Q: How many tacos can I eat out of a truck in a weekend?  A: Not enough! 

I recently spent a long weekend in Austin, the live music capital of the world and home of everything eclectic.  One of my best friends, Leah, lives there with her husband Ryan and dog Sasha.  Leah & Ryan have a good pulse on the city's food scene so we sampled food trucks, counters, cafes, restaurants and a home-cooked meal at Chez Blanc. We were thrilled to be reunited with these two: 

Like the city itself, Austin's food scene is fantastically weird.  Austin eateries are abundant and seem to materialize wherever people can conveniently graze. Gourmet restaurant in the middle of a suburban street? Check.  Wine store on the side of the highway that serves delicious Indian food and unique craft beer? Check. Taco truck nestled in the parking lot of a strip mall? Everywhere.  Anything goes in this city.

We happily followed Leah & Ryan on a tasty tour around town,  frequenting the hipster-esque scene in East Austin. Here is a list of the places we sampled:

Tacos, Tamales, and Everything Mexican 
El Primo Taco Stand: I particularly fancied the breakfast tacos at El Primo food truck.  After tacos, stop at neighboring Once Over Coffee and enjoy a cappuccino on their peaceful deck out back. 
[El Primo Taco Stand & Once Over Coffee Shop]

La Condesa: This modern Mexican restaurant is located downtown and has a great happy hour, complete with margaritas and a wide selection of tequila. I really enjoyed their guacamole sampler and mexican style street corn. [La Condesa]

Tamale House East: This inexpensive Mexican restaurant in East Austin has a casual, welcoming courtyard. The mini doxie earned it bonus points! [Tamale House East]

Taco Deli & Changos: Try either for lunch. They  are a little more chain-like in appearance than the places mentioned above but the food is delicious.  [Taco Deli & Changos]

Evening Eats
Whip In - As mentioned above, this is the wine store with great Indian food and craft beer located on the side of a highway. Oh yeah, they have live music too, but I suppose that's not surprising being in Austin. [Whip In] 

Justine's: A lovely french restaurant with more outdoor space than indoor.  We ate classic French fare outdoors with a few of Leah & Ryan's friends and followed dinner with a bocce match in the side yard.  This restaurant would be a great spot for a date or a private party because the atmosphere is very romantic, in a shabby chic kind of way. They even have a tintype photo booth set up in a backyard shed. I'm pretty sure they used tintype on their website which is cool in theory, but in reality, the website might induce a seizure.  [Justine's Brasserie]

(Above) We wandered inside a random shed behind Justine's and encountered this spectacle of lights and mirrors. (Below) Deciding who won the post-dinner game of bocce ball.

East Side Show Room: Grab a craft cocktail or two at this little bohemian bar before dinner in East Austin. They are family-owned and boast walls covered in local art.  Thy too have live music. Worth a visit! [East Side Show Room]

Chez Blanc - One night, Leah and Ryan cooked for us at their home which turned out to be one of our favorite meals of the trip. They made scallops wrapped in prosciutto paired with a Sancerre and Pinot Noir from Oregon. The Pinot Noir was a perfect pairing for the scallops! We also sampled a Austrian Grüner Veltliner, which is now on my list of favorite white wines. 

Pickles + Beer + Wes Anderson = Perfect Rainy Day
Sunday afternoon brought a rainstorm which somewhat hindered our activities since everything is outdoors. Austin is home to the original Alamo Draft House which is the perfect destination for a rainy afternoon. Alamo theaters serve food and drinks throughout the movie and they have the BEST fried pickle spears. I discovered their fried pickles years ago, when I first visited, and have yet to find a place elsewhere in the world that can compare.  We rode out the rainstorm eating fried pickle spears and drinking beer while watching the new Wes Anderson movie, Grand Budapest Hotel. 

Sold Out: What We Missed
We missed a few gems, mainly because they were all closed by the time we arrived. Apparently, this is a common scenario in Austin because we passed by many a food truck/trailer with a "Sold Out" sign on the window. Supply & demand forecasting doesn't apply here. Nothing goes to waste, and the scarcity makes the food more desirable. Kind of brilliant!  Here were the places we missed:

Vera Cruz All Natural: Leah swears this is her favorite taco truck.  It must be good because it was already sold out when we arrived there for brunch! [Vera Cruz All Natural]

Franklin's: Featured on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, people wait in line 4-5 hours to just order BBQ here. Our friends tried it recently and arrived at 7:30am to wait in line. Doors opened at 11am and they finally ordered at 12:30. The place sold out shortly thereafter. I guess people enjoy going for the experience, arriving in big groups with lawn chairs to wait in line. It sounds a lot like a football tailgate, but with better food. [Franklin BBQ]

La Barbecue: This place must be amazing because it was completely sold out by lunchtime.[La Barbecue] 

There are giant meat smokers in the screened trailer above. It was too bad they were sold by the time we arrived.

Needless to say, we left Austin with full bellies. However we did a lot more during our visit which I will recount in the next couple of blog posts. Stay tuned, y'all! 

