 1, visit 2) Perhaps it's the sad state of the economy.

The highlight turned out to be the Lychee-Berry Mojito! I think my requisite drinking experiences at banquets in China has helped me become more tolerant of alcohol. I can now drink a little more than half a glass if it tastes good.

Lychee-Berry Mojito

Edamame with Sea Salt; Crispy Vegetable Spring Rolls with Sweet Thai Chili Sauce

Rock & Roll, Salmon Sushi, Buddha Roll, Unagi Avocado Roll; Tempura Calamari and Onion Rings with Sambal Miso Sauce

Chicken Gyozas; Pulled Pork Sliders

Crispy Tofu

Coconut Cheesecake for Jamie

Malaga Tapas & Bar: Farewell Happy Hour

Sara, my fellow former art historian good friend, is now back in Austin for grad school to my delight, but I will be gone for the Fall semester so we planned to make the most of our reunion at Malaga.

The Malaga happy hour special consisting of a happy hour beverage and a happy hour tapas is $8. This is a pretty good deal considering how filling my order of meatballs was not to mention the delicious amuse bouche of fried quail in a creamy sauce with dusted with smoked paprika. Who knew happy hour can come with an amuse bouche!

Amuse Bouche of fried quail

My issue with the happy hour menu is that there are only a few tapas to choose from, and few of which really stood out. The more tantalizing items are in the normal dinner menu. After some struggle, I settled with the happy hour special by choosing the Albondigas en Tomate (meatballs in tomato sauce) and the watermelon martini instead of ordering from the dinner menu because I need to save money.

Again, I'll refrain from commenting on alcholic beverages as I still feel like it's torture gulping the stuff down. The watermelon martini was mild and sugary enough for me to reach the halfway point, which says alot.

Watermelon Martini

Now the meatballs, which I will happily opine, made me a bit queasy. As I bit down, the meat became mush in my mouth. There's a difference between tenderness and mushyness. Tender meatballs can still give a slight springboard bounce as your teeth puncture through the exterior and the meat's juices would blend with the ground meat as you chew with gentle ease. These meatballs felt like they were meant for people with dentures. No need for teeth, just use your tongue and mush it to the roof of your mouth. Blech. Mashed potatoes, yes; meat, no.

Albondigas en Salsa de Tomate-beef and pork meatballs in a cumin-coriander spiced tomato sauce with three month old Iberico cheese and chopped parsley

Fickle Foodie ordered the delicious gambas and the Tortilla Catalana, and Sara ordered the tasty pork. Malaga might've strategically placed the less impressive tapas in the happy hour specials and left the delectable ones for the regular menu. Tricky tricky.

Gambas al Ajillo-shrimp sautéed in garlic and olive oil with fried plantain chips; Pincho Moruno-pork marinated in olive oil infused with Moorish spices, cumin, red pepper, garlic, parsley and fresh lemon juice

Top to Bottom: Shrimp, Meatballs, and Pork

Tortilla Catalana-potatoes baked with onions, eggs, and piquillo peppers, and served with garlic aioli and Romesco Sauce with shredded Iberico cheese

A pretty cool plus about Malaga on Wednesday nights is the free Flamenco performance 8-10PM.

The Spirit of Flamenco in Malaga

Maiko Happy Hour...seems quite a bit different than our last vist

Maiko's happy hour menu seems a bit different (in fact, all of its menus have undergone some change) than our visit after our Fall mid-terms in 2008. For one thing, the Kobe Sliders are now Maiko Sliders, and they were noticeably less delectable than the Kobe. The beef patty was not as moist this time around, and although there's the added flavor enhancement of the spicy aioli, the Maiko Sliders did not win my heart over like its predecessor once did.

Maiko Sliders-avocado, white miso slaw, white cheddar, yam fries

What lifted my spirits up were the Spider Buns! The soft shell crab was buttery and the smoked tomato remoulade added some excitement to the simple ingredients.

Spider Buns-crispy soft shell crab, smoked tomato remoulade, avocado, lettuce

Although this is a sushi lounge, I never actually had sushi here! I decided to change that status and ordered the King Roll. It was as yummy as pretty much any maki, but it didn't wow me. I might as well have ordered the California Roll and gotten the same reaction at a much lower price.

King Roll-king crab, smoked salmon, green apple, and green onions

I wanted to order the green tea milkshake as my drink, but the waitress said that it was more a dessert than a HH beverage. Eh. I could've had this as an accompaniment to my sliders and it would've worked nicely. I think she was trying to get me to order an alcoholic beverage, but unbeknownst to her, I'm the anti-alcohol.

Green Tea Milkshake; Me mistakenly slurping air instead of the shake with my ridiculously short straw

Non-Sushi Treats at Maiko Sushi Lounge

After our mid-terms during the Fall semester, a few of us went to Maiko specifically for the Kobe Sliders. Along with the sliders we sampled the Sake White Cheddar Mac and Cheese and Calamari, and I washed all my stress away with Champagne with Strawberries. I loved every dish, but my grad student budget bars me from visiting here often. In fact, I've only been there that one time! I'll find some excuse to wind up there for happy hour again one day.

