Author: kandjaustineats

Over the past semester I have had the opportunity to run this blog and try new things in Austin with my boyfriend, Jake. Over the semester I have learned discipline, how to produce quality content that people want to read, and I have added many different skills to my resume. I have also learned how to network with people and get out of my comfort zone and try new things.

If I were to change anything about this website, I would add more pages for the blog to make it a more diverse site and I would also like to code it to change the way my Twitter and Instagram shows up on the site, and luckily for me, I learned how to do this previously this semester. I also want to explore more feature that word press has to offer and see what else I can add to my site. This project has also helped me come up with new ways to distinguish myself from other candidates when I graduate and I want to create a portfolio website for myself including the different projects from this semester to show.

Looking at the WordPress stats, my most popular week was when I posted about Cafe Azteca, the local San Marco coffee shop. Although the video did not have to do with my project, it brought in 14 views to my site. This was also my most popular post of the semester. I think the reason this post in particular had the most views is because I also promoted it on my Instagram story and I had a lot of my family members watch the video because I was so proud of it. I think the most surprising part about the stats is that more people didn’t view my site. I guess I was expecting this site to blow up and gain a lot of following but it shows that I need to promote more.

I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to participate in the project and for the different foods I was able to try while doing it. My favorite resturant that I have found in this experience was Titaya’s Thai cuisine and I recommend it for anyone who loves Thia and is visiting Austin, Texas. I am also grateful because it gave me a reason to go and eat yummy food with my very best friend. This is not a goodbye, but a see you later because I really hope to continue this blog in the future, but for now, thank you for the fun and delicious food.

The last Austin local restaurant was a sweet treat to Amy’s Ice creams. Created in 1984, Amy’s Ice Creams was an Austin original and then transformed, grew and branched out to different locations and cities in Texas.  Amy’s is unique to the different shops in Austin because of their amazing customer service and delicious made in house ice cream flavors. Amy’s has over 150 different flavors that they rotate and created throughout the year which includes their holiday flavors that Jake and I got to try.

When you order at Amy’s you have the option of just getting a scoop or two of one of their delicious flavors or you can add some toppings to spice it up. If you still don’t know what toppings you want with your ice cream, Amy’s makes combinations with fun names for you to try that change every time I go in. This ice cream trip, I got “The Grinch” which was a hot chocolate flavored ice cream, with peanut butter, nuts, caramel and chocolate fudge on top.

Jake did not know what he wanted to he got what is called a “mystery box” which is an option for the employees at Amy’s to come up with their own creation for you. Jake got a mixture of Mexican vanilla, one of the first flavors the shop created, and dark chocolate ice cream with Amy’s homemade toasted marshmallows, caramel sauce and a cookie topping. I enjoyed Jake’s ice cream a lot more and we ended up switching.

Amy’s ice cream is a fun family environment that can be enjoyed by anyone young or old. The retro decorations bring in crowds of all kinds and their friendly staff keeps people coming back for more. No matter rain, snow or shine, I will always make it a priority to visit my favorite ice cream shop, Amy’s ice creams.

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Mandola’s Italian market is located on 4700 W Guadalupe Street in Austin, Texas. Mandola’s is an authentic Italian market the promotes Italian culture and cuisine with lots of selections of delicious pastas and paninis, coffee and gelato. When you enter the restaurant, you order at the cashier and then they will give you a number and bring you bread and garlic olive oil. The restaurant is decorated with a bunch of paintings, fun music playing and lots of friendly faces of the workers.

Pictured above is the calamari appetizer Jake and I got. It had fried calamari rings, little tiny octopi and friend zucchini and it was fried to perfection. This is some of the best calamari I have ever had.

This is a picture of the spaghetti and meatballs I had. I wanted to keep it simple because all of the menu items were in Italian. The meatballs were a mixture of pork and beef with a homemade sauce and noodles. It was a little spicy but I loved it.