After a cruising through a polar vortex with my sister-in-law, Jen, we arrived to sunshine in Miami.  Chris flew down from Boston and met us at our hotel in Doral - Hyatt at the Blue - and we spent Friday by the pool.  That night we checked out Ocean Drive in South Beach which proved to be a massive tourist trap. While I enjoyed seeing the neon lights and art deco buildings, the strip was teaming with tourists drinking Beeritas (also known as Mexican Bulldogs).  Needless to say, it was a bit sloppy, not to mention way overpriced for food that looked barely edible. 

So we moved on, and found this nice little Peruvian restaurant two blocks in from the beach called Chalan on the Beach. The staff was super friendly, the food was tasty (especially the ceviche) and the portions were huge. 

The next day was a fantastic sunny day! We arrived at South Beach early and  spent the day people watching and swimming in the waves.  After a week of stormy weather this was just what we needed.

Later that night we went out in the Brickell neighborhood, which I much preferred to South Beach. We had a few drinks & apps at a restaurant/bar called Dolores But You Can Call Me Lolita.  Everyone was out that night - decked-out college kids, ladies night groups, NY snowbirds and older Cuban couples.  We had delicious apps and particularly enjoyed the Cuban quesadillas on the bar menu!

The next morning we dropped Jen off at the airport and then Chris and I set out to explore Little Havana. That day, the community was preparing for a parade down the main drag, Calle Ocho, so we walked around and stopped at a little restaurant for Cuban sandwiches and cafe con leche. It was interesting to see Little Havana one month after being in Havana, Cuba.  While there are some similarities - the weather, music playing in the streets, artwork everywhere - much of Little Havana is the antithesis of Havana, Cuba, at least from a political standpoint.  Little Havana's heroes are Havana, Cuba's enemies and vice versa. In Miami, you see paintings of Celia Cruz and memorials to those men who fought against the revolution.  In Cuba, the revolutionaries are celebrated national heroes and we never heard Celia's voice in the streets because she left Cuba and spoke publicly against the revolution. Little Havana was fun to see, because it was a festival day and we were interested in drawing comparisons to our experience in Cuba. However, you don't need to go to Little Havana to get a flavor of the Cuban culture in Miami.  It's prevalent all over the city! 

Later we drove through Coconut Grove and Coral Gables before heading to Key Biscayne to enjoy the beach.  While the water was very calm at Key Biscayne, both of us much preferred South Beach/ Miami Beach, simply because there is more to do there and the beach is much bigger.

All in all we both loved Miami and look forward to returning soon.  It makes a great little weekend getaway from Boston!

Apologies for the tardiness of this post, but I went on an impromptu jaunt last week that resulted in minimal internet access. But as they say, better late than never! 

As I've previously mentioned on this blog, Chris and I are lucky to call several places home. One of our homes, is Chris' parents' house in central Massachusetts and that is where the Barbier family gathered for Christmas this year.  We had a quintessential Christmas - family, snow, fireplace and lots of food! We spent our days talking, playing games, cooking, eating and watching movies (I finally got to see The Thornbirds mini series after reading the book while traveling in Australia).  We embraced the slower pace of home, savored every delicious bite of food, and laughed like we always do when we get together!

When the time came to leave Koh Samui (and Thailand for that matter), we were very sad to part ways with Thailand's lovely beaches, colorful reefs, tasty food, cheap massages, exceptional service and laid-back lifestyle. But alas, more adventures awaited us on the other side of the globe!

World's Nicest Airport
To make leaving Koh Samui even more difficult, its airport turned out to be the nicest one we've ever seen. And we've seen a lot of airports! Check out the outdoor Koh Samui airport terminal: 

Eva Air
After a quick flight to Bangkok we checked in for our flight to Los Angeles. We chose Eva Air for a few reasons:

1) Cool name, obviously
2) Reports of decent leg room 
3) Reasonable price & flight times
4) They have a plane painted in a Hello Kitty theme!

Neither of us are Hello Kitty fans but we liked the idea of getting the Hello Kitty themed plane, envisioning pink seats and kitty themed snacks.  When you travel as much as we do, these types of gimmicks actually work. One of us was a lot more excited than the other. Let's just say that the first question Chris asked upon check in was if we got the Hello Kitty plane:)  Sadly, we did not.  But the flight was fantastic. We got a row to ourselves, watched lots of movies and even got to check out the Taipei airport during our connection (more Hello Kitty).  Also, incredibly, the food on the plane was delicious - what kind of airline is this?

We had to have one more mango sticky rice before we left Thailand!

Los Angeles
We spent five days in LA, adjusting to being back in the western hemisphere. Luckily we got to see some good friends and family while in LA, making it a very memorable stop on our journey! Hopefully we weren't too out of it due to the jet lag.

Scenes from LA
Since we were either snoozing, catching up with friends, or avoiding the rain, we didn't spend a lot of time outdoors. This was disappointing since I love taking pictures in California.  To me, it offers the same dramatic landscapes that I've found in South Africa, New Zealand and Peru.  Here are a few random shots, all taken with my phone. 

After five days in LA we were re-energized and ready for our next destination - Belize!