Table for Two - A food + travel blog // Cook to Love, Love to Cook

Austin, Texas: Where to Stay

Mar

2014

posted in: Travel

Omni Hotel Downtown Austin
700 San Jacinto Blvd, Austin, TX 78701

Omni Hotel Downtown Austin Review on tablefortwoblog.com

The last post of my three part Austin series! Of COURSE you have to have a great place to stay when you visit to Austin, right? We chose the Omni Hotel Downtown Austin for its stellar location downtown. It’s literally right next to the Texas State Capitol – not kidding you, from our hotel room, we could see the top of the dome. It’s also right next to 6th Street where all the action is happening. They have a ton of bars and restaurants on 6th Street and we were right beside it! It’s also located on a quiet block so there’s not too much outside noise that we heard, but it probably helps that the hotel is encapsulated within another building. It’s REALLY cool. Like offices surround the hotel. You’ll see in my photos, below. We woke up on Friday morning and kept looking into people’s cubicles and meetings. Haha, we’re so mature. The windows aren’t tinted so be sure to not stand in front of them in undies ;)

Anyway – so the Omni Hotel Downtown Austin, to us, was just the perfect location and I loved that they had in and out parking privileges in an underground parking garage. You just pay a parking fee and you’re good for the entire day to go in and out as you please. It was really convenient for us since we drove around the majority of the time during our stay here. The staff was really friendly and helped us figure out how to get from point A to point B and they were really attentive! The rooms were so super clean and they pretty much set us up in a penthouse suite or something. The room was ENORMOUS!! And we got to ride in the cool ‘executive suites’ only elevator ;) pimp!

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Austin, Texas: Rocket Electrics Foodie Tour

Mar

2014

posted in: Travel

Visiting Austin? Get on a Rocket Electrics Foodie Tour to eat your way around town like the locals do! More on tablefortwoblog.com

Alright, part 2 of our Austin trip! This honestly might’ve been my favorite part of our entire trip. Jason and I love good food but we love good LOCAL food. Every time we travel, we always hear of recommendations from friends and/or Yelp and while they’re always exceptional, there is just something about the local digs that are even better. They’re hole in the walls, mom-and-pops. They’re the ones that only locals know of and you wouldn’t even find them on those big review sites. We love those types of places because that’s where the REAL good food is at.

When my friend Claire first heard that we were going to Austin, she immediately told me that I had to contact John Dawson and Nicole Zinn, the owners of Rocket Electrics. Claire told me they give awesome foodie tours and you’re on a motorized bicycle. Ok, so not gonna lie, I went to their site to check this out and I still never really got how a bike was ‘motorized.’ I got the whole electric thing but I still didn’t get how it’d pedal for you. More on that below.

Anyway, so I contacted John and Nicole and mentioned that Jason and I were huge foodies and we’d love to go on their foodie tour. They cleared their calendars and John said he would take us out for the day. Yeah, what tour company do you know would just clear their day for you? None. John and Nicole are seriously the most down to Earth and most accommodating people I’ve ever ever met. They’re SO nice and money doesn’t drive their good intentions. Their LOVE for their city fuels everything. They want you to get what the locals get to see and eat every day, they want you to love the city as much as they love it. They want you to enjoy every second you’re there. They truly just want to share with you their love for their city by showing you everything there is to see and giving you the best experience possible. It’s their enthusiasm and dedication that makes Rocket Electrics thrive. The best way to see Austin is hands down with Rocket Electrics. I’m NOT kidding you. We would NOT have been able to see the city like we did without these bikes. I didn’t even break a sweat. These awesome rockets are FAST! The one I rode went up to 30mph!! It’s such a smooth ride, too, and there is zero effort. If you can ride a bike, you can ride this rocket!!

Visiting Austin? Get on a Rocket Electrics Foodie Tour to eat your way around town like the locals do! More on tablefortwoblog.com

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The Moistest Very Vanilla Mug Cake

Mar

2014

posted in: Cakes, Desserts

I gave y’all the moistest chocolate mug cake last week and now I’m giving you the moistest very vanilla mug cake!

The moistest very vanilla mug cake is like a fluffy vanilla cupcake in a mug! Recipe on tablefortwoblog.com

You guys, my moistest chocolate mug cake was such a hit that I knew I had to try to make a vanilla version. A very vanilla version. Several of you asked for one and honestly, it wasn’t a bad idea. It’s like having chocolate and vanilla ice cream flavors to choose from. Sometimes you’re wanting chocolate, some days you’re wanting vanilla. Same deal for mug cakes, right?

Again, recipe testing yielded success! Jason said this tasted like a fluffy vanilla cupcake. :) I think you guys will LOVE this one. It really does taste like a vanilla cake and it’s SO incredibly moist and fluffy. It has ZERO spongy-ness to it.

Just look at the vanilla bean specks in the cake! It smelled so good.

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Austin, Texas: What to do, what to eat, what to see: part 1

Mar

2014

posted in: Travel

Traveling to Austin, Texas? You have to read this post on tablefortwoblog.com on what to do, what to eat, what to see!

Over my birthday weekend at the end of January, Jason and I decided to take a trip to Austin, TX! We’ve always heard such amazing things about Austin and what a foodie city it was so we knew it was somewhere we wanted to visit, and HELLO, the best show on the planet (Friday Night Lights) was filmed there so that was another reason (as if we needed more) to go. Everyone has such great things to say about Austin: how nice everyone is, how laid back it is, how easy it is to get around, and what a great culture and vibe there is there. I’m happy to report back that all of it is very true! I just love Austin. The food there – we only touched on some of it. There’s just SO MUCH more that we couldn’t do in our 3-day trip BUT we’re definitely going back and I do want to visit San Antonio, too, next time we’re there. It’s only an hour South of Austin and there is some amazing food there too.

I had to split up my Austin trip into three parts. You get Austin, Texas: What to do, what to eat, what to see: part 1 today. Part 1 is basically what Jason and I did – meaning, taking a bunch of our friends’ recommendations and our own research, we compiled our own schedule and list of what we wanted to see, do, and eat. Part 2 is probably my favorite because we went on a Rocket Electrics foodie tour of the city – we saw & ate EVERYTHING in the eyes of a local. More on that Wednesday. And then I conclude with part 3 which is where we stayed – the perfect location downtown. It’s the spot you have to stay when you visit the great city of Austin!

So, without further ado, I will let the photos do most of the talking :)

Friday Night Lights Driving Tour

We rented a car because most of what we wanted to do would require one. Below is Coach Taylor & Tami Taylor’s house, my hall pass boyfriend aka Tim Riggins’ house, and Saracen’s house. Ahhhh it was so nostalgic and I totally wished they were actually there :P Coach Taylor and Riggins’ house were actually right down the street from each other so that was a quick drive. Saracen’s house was like an additional 10 minutes drive, but all of them are really close together. We didn’t do any of the other stuff like go to the Landing Strip (it was actually right next to the airport so we drove by it and didn’t even realize we would), East Dillon, Panther Fieldhouse, etc. If you want to do this yourself, here are the addresses:

Traveling to Austin, Texas? You have to read this post on tablefortwoblog.com on what to do, what to eat, what to see!

Taylor’s house: 6805 De Paul Cove, Austin, TX 78723

Traveling to Austin, Texas? You have to read this post on tablefortwