Last night, I pushed myself past my neurotically nervous fear of social gatherings and went to an event hosted by Eat, Live, Run‘s Jenna. If you don’t read her blog, you should. She’s witty, smart, and passionate about food. You can learn a lot of culinary masterpieces and drool over some amazing food on her blog. Unfortunately, with my mandatory dietary restrictions, I can’t make most of what she posts. That doesn’t mean I can’t read it and get that warm nostalgic feeling about when I could eat it. Anyway, back to last night. Her Austin debut place of choice was Lustre Pearl, a gutted old house on Rainey St converted into a bar, complete with hula hoops, picnic tables, and a taco truck that sets up next to the back yard.
I’m glad I went and I’m hoping I made some new friends while there. Jenna and her boyfriend were gracious hosts and everyone got to take home these adorable little boxes –
that held these delicious, wonderful cookies that I had to try regardless of silly mandatory dietary restrictions.
I did share them with my sweet hubby. He deserved a cookie after waiting so long for me to get home for dinner. Speaking of dinner, I failed miserably by splurging on the delectable shrimp version of this Diablo Pasta (red pepper and spinach linguine with a cream sauce and cojita cheese, topped with either chicken or shrimp) from Z’Tejas while my hubby had the same but with chicken.
We also got our favorite appetizer to share – the shrimp tostada bites – cilantro lime grilled shrimp perched atop guacamole and chipotle puree spread on mini tostada bites…Mmmmm…heaven. Thank goodness for their email coupons! If you haven’t joined their email list, it’s well worth it!
I’ve discovered that post-abdominal surgery means I really will never be able to eat dairy every day. It is forever my nemesis. So the Diablo pasta was my last hoo-rah with dairy for a while, until I learn to eat it in moderation (moderation being about once per week rather than once per day).
Fast forward to this morning – I skipped my daily 2-mile jog, ate my standard almond butter sprinkled with flax meal on whole wheat breakfast sandwich, with banana for the mid-morning snack. If you ever wondered – that is my daily 5:00 am – 10:00 am ritual. It doesn’t change often.
But lunch! Fabulous lunch! It was oh so wonderful! Cool Mint Cafe take-out. Don’t be fooled by their non-flashy website. This place is awesome. It’s the cutest darn Victorian house I’ve ever seen. I want to live in one just like it – it screams comfort, cozy book-reading-yoga-posing-life-calming lifestyle to me. Once I can get past my obsession with the house, I can focus on my obsession with the food – local, organic, creative, divine nourishment for body and soul. Today, I tried something new and fell head over heels in love.
Let me introduce you to the Thai Style Wild Salmon Burger on wheat with spring onion and Thai barbecue sauce, accompanied by Spinach Pear salad sprinkled with walnuts and gorgonzola, dressed with the most amazing vanilla pear vinaigrette. Love at first bite.
My co-workers took my hubby, my dad, and myself out to eat at Cool Mint Cafe for mine and hubby’s engagement/wedding luncheon a few years back (that long ago, really?), so this place holds a special place in my heart. Add that to my working relationship with the owners who are the most wonderful to work with, and this place is top notch. I recommend it to all visitors to San Marcos looking for a slower pace and fabulous food.
No need for a big dinner after such an awesome lunch, so I had a bowl of cereal sprinkled with flax meal and called it a day.
Love the blog! Can’t wait to read more!
Thanks! Have a great Labor Day weekend!
Hi! So glad you stopped by my site, and now that I have found yours. 🙂 So funny because Cool Mint Cafe is on my “must try” list, and now I am even more eager to do so!
Perhaps a blogger meet-up in the future?
It is a must try! I love Cool Mint. I’m always up for meeting up there. I work in SM, so I rarely go back on the weekends, but sometimes I have events (I’m an event coordinator) on Saturdays, so maybe we can do a lunch before one of my Saturday events.