Lenoir, you little jewel-box of a restaurant... you precious salon. Thank you to you and your chef, Todd Duplechan, and your on-point waitstaff (Hi, Melinda) for making my birthday so wonderful. Lenoir is pretty terrific, guys. They have a prix-fixe menu, where you can choose three courses for $38. Considering that most of the items are local and everything is so carefully considered and prepared, this is a screaming, honking deal. I don't know how it's possible that we'd missed going here for so long. Reservations are an absolute necessity because did I mention, tiny? The six of us took... Continue reading

Life goes on! Obladee, obladaa, et cetera. Logan's working, I'm working (well, actually, strike that - I'm temporarily unemployed as of this morning, hooray end-of-project!), the cats are freeloading, and we've mostly been good little homebodies. What else is up? Well, we clearly have not been feeding and watering this here blog. It took us a bit of time after we got back from the trip to start hitting Austin's terrific array of farmers' markets (farmer's markets?). I like my litte Wednesday afternoon operation at the Triangle, which is usually nicely uncrowded and a perfect size, but a few weeks... Continue reading

Today here in Austin it's sunny and cool, a perfect Southern winter day. But I would chuck this glorious day and its eye-piercing brightness in a moment for Singapore's humidity and heat, if it meant I could stuff my face with crab. Perhaps Singapore's most famous dish, chili crab (or pepper crab) can be found at any number of outlets around town, from the down and divey to the fancy shmancy. We tried the crab at Eng Seng, a metro ride and short walk away from where we were staying. Eng Seng is famous, and we had to wait a... Continue reading

September! A time when young folks' minds turn to... well, as it turns out, marriage. We went to two weddings in September, one in Denver and one in Boston, and, hey! here's the evidence that we were in Colorado. Or at least a place that looks very much like Colorado and has "critter" problems similar to Colorado's. (and, yes, this post is stepping back from the travelogue for a bit, since I clearly completely lost my motivation to talk about Singapore. I still plan to, yes, but I'm done letting the fact that I still need to do that keep... Continue reading

cough cough cough HELLO! How is everyone? Doing well, I hope? Enjoying the beginnings of fall - well, at least you fellow Northern Hemisphere-ers? Drinking cider and all that, fighting off the first of the hopefully few winter colds? I've been casting around at what direction to take this blog for a while now, and while I've been doing that I've just sort of been letting it fester quietly over here in our tiny corner of the internet. So, while Boots in the Oven ferments for a while prior to reemerging as a butterfly or something, I've blown the dust... Continue reading

Man. I'm dropping the ball here... Sorry, guys. There are only a few more trip posts to write up, and there's definitely a part of me that just doesn't want to DO them, because then it'll be like real actual life has started back up! We've had a good September. Been to Colorado to get my cousin married off, and then to Boston to be in my college friend Megan's wedding. Good times, good food, good friends... and family! But for now, back to Singapore! Singapore is pretty much what you'd have thought. It's very clean and modern. Public transit... Continue reading

Oh, man. Singapore. (Yes, Singapore! Can you believe it?) Such good food, but I feel full just LOOKING at it. We were really lucky; a childhood friend of Logan's opened his house to us for the week we were in the city-state. He lives right near a metro stop, and it was so nice to have a home base while we were there! ...and then we completely failed to take any pictures of Kevin and Logan together. Way to go, us. A short walk from Kevin's house: Wee Nam Kee Chicken Rice. Gotta get the chicken rice when you're in... Continue reading

Before we leave Bali behind for the shiny pristinity that is Singapore I wanted to share a little bit about the older side of the island that we found so enchanting. Tradionally these ladies would be topless. One thing that stood out immediatey about Bali was the focus on family and community. All of the classic houses are built as little compounds carefully aligned with the cardinal directions and intended for habitation by multiple generations. Most of them are built on a long established layout and are intricately detailed. Another piece of Bali that is impossible to miss is the... Continue reading