The manager came up to me and Jake and offered us a free small gelato since it was out first time and Mandola’s. I tried the almond, cinnamon and pistachio flavors and they were all delicious. Everything at Mandola’s was authentic and made with love and you could definitely taste it in the food. I love this project because it has opened my doors to some delicious Italian food and I have found my new favorite Italian restaurant.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have decided to cut out bread and gluten from my diet and start eating a Keto friendly diet. The Keto diet in simple terms cuts out unhealthy carbs from your diet so that your body can burn fats for energy. Keeping this in mind we stumbled upon a restaurant called Picnik. Picnik is located on 4801 Burnet Rd. in Austin, Texas and serves allergen- free food.  The founder, Naomi Seifter, was diagnosed with a chronic food-allergy-related illness when she was younger and came up with the idea of creating a restaurant with an allergen free diet so that those diagnosed with the same illnesses could also enjoy. Picnik started in 2013 as a food trailer and then created a restaurant in 2016 where people can enjoy their famous butter coffee and health friendly foods.

For starters, Jake and I started with fresh guacamole which had apples, kale, avocado, red onions, cilantro and was served with almond flour tortilla chips. For my meal, the server recommended the fish tacos, which was made with cassava flour tortillas, crispy black drum fish, an orange-sesame slaw, and was topped with cilantro, pickled onion, lime and chipotle aioli. Everything that we ate was truly delicious and it made me really happy that I was eating something that was not only delicious, but good for me.

My one regret that I have for this restaurant is that I did not try out their famous butter coffee.  Picnik’s coffee butter is a blend of coffee, grass-fed butter, and MCT oil that burns fat, reduces hunger and helps sustain your energy so you don’t have a coffee crash in the middle of the afternoon. In their kitchen, Picnik creates the perfect blend of this coffee with grass-fed butter, MCT oil, which can be extracted from coconuts, organic coffee, grass fed whey, and organic maple syrup to make a sweet and smooth blend that will boost your energy and is good for you. I was not in a coffee mood when I went for lunch, but fortunately, Picnik gives you the opportunity to purchase their coffee and coffee butter creamer so you can try it for yourself at home through their website and they have branched out to local grocery stores in the Austin area.

Pacha opened its doors on March 9, 2000. Julie, one of the owners, has spent a year living and working in Bolivia to understand the cuisine and culture and her goal was to bring back some of the beautiful handicrafts from the Andean countries and to offer some authentic and delicious South American foods. The interior design of Pacha resembles some of the religious and cultural decorations of Bolivia, Brazil and Peru. Pacha started out as a shop to sell the artifacts brought back from South American but a year later, the delicious cuisine was outselling the artifacts and Pacha opened its door to becoming a cafe. Pacha’s mission is to deliver delicious and organic food with the South American flare. Pacha sells breakfast and lunch, along with hand made pies and tamales and also serves as a full coffee shop and bar, a great place for breakfast.

For breakfast I got a corn beef hash with scrambled eggs and bottomless coffee. The hash included potatoes, bell peppers, mushrooms, spinach, onions and of course, corn beef. Everything Pacha serves is organic and local and they tell you where their foods are sources from, which I enjoy. Everything tasted super fresh and the coffee was outstanding.

For “dessert” Jake and I split a coconut pancake. It was flavored with actual coconut milk and there were huge coconut flakes in the batter.

Pacha is very popular among the locals of Austin so if you want to get there before the crowd, I recommend getting there before 9 a.m. We got breakfast at around 11 and we had to wait an hour for our food, but if was absolutely worth the wait and there were card and board games to play while we waited so it did not bother us. Pacha is a great Sunday morning breakfast nook, or any day of the week honestly, to sit down with a cup of coffee and indulge in a coconut pancake!

Our next stop is Titaya’s Thai Cuisine which is a delicious Thai restaurant located on 5501 North Lamar Blvd in Austin, Texas. Jake and I have always been huge fans of Thai food. There is a hole in the wall restaurant in Mount Pleasant, Texas, up near Dallas where Jake is from, that has some of the best Thai food I’ve ever had so we took on the challenge of finding the best Thai food in Austin. Titaya’s Thai Cuisine has delicious and traditional Thai food at an affordable cost which is great for some broke college students. Titaya’s also has a full bar with traditional Thai drinks and also a full list of wine and beers and a great waiting staff that will help you find what you are looking for when you’re trying to dive head first into the Thai cuisine.

