Chicken Enchiladas - Joe's Bakery - $10

After a night where I bought way too many drink-related stuffs, greasy Mexican seemed like a good cure for the lingering ill-effects. I joined my co-workers at Joe's Bakery, a Mexican joint in East Austin. Though Joe's came highly recommended by certain members of the group, I was non-plussed.

An order of enchiladas and tacos took almost half an hour to prepare, the food was overly cheesy and the house salsa, while quite spicy, didn't actually taste all that good.

Stuff I Will Not Be Boughting Again

Tortilla Soup at the Tavern - $3.99

For the good of the blog, and the good of mankind, I must remind myself every post need not be several pages long. For example, today's post.

This afternoon I headed over to The Tavern, mentioned previously, to enjoy the Steelers - Chargers game. While another bar in town fancies itself "The Austin Steelers Bar," I have certain issues with it and so instead settled into the cozy recesses of The Tavern.

Sitting in one spot for three hours straight can grow a little tiresome, so what better way to shake things up than by eating! It was an afternoon game; I had already eaten lunch and had dinner plans. To that end, I went with the extremely versatile cop-out dish: soup.

Actual soup not pictured

While others could possibly expound upon and endlessly delight the reader with a story of a fairly good cup of soup, I am not at that talent level...yet.

The Tavern's tortilla soup was surprisingly tasty with good flavor and spice. While maybe a touch expensive for the size of the cup, I felt warmed and satisfied. Stuff well bought.

Five Guys Burger & Fries - $9.17

I recently relocated from Charlottesville, VA. From its beautiful neo-classical architecture, to its completely acceptable night life, to its easy access to real cities, I would never stoop to diminish the greatness of Mr. Jefferson's town. Except when it comes to food.

Charlottesville's dining scene kinda blows. My favorite place to eat there was Wendy's. To be fair, my favorite place to eat in most every city is Wendy's, but there were almost no memorably great places to eat that were not chains. (Though for some reason they had good Thai (which after going to their website I discovered was also a chain) go figure.)

Among those chains people loved so much they pretended it was local was D.C. born burger chain Five Guys. Having lived for a good stretch of time in prime burger country, I have become somewhat of a greasy burger snob. While others would sing the praises of Five Guys to the high heavens, I found it a good, but not great burger. Hell, it wasn't even my favorite burger in Charlottesville.

Regardless, Five Guys continues its relentless spread West and has now opened a location in Austin. A fellow Wahoo and I recruited a group of people to sample the Five Guys goodness. As one of the group was quick to notice, the business model is essentially In-N-Out Burger East.

You can't help but wonder what will happen when these two old-fashioned-modern burger titans clash (likely somewhere in New Mexico).

As always at Five Guys, the burger was good, but not mind blowing, the Cajun fries were tasty, but too plentiful, and the overall meal was good, but too expensive.

All that being said, it was a delight to get to enjoy a small slice of C-Ville and as Five Guys has grown from two stores to 1,000 in six years (that sounds wrong), they must be doing something right (or illegal...same diff).

Maudie's Soft, Soggy Tacos - $9.13

My third tour of duty in Texas has gone swimmingly thus far. At least part of this is due to my new found appreciation for both Mexican and Tex-Mex food. While I used to found it mainly tolerable, now I actively seek it out. For all those who don't believe in change (and at last count you accounted for some 46% of the nation's population), I am eating proof of it.

What I have recently learned from this is, once formed, our impressions of others is slow to change. Though I've been a Tex-Mex convert for over a year now, any time a Tex-Mex restaurant is proposed for lunch, all parties quickly turn to me and say "Oh wait, he won't eat that" or "Are you sure, it's okay with you?" Yes, yes, a hundred times yes, people! While others may attempt to deny my culinary growth, the proof is in the paella.

All of this to say, today we went to eat at Maudie's. And though I have grown and expanded and embiggened my palette, I still have not acquired a taste for crappy Tex-Mex. In my two experiences, the tacos I've ordered have been disturbingly soaking wet with flavorless juices which dissolved the tortillas. I knew in my heart of hearts I should not have ordered the shredded chicken tacos again, and yet, there I was ordering them straight up. I could see it all happening in slow motion, but I was powerless to stop it.

Maudie's is an Austin tradition, and I will likely do nothing to improve my lunch time standing with this post, but soggy tacos are soggy tacos.

Verdict: While the concept of lunch in general was good, Maudie's, not so much.

Iced Chai Latte - $0

For the inaugural post of Stuff I Bought (Beta), I only "quasi-bought" the stuff to which this post refers. So from the beginning the concept is broken and disregarded. Good start.

I work at an office that distributes free Starbucks cards like campus recruiters dish out credit cards. Attend a meeting? Get a Starbucks card! Your dog has heartworm? Have a Starbucks card! Receive 5 Starbucks cards in one week? Get another for good luck!

This would be ideal, if I drank coffee or liked Starbucks.

I don't want this to quickly devolve in a Starbucks rant as it has been done better many times before (particularly in Shakespeare's overlooked minor comedy "The Taming of the Brew." (see why I said I should move on?)).

In an effort to dispel pre-election jitters, I accompanied a coffee-liking co-worker to Starbucks and used a free gift-card to obtain a small Iced Chai Tea Latte. The transaction cost me nothing and I am left with about a $1.50 on my card, so if anything, I am still up.

Back in the office, I looked up the nutritional content as I had recently read an interesting article in the NY Times about calorie counting. Turns out my little cup of spiced goodness was about 180 calories.

Overall it was fine, though getting out of the office was really the best part, making the drink more a means to an end.

Verdict: Non-money, well, spent.