While we've been industriously not blogging (I've sold my creative energy to Terrence Malick for the time being and Rachel is busily re-establishing our life in Austin) we have managed to put together a couple of fun articles for Edible Austin. Edible Austin is a great local magazine that's part of the nationwide Edible Communities. If you haven't heard of them you should definitely check them out; chances are there's a version in your part of the US, all stuffed with helpful info. If you want to see our jaunty contributions (read the damn things already), EA has handily published... Continue reading

The food on Bali is interesting for Indonesia because it's the only major island out of the 18,000 or so that isn't Muslim dominated. Over 90% of the population of Bali are practicing Hindus. And that means pork. Probably the most hyped dish on the island is babi guling. It started out as a real special occasion dish where a whole pig was slowly spit roasted for a wedding or bris or end of season blow out sale or whatever. But these days it a full time food. It starts with a young pig, gutted and cleaned, then stuffed with... Continue reading

Surprise! The beaches of Bali are gorgeous. Insert any and all superlatives of your preference here. By day, they look like this. And by twilight: And the sand on some of them is ROUND! Even more comfortable to lay on! Several have, of course, been pretty thoroughly discovered. Still pretty, just less secluded. Some are in villages with wonderful snorkeling opportunities, like Amed with its Japanese shipwreck. (We do not have a wateproof casing for our camera, so you'll just have to take our word about the snorkeling.) ...But then there are the beaches in the truly crowded tourist areas... Continue reading

Sacred Monkey Forest. Or minor place of panic, at least for me. Monkeys are kind of cute, right? Or at least goofy? Well, yes. BUT. The Sacred Monkey Forest, just outside of Ubud, Bali, is FULL of monkeys. Monkeys that have no fear of humans. Toothy monkeys. The Sacred Monkey Forest is a big tourist destination. And, though there are signs asking you not to feed the monkeys, there are also enterprising ladies who will sell you bananas and show you how to get a monkey to jump up and eat your banana while sitting on your shoulder. I don't... Continue reading

I swore I wouldn't go to Bali. At the very start of the trip people kept telling us over and over, "you can't miss it, it's just amazing." All I could picture was middle aged women on journeys of self discovery, thin fingers extended gracefully from the loose sleeves of their flowing kaftans as they pecked away on expensive laptops in the corners of overpriced tourist cafes. But I keep an open mind. As the trip progressed we kept running into interesting and genuine travelers, all who had had great experiences on the island. My opinion of Koh Samui and... Continue reading

Let's just get right back into Georgetown, Malaysia, shall we? Part I kicked things off with some classic nasi kandar, a couple unmissable starch dishes, and drinks to wash it all down with. This time, I say we start with dessert. You know, because you can. You're an adult, damn it! The beauty of this next spot is that it's a three-for. For whatever reason the little alley of Lebuh Keng Kwee is home to excellent versions of three George Town staples, and they're practically stacked on top of one another. 1. Cendol from Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul (yes,... Continue reading

George Town is such a densely packed labyrinth of food amazingness that I'm pretty sure you have to live there for a few generations to master all the nooks and crannies. In our time there we averaged about 5 meals a day. I'd say they were small, but you know I always get that weird look on my face when I'm lying. I won't embarrass either of us with a coverup. So we got in a little practice, most of it enjoyable. We may not have rooted out the most obscure locales, but we've distilled down some of our favorites... Continue reading

Over the weekend, a very exciting thing happened! Reshma Kirpalani at the Austin American-Statesman wrote an article! About us! I'm pretty terrible at self-promotion, so I find the whole thing more than a little embarassing (it took me ten times starting to read the article before I was able to finish it). But it is pretty cool to be in print like this! Here's a link: Austin couple goes around the world in 14 months in search of local food Thanks to you guys who followed us around the world! It's been, and will continue to be, a wild ride. Continue reading

...hi! You, er, may have noticed that there haven't been any posts here for a week. OK, more than a week. It's because we are back, in Texas, and life has once more gotten in the way of our blogging! No worries, we'll be back to talking about the rest of our trip soon. Look for continuing posts on Malaysia, then on to Singapore and Indonesia! Here's a taste: See you soon! Continue reading