Sake White Cheddar Mac and Cheese with with crispy cabbage, scallions, and black sesame; Calamari with Sambal cooked Miso

Champagne with Strawberries

Trio Happy Hour

Trio Happy Hour with Fickle Foodie

Everytime Fickle Foodie and I make plans to visit Trio for its half-price happy hour treats, they always get thwarted by something unforeseen. We finally made it to celebrate my Lunar calendar birthday, which always happens on Duan Wu Jie (Dragon Boat Festival), the anniversary date of the suicide of a Chu kingdom official and poet, Qu Yuan. Qu Yuan opposed the Chu alliance with the rising Qin kingdom, and committed suicide when Qin turned against and conquered the Chu kingdom.

So what does this mean for Fickle Foodie and Food Dilettante? Time for us to visit Trio!

Happy Hour Menu (M-F 5PM-8PM half price)

In a perfect world, I would've ordered everything on the menu, but alas the purchasing power of a graduate student and a young career woman does not enable us to order as we please. We ordered happy hour dishes to fill up our bellies for dinner rather than treat them as a light happy hour hors d'oeuvres. We narrowed our choices down to the Smoked Shrimp Croquettes, Crispy Pork Belly, Lamb Sliders, Baked Gulf Oysters, and Crab Fondue. Then, because it's my Lunar birthday, we ordered desserts from the non-happy hour menu.

The Smoked Shrimp Croquettes were the night's stand out dish. When I popped the first one in my mouth and before I started chewing, a puff of the smoked shrimp aroma exuded from the pores of the croquette. I loved it before even biting into it.

Smoked Shrimp Croquettes

My next favorite was the Crispy Pork Belly. For some reason, the pork bellies I've had at every restaurant all have an Asian pallate of flavors, including this one. I found these on the salty side, but pork bellies tend to be served on the saltier side of the spectrum. The most famous and tastiest pork belly is Dongpo Rou (東坡肉), braised pork belly. Su Dongpo 蘇東坡 aka Su Shi 蘇軾 was a scholar-official and Renaissance man (Renaissance man is an ill-fitting term because Dongpo came way before the Italian Renaissance...in China, literatus is the more appropriate term for learned men who paint, write poetry, calligraphy, historical essays, grand political strategies for the emperor, etc.) from the Song dynasty (960–1279). During one of his numerous exiles, Su Dongpo created recipes to deal with the limited edible resources available. His most famous recipe was for rotted pork meat, now made with FDA approved pork belly. Su Dongpo is fascinating, no? Back to Trio's pork belly. It tasted like a Japanese-Vietnamese take on pork belly with the pickled radishes and carrots. It felt like I was eating an extra salty baguette-less banh mi!

Crispy Pork Belly

The lamb sliders had a strong taste assisted by the generoud dollop of tzatziki. I would have liked it more if the oil from the lamb or butter on the bread and the tzatziki not have soaked through the bun. Perhaps if Trio served the tzatziki separately, they can avoid limp buns.

Lamb Sliders

I've managed to avoid consuming oysters for 25 years. On my 26th, I tried it for the first time with Trio's shrimp, bacon and shoestring potato topped gulf oysters. In my mind, I always thought oysters taste gross because of its slippery texture and weird innards. I'm glad I started with cooked oysters dressed in all sorts of goodies instead of raw with only horseradish and cocktail sauce. It's not bad...but it'll take a lot more oysters to ease them into my food consumption repertoire.

Baked Gulf Oysters

The crab fondue was a great disappointment. The toasts were so hard, I could barely bite down into them. The fondue lacked a kick. It was bland and boring. I appreciated the plentiful lumps of crab meat, but there's not enough to save this dish.

Crab Fondue

I knew I had to have the Blackberry Lemon Napoleon when I saw Boot's in the Oven's photo on flickr. I haven't had macarons since Paris 2006-2007. It's been 2 years. I lie. I had Fickle Foodie's delectable rose-lychee-raspberry macarons early 2008...but only a couple. I feel so deprived; it's near impossible to find macarons in Austin. Central Market sells teensy weensy ones for $1+ each. Yikes. No way would I shed that kind of money on normal chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry macarons. But a macaron Napoleon????? My prayers are answered! I gobbled up everything on the plate, and saved the little bitty blackberry macaron for my last bite. Poof! Light as air, and gone. The ephemeral quality of macarons makes my thirst for them ever more insatiable. I curse the day I laid eyes on them!

Fickle Foodie had the Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch, which she thoroughly enjoyed, but I will never stray from that Napoleon.

Blackberry Lemon Napoleon-sable breton, blackberry mousse, lemon vanilla cream, lemon frozen yogurt; Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch-peanut butter mousse, milk chocolate cremeux, grape fluid gel, milk shooter