Post Thanksgiving in Austin - Gourdough's Public House

Over Thanksgiving break, we went down to Austin for one night to visit my fiance's family. We were doing a second Thanksgiving Friday night and had Saturday to go out and about. I already knew what places I wanted to check out. Time is limited, I had to prioritize! :P

I was excited about both eateries we were going to but I think I was slightly more excited about this one than the next. Just slightly...

I first experience Gourdough's AMAZING donut trailer back in 2009, I think? The BEST donut place ever!! Made to order, gigantic, and all sorts of excess toppings we Texans love. hehe. So when I heard they had opened a restaurant, I was stoked!! I mean... they have donut burgers. DONUT BURGERS! How freaking epic does that sound?!?

Gourdough's Public House
2700 S Lamar Blvd.
Austin, TX 78704
(512) 912-9070
http://gourdoughs.com/
Price: $$

We hit it up for brunch on Saturday. They don't take reservations so we showed up fairly early... around 11:30AM. The place was only about 20% full at that point. We decided to sit outside because the weather was awesome! The decor is very casual, wood tables, chairs, picnic benches and tables outside. They also have one of their trailers in the outside area. There's also a bunch of TVs around us, great for a game day!

I was there with my fiance, his two sisters, and his little sister's husband. They started off with some brunchy drinks.

Craft Bloody Mary $5~ My fiance's bro in law asked them to put a piece of bacon in this. Why not, I say. haha. I've never liked bloody mary's but this was actually quite good! He really enjoyed it.

Michelada $5~ One of his sisters really like this drink. My fiance tried it and decided to get one too. hehe. I love how they put the beer in a mini brown paper bag.

So... are you ready for some SERIOUS food p0rn?? haha

Country Clucker (crispy fried chicken breast, potato pancake, warm cream corn, candied jalapenos; served on a piping hot donut) $11~ 

This was mine! ALL MINE! MUAHAHAHA! :P J/k I shared... I was debating on a few but the creamed corn and jalapenos won me over. I liked everything in this dish. All the food looked so amazing when they brought it out. This was like a small mountain of deliciousness. A perfectly fried (giant) donut, slightly crispy on the outside, soft and pillowy on the inside. Topped with a potato pancake, perfectly fried chicken, and SO MUCH CORN! It was so good!!! I loved the candied jalapenos, it added just a hint of heat to the dish. It was as epic as the picture looks. I sooo wanted to finish it all but I was sampling other stuff too so I took about 1/3rd of it to go.

Dirty Plucker (piping hot donut topped with hand battered fried chicken, honey butter and maple icing) $9~ 

My fiance got this. He and his sister were going to go halfsies on each of their dishes. This is their play on chicken and waffles. And this was my favorite out of everything I tried that day... although it was hard to pick a favorite. Again, perfectly fried donut, with a maple icing. Topped with fried chicken, and more maple icing. And honey butter to top everything off if you want it even sweeter. That honey butter was the bomb. I drizzled it over every bite, and some on my Country Clucker too! The general consensus was that it was too much sweet to finish the entire plate, but since we all shared, it was perfect. I would've eaten the whole thing though. The perfect sweet and savory combo.

His sister got the Count Gourdough Cristo (oven roasted turkey, ham, swiss cheese, roasted red pepper, basil, red onion, wrapped in donut dough and deep fried; served with avocado lime sauce; served with fried Yukon chips) $10~ 

So she gave half to him. They both loved this. I was expecting it to be super heavy like a normal Monte Cristo sandwich but it really wasn't. The avocado lime sauce paired with it superbly. And their Yukon chips were great. They both wanted more of it.

Public House Salad (cilantro buttermilk dressing, romaine lettuce, feta, tomato, cucumber, six-minute egg; served with a piping hot garlic donut) $7~ 

His little sister got this since she wanted to try a little of everyone's as well. They were kinda giving her a hard time for getting a salad here. haha. But I'm actually glad she got it cuz I was able to get some green veggies to go with my Country Clucker. The salad was huge! And what was even more O.O was how huge the garlic donut was. And that garlic donut could easily be one of everyone's favorite elements that day. It was just perfection. It was plain (unglazed). Fried perfectly, not greasy AT ALL, and SOOOOO FLUFFY! They really have their donut dough down to a science.

And finally, his bro in law got the El Camino Burger (angus beef, chipotle cheese blend, chipotle mayonnaise, pickled jalapenos, bacon, cilantro, sliced tomato, fried onions; served with fried Yukon chips) $11~ 

At least one of us had to get the donut burger right?? Freaking amazing. So much flavor, I loved the chipotle mayo. It tastes just as good as it looks.

Fried Brussels Sprouts $4~ I also saw this on the menu so I had to order it. Pretty dang good. :)

This meal was amazing. It exceeded my already high expectations. I loved everything I tried and so did everyone else. Just looking at these pictures again makes me want to pick up and drive to Austin right now. It's a good thing I don't live close though...I'd be there ALL THE TIME! If gluttony is your middle name, then this is the place for you. Although, surprisingly, I didn't feel like any of the dishes were super greasy or heavy. Nothing oozed with grease even though everything is fried. Impressive. I will definitely make this a required stop any time I'm in Austin.

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

Okawa Japanese Cuisine

We recently found out about a new Japanese restaurant that opened up in Rockwall. There's not too many interesting places to eat in Rockwall (and we've been to all the good spots) so it was nice to have something new! Looking at the online reviews, the place seems like it has a lot of potential! Great reviews, nice looking food pics, so we decided to go check it out.

Okawa Japanese Cuisine
2927 Ridge Rd Ste 105
Rockwall, TX 75032
(972) 722-2888
www.okawajapanesecuisine.com
Price: $

It's located in the same shopping center in Kroger (just around the corner from it). There was only 1 other table when we got there, it was pretty slow on a Sunday night. It's a small place, not much on the decor side. The front of house was an Asian lady. There didn't seem to be that many people working there. My guess is 1 person in the front and 2 in the kitchen? She was pretty friendly but I could tell immediately that her English was somewhat limited.

We ordered some hot teas since it was freezing that week. And she took our order.

Crunchy Beancurd (deep fried tofu with special sauce) $6.95~ 

I ordered this purely based on the picture from yelp. It looked pretty awesome and different from other fried tofu at Japanese places I've seen. However, it was exactly like all the other places -___- haha. Basically Agedashi tofu, the name usually used on Japanese menus. It was piping hot. The tofu was soft on the inside and lightly fried on the outside. I thought it was a little light on the flavor but I was ok with that. So... it was good, but pretty standard.

Okawa Salad (mixed greens with house dressing) $7.95~ 

I also wanted to try this because of the picture cuz it had sprouts in it! I love sprouts. We were wondering why this salad is more expensive than the others. It is topped with white wood ear mushrooms. I'm guess that's the reason. The ginger dressing is light. The salad is pretty good, but I wish it was bigger in portion.

Unagi Don (grilled eel with eel sauce over rice) $9.95~ 

It's rare to find Unagi Don for under $10 so we each ordered one. However, the waitress only put in order for 1 even after my fiance double checked with her that we ordered 2. I think it was language barrier there. So we waited around for them to bring the 2nd one and it never came. Finally I asked her and she thought we only ordered 1 the entire time. However, while eating, I overheard her talking to the kitchen. She was Chinese, so I started speaking Chinese to her and she seemed like she relaxed a little. She quickly put in another order and I got my own unagi. :) It's a good portion. The dish came with ginger and some pickled vegetables. The unagi had good flavor, but the skin on the bottom was quite tough. And there were some bones so watch out. I'd say it was ok. Not sure if I would order it again. But I took half of it to-go for my lunch the next day! We also reserved some of the sprouts from the salad and mixed in with our rice.

Chicken Yakisoba (stir fried noodle) $6.50~ 

We also ordered this so we'd both have leftovers for lunch the next day. I thought this was tasty. I liked all the veggies in there. I think because we also ordered this, she thought we only got 1 Unagi.

I had some small talk with the lady. She seems really nice. They'd only been open for about 2 months at that point... so maybe almost 3 months now. The food is decent. For the price point we'll probably go back. There's some other stuff on the menu I'd like to try still. I've heard that's not the greatest location, so I hope their business picks up!

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

Gang Jung Chicken Cafe

Last Friday I had a hair appointment in the H-Mart area in Carrollton. I rarely venture over there anymore so I got some of my friends to meet up for dinner in that area. There are so many new places to try!

I wanted to go check out Gang Jung Chicken Cafe. They specialized in Korean fried chicken, which I love!! I never got to try BonChon in Dallas, although I was told it wasn't good anyways. Now, I've had BonChon in Korea and it was sooooo good.