For our first pick pictured above is a mushroom appetizer called “He’d Ping” and it is a delicious breaded mushroom with sweet chili plum sauce and they are super addicting. It has a little kick but the sweetness of the plum is a perfect combination for it to be pleasant and not overbearingly spicy.

Next we tried a bowl of “Tom-Kha” which is a coconut milk broth with cooked chicken, ginger, mushrooms and other spices. I could eat about seven bowls of this because it is some of my favorite Thai food but it was even better at Titaya’s. You can eat the soup by itself or paired with a bowl of rice.

For the main course I had “Pad Thai” which is  rice noodles, egg, radish, bean sprouts, green onions, and sweet tamarind sauce and  topped with chopped peanuts. I was anxious to try this because it is really hard to find a good pad thai. Jake and I have tried at least four different restaurants to try to find a good pad thai and I think we finally found one.

Since the first time we have visited Titaya’s we have been back twice and I have ordered the same thing every time. I love how delicious this restaurant is and how fairly priced it is. I would recommend this restaurant to anyone who is looking for some authentic Thai food but are also on a budget, and I will definitely be visiting again!

Our first stop on our Austin food journey is a little restaurant called Bouldin Creek Cafe, located on 1900 South 1st St. in Austin, Texas. Bouldin Creek is known for their large variety of drip coffee, mixed drinks, a full bar and tea- 25 different selections of teas to be exact. It also has a variety of artwork from upcoming artists and there is artwork covering every inch of the walls on the inside of the restaurant. When Jake and I arrived, we shortly realized that this restaurant was strictly vegetarian and vegan- two things that of which Jake and I are not. We decided to get a cup of coffee and give this place a try, and we were not disappointed.

We started off with something safe and familiar and we ordered hummus with whole wheat tortillas and cucumbers. Drizzled in the middle was some extra virgin olive oil and paprika. To say this is some of the best hummus I’ve ever had might sound a bit over dramatic, but trust me, this stuff was stinking good.

After eating the tasty hummus, I was excited to try my meal, sweet potato and black bean tamales with re-fried beans and smashed avocado. The combination was weird, really weird, but also, really good. It was a little sweet, which I was not expecting since I am so used to savory tamales, but it also had a meaty flavor from the black beans. It was different, but really good and super filling.

This restaurant has taught me a handful of things. First, read the description of the restaurant before you go, but on the other hand, I’m glad we didn’t check the description because nine times out of ten we probably would not have given this gem a chance if we realized from the beginning that it was a vegetarian restaurant. Another lesson I learned is that it is important to give things a try, even if it scares you. I’m going to be honest, I wanted to run out of the restaurant as soon as I figured out that it was vegetarian. Trying new things is super important to me and I’m glad I didn’t let the thought of not eating bacon and eggs scare me away from such a cool restaurant.

Greetings fellow lovebirds and foodies! My name is Kaycee Wiedman and I am a Junior at Texas State University. I am studying Public Relations and Mass Communications, minoring in Business Administration and after college, I plan to attend Law School (fingers crossed). My boyfriend’s name is Jake Lundy and he is currently studying Economics and Finance at the University of Texas in Austin. Jake and I met on the beach of Galveston, Texas when we were about ten years old and have remained family friends ever since and have been dating each other for a little over the past two years. Something we both hold close to our hearts is the love of trying new and unique restaurants and food and VOILA this blog was born.

Have you ever heard the phrase “Keep Austin Weird”? There are many factors that attribute to the uniqueness of Austin, but the main point of this blog is to bring to light the restaurants and eateries that makes Austin, Texas so different than any other place in the state of Texas. Over the course of the semester, I will be taking you on a food journey and we will discover some delicious restaurants, diners, and food trucks that Austin has to offer. My goal of this blog is to bring to light the eateries in the Austin area that are wacky, fun, unique and may not be very well known to the general population of Texas. Another goal for this website is to get outside of my comfort zone and experience some awesome food with my best friend.

If you are a foodie in the making and want to discover the unique cuisines Austin has to offer, then this blog is for you. Stay tuned and subscribe to follow along while I take on Austin, Texas with my handsome friend Jake. Follow me on social media for updates and HAPPY EATING!