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[nicroxadventures]

Pictures from the Capitol Building and Graffiti Park

[nicroxadventures]

Austin, TX

Such an awesome city with a much younger/hip vibe than Dallas. The food, music and bar scene is pretty dope. John and I figured since we were in Texas, why not attend a rodeo? So we headed to the Austin Rodeo. What a show! That night couldn’t have been more “Texas”. Cowboy hats, cowboy boots, bull riding, you name it, all there. 6th Street is full of bars and restaurants, this street is generally where the younger and wilder crowd goes. They close the street down and it fills up with wild drunken ...adventures. Rainey Street is the place to be if you want to go have drinks minus the drunk college kids. Rainey Street used to be a neighborhood but I think the city bought it out, turned the homes into bars and is now an awesome place to go bar hopping. It has that “frat row” feel without the obnoxious frats. If you’re looking for a place to have a good time, this is it! Being best friends, John and I decided to come up with some elaborate story to tell people while out bar hopping to make new friends. It was overall such a good night. Except for the Uber ride. Did you know that they have “surges” at certain times of the night meaning they charge you a certain number times more than the normal amount. Our ride home ended up being $115. $115! 6x the normal rate. John was feeling sick and couldn’t wait for the surge to end. 

The next morning was difficult. We were supposed to get up early to get in line for Franklin’s BBQ. John ended up getting early, and I on the other hand, did not. Luckily he let me sleep in while he went to wait in line. What a friend! All in all the wait to eat was five hours. Yes, you read that right. Five hours. I arrived at the last two hours. I was a bit cranky from lack of sleep, so I wandered around and discovered this cute little coffees shop just behind the BBQ place.

The coffee definitely helped. So, on to the food. Oh. My. Goodness. The BBQ was absolutely phenomenal. The meat just melted in your mouth. Aaron Franklin came around and greeted everybody. I think I get more excited meeting a famous chef than when meeting a celebrity. Food makes me so happy.

[nicroxadventures]

First full day in Austin, TX. 

As soon as we get to Austin, we head straight to 6th Street -- the place to be in Austin. After a three hour drive from Dallas, we were pretty hungry. I saw this list on Pinterest on the top places to eat at in Austin and Qui, a Filipino Fusion restaurant, was on it. We sat outside since it was a lovely day and decided to get “Pulutan”, which in English translates to “drunk food snacks”. Awesome how there’s one word to describe that. We ordered everything on the menu to see just how it all was because we were curious on the twist the chef decided to put on traditional Filipino food. 

The “lumpia” came out looking like tacos. Generally, lumpia are deep fried egg rolls. The twist on the lumpia was unexpected, but still delicious none the less.

Kinilaw was amazing. Raw fish tossed in coconut vinegar. Pretty self explanatory.

The kare kare didn’t have meat (oxtail) which it traditionally does. The flavor was lacking something. Must be the oxtail.

Sisig is and always will be one of my favorite Filipino food. Even though who aren’t Filipino love it. Crunch pork bits diced up and tossed with lemon juice, onions, cilantro, all topped with a fried egg. Need I say more?

Kabobs. You can never mess a kabob up. Good stuff.

Dinuguan. The one thing that wasn’t on this Pulutan menu. Essentially, it’s pork cooked in pork blood. Now, wait, before you freak out, it’s absolutely delicious. This dish and sisig are my absolute favorite and the fact that this place had them -- thumbs up for sure! 

Lick is an ice cream shop which makes their own unique flavors. I chose Hot Chocolate with cayenne and Goat’s Milk with thyme and honey. Such an interesting combination. A definite must go when in Austin!