Gang Jung Chicken Cafe
2680 Old Denton Rd # 156
Carrollton, Texas 75007
(972) 306-3100
Price: $-$$

This place is pretty new. Opened in the fall of 2013. It's located in the same corner as Spa Castle. It's a cute place. Not very big. Wooden tables and benches, a very typical Korean look. You order at the counter and pick up the order at the counter.

5 of us got there around the same time so we went up to order. The guys behind the counter were very nice and tried to explain the menu to us. There were 2 sides to the menu: Gang Jung and Fried Chicken. From what I could understand, Gang Jung is still fried but the sauce on the chicken is more sweet and comes with rice cakes. Spicy Gang Jung is spicier than Crazy Spicy Chicken which confused us. Because if you call something craaazy spicy, I expect it to be hella spicy. haha. I found the menu a bit confusing but the guys were patient and gave us recommendations (despite a little lacking in English). They also let us taste the different spicy sauces. They said we should get 4 mediums to share between the 5 of us. And that comes with 4 sides.

Here are the sizes and prices:
Small (Chicken breast or wings; with 1 side) $8.99~
Medium (Chicken breast or wings; with 1 side) $13.99~
Large (Chicken breast or wings or whole chicken; with 1 side) $17.99~

So we took their recommendation and got a mix of spicy and non-spicy flavors.

Spicy Gang Jung (garlic, red chili, soy sauce, capsaicin, hot powder). We chose Chicken Breast for this. 

This is supposedly the spiciest of them all. It was just spicy enough for me, but I eat pretty spicy in general. My friends that don't eat spicy couldn't handle it. I didn't think it was insanely spicy though. The chicken breast was amazingly juicy and tender. The chicken pieces were quite large. The batter was a little thick, but was crispy and partly softened by the sauce. I liked the batter but some friends didn't care for it. This also included fried rice cakes which was awesome! I loved the added texture after it's fried. The sauce flavor did have a certain spice/flavor that was interesting. The whole night I was trying to decide if I liked it.

Crazy Spicy Chicken (corn syrup, soybean sauce, garlic, hot sauce, capsaicin, hot powder). We got these in Wings. 

This was my favorite. It was also spicy and sweet like the Spicy Gang Jung, but it didn't have that extra spice. The wings were pretty large and juicy. I will definitely get this again. With the different sizes, the number of chicken breast pieces and wings are different. You get fewer wings to chicken breast per order.

Soy Garlic Chicken (soybean sauce, soy sauce, potato starch, onion, garlic, garlic powder, soybean oil). We got these in Wings. 

One of my friends wanted sweet, so they recommended this. This was my second favorite. It was definitely sweet, but worked very well with the garlic. Again, the wings were nicely fried and very juicy.

Green Onion Chicken (deep fried chicken with green onion in creamy green onion sauce; soybean sauce, onion, garlic, mustard, garlic powder, caramel syrup). They said this is their best seller and is very good with Chicken Breast. So we took their suggestion. 

The bottom is basically regular fried chicken and topped with a ton of shredded green onions. Probably my least favorite out of the bunch. The chicken was fried well and very moist but it was lacking in flavor, especially when it's next to all these awesomely sauced other flavors. The sauce comes on the side. It's a little sweet, slightly creamy and has a mustard-y, horseradish-y flavor. The sauce is much needed for this and was able to make it more unique. I'd skip this next time. I wonder why it's their best seller?

French Fries $2.50~ We also got an order of fries. They made some extra so they gave us another order for free! How nice! :) The fries were good. Paired well with the chicken.

Sides:
Daikon Radish. Pretty standard. The radish is a little sweet, a little tangy and helps cut the spiciness and greasiness from fried chicken. It's quite refreshing.
Corn Salad. It was like coleslaw with corn in it. I liked it with the chicken. It was good to have some veggies with all this meat!
Rice. Steamed rice. Pretty standard. haha.

So while we were deciding what to order, another friend showed up and ordered before we even noticed. :P He got a medium Parmesan Chicken (deep fried chicken covered with parmesan powder). He chose Wings. 

We all shared. These were quite popular at the table. I feel like it was the first to disappear. I thought it was ok. I prefer the Korean sauces and stuck to the other ones more.

OMG. We killed it all. There was nothing left. I just kept eating, and eating, and eating. Anything fried is always so addicting. It was a lot of food too... I'd actually say we'd be ok with 4 mediums among the 6 of us... I really enjoyed our meal though. I hope to go again soon. :) I'm so happy that we have good Korean fried chicken in Dallas again. Just a warning... if you don't like sweet and savory, this is not the place for you.

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~