The Chronicle’s Brandon Watson visits Eat Side King Thai Kun, and wonders why the Rock Rose brick and mortar is so empty. He vows that he’d be there three times a week if he lived closer to the Domain. He argues that chef Thai Changthong has mastered both texture and flavor:
The papaya salad ($9) is one of the spiciest things on the menu (we wouldn't finish it in one sitting, however much we wanted to), but neither the pungency of fish sauce, the clarity of lime, nor the fruit's natural sugars were dulled. Chinese broccoli ($12) was a slower burn, allowing us to go deep into the fathoms of the oyster sauce. The pork rib soup ($13) was luminous.
Chagrined by the seeming lack of crowds in the restaurant, Watson throws down the gauntlet:
Changthong is undeniably one of our city's ablest chefs. If we can't support his restaurant, well, we simply don't deserve to have the best.
The Statesman’s Matthew Odam files a tour of Austin’s tacos in the interest of taco lovers everywhere. Among the 11 taco joints he loves, Odam calls out the fish taco at the sassily-named La Fantabulous:
The thick fish, liberally salted, falls apart in pink slabs at the touch of a fork. And it’s the size of a small entree. The type of fish, buried in a spicy slaw mixture shimmering with a vinaigrette alive with jalapeno, rotates. Sometimes salmon, sometimes mahi mahi. Never tilapia.
He also likes the huevos a la Mexicana from Tacos Michoacan:
A simple twirl of scrambled eggs with bits of jalapeno, tomato and green pepper, the taco tastes like breakfast made by your lovely house guest who just ran out to the market for a few things. But your house guest doesn’t know how to make slick, bubbled corn tortillas (the flour here are the bagged variety) and four different excellent salsas, from a ruddy chile de arbol and guajillo blend to the burnt orange sting of habanero
Odam promises that this is just the first in a series of taco-centric reports, so hold on to your tortillas.
THE BLOGS — A Taste of Koko declares Vox Table the best brunch in Austin, Anita at Fearless Captivations recommends the sushi at Tomodachi, and Fed Man Walking notches more burgers at Billie Jean’s and Independence Fine Foods.