Smitty's BBQ

If you visit Austin, be sure to let me know and I'll take you to eat the best BBQ you've ever had in your life. Seriously. Everyone in Austin has their own Central Texas favorite, but most will agree Smitty's Market can't be beat for history, atmosphere, and...meat.

Nina Schmidt Sells opened Smitty's in 1999 in the same building that held her father's Kreuz Market for over 50 years. Just like in the olden days, there's no bbq sauce and no forks, but they do serve potato salad, slaw, beans, avocado, onion, cheese and jalapenos.






More photos from our recent excursion can be found here.

Thai Curry

I made a Thai Shrimp Curry and it turned out pretty good.
Thought I'd share..


Ingredients
1 tablespoons olive oil + 1 tsp. of sesame oil (if you have it)
5 green onions, finely chopped, dark green parts separated from white parts
3 tablespoons minced cilantro, divided
3 garlic cloves, through a garlic press or minced
1 small jar Thai green curry paste
1 cups of water (maybe a little more)
1 14-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
2 small fresh Thai chiles
1 jalapeño pepper - mine was red

1 tablespoon fish sauce (this sounds and smells gross but it's important)
1 large carrot, thinly sliced diagonally (about 1 cup)
2 bunches baby bok choy
1 lb. uncooked medium shrimp, peeled, deveined
2 tablespoons minced fresh basil

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add white parts of green onions, a large pinch of cilantro, and the garlic; sauté until softened (2 minutes).

Add curry paste; cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Add water, coconut milk, chiles, lime leaves, and fish sauce. Bring to simmer. Add carrot; cover and cook until carrot is fork ready (tender), about 5 minutes.

Add bok choy, shrimp, scallops, and mussels in pan. Cover and simmer/steam until shrimp is pink and bok choy is cooked (about 5 minutes). Stir in dark green parts of green onions, the rest of the cilantro, and basil.

Serve over rice.

Yum.

A fiddle is a violin with attitude.

The wife's been away working a lot, so I've been secretly playing his records. This is what I'm listening to today while I "fiddle" around the house. It's perfect for it. I love the hand lettering on the sleeve. (click to see it bigger)

Jay Reatard

Honestly, I kept hoping news would break that Jay Reatard's death was a hoax. Very, very sad news.

There's not much I can say that hasn't already been said - plus I would feel like a big phony if I tried, considering I'm a relatively new fan. He was a integral part of the Memphis garage scene 10 years before I heard 2006's Blood Visions, and at 29, he'd been playing music for half his life. In my opinion, he put out some of the best music released in the past decade, including last year's Watch Me Fall.

It is incredibly unsettling and sad that he’s gone so soon.

Waiting For Something - a short documentary about Jay Reatard

Jay Reatard | MySpace Music Videos

"Jay was what few people have the capacity to be. He created an undeniably classic album that contained so much pain transferred to tape in such an explosive way that it made you feel different after hearing it. He was transgressive and honest. His flaws were something he focused on and overdubbed and distorted until they made you forget who he really was-- a person with feelings and a good heart. He loved music and worked hard from a young age to pursue it. He was a self-made and unmade man. I am truly sickened to see him go." -- Deerhunter/Atlas Sound frontman Bradford Cox

Minnie Evans

There was a very cool piece of outsider art featured on the Antiques Roadshow tonight...

Minnie Evans (1892 – 1987) was a self-taught folk artist known for her colorful drawings in pencil and crayon. She was haunted by disturbing dreams and waking visions for most of her life, but didn't start putting them to paper until 1935 (when she was 43 years old) after a voice told her she must "draw or die." She worked as a gatekeeper in a North Carolina garden and sold her drawings there for 50¢ each. In 1962 she began a friendship with Nina Howell Starr, who publicized her work for the next 25 years - including a solo show at the Whitney Museum.

From the Roadshow transcript:

"..this is a iconic example of her work, and the whole outsider style has a different vocabulary and condition ethic than other mediums... Minnie Evans, aside from her career as a gatekeeper, had a larger career. In 1975, she had an exhibit at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York, and she was also collected by the very important surrealist artist Jean Dubuffet. And she's come to have quite a reputation among American surrealism, American visionary art, American outsider art."

Sources:
Images: Minnie Evans - Visionary Artists
NYT Obit: Link
NYT Art in Review: Link
Anthony Petullo Collection
Wikipedia

Gilbert Lesser

I spotted this Equus poster at the Antique Marketplace here in Austin. It's a reasonable price, but still out of my range. It was cool to see a piece of 70's ephemera like this hanging between a shelf of English silver and a Chippendale style settee.

Gilbert Lesser's best known work is the Studio 54 logo, but he also designed posters, costumes and stage sets for the theater.




More here: NYT Obit Link
Better quality image of Equus poster from MoMA/FFFFOUND!

Don't say Vanilla, Say Adam's Best

For everything that New York City has to offer, it's difficult for a Texan to find the comforts of home, 1,500 miles away. Tex-Mex, Iced Tea, B-B-Q, Ro-tel Tomatoes, Breakfast Sausage, Chicken Fried Steak, Dr. Pepper... not easy to find in the big city.

And, apparently we can add Adam's Extract to the list. Last month when I was in NYC visiting my long-time/best friend, we decided to make cookies, and he lamented that there was no "good" vanilla. Only the real stuff. Adam's Best is not really vanilla, it's vanilla flavoring. But most importantly it has the coolest packaging (meaning it hasn't changed much since 1905). I had know idea it was a Texas original.
From the Adams Extract site:

"[In 1905], most vanilla was sold to pharmacies and was often labeled “Do not bake or freeze.” John A. Adams, a pharmacist whose imagination was stirred by his wife’s yearning for a flavoring that wouldn’t bake or freeze out, announced that he could produce a better vanilla than the one his wife was currently using. Working with just $6.71 worth of materials on top of an old icebox, Adams discovered the formula he wanted."

Today, I'm sending my friend a big box of the stuff, along with some long promised photos of us, and some other Texas treats, which I won't share here on the off chance he's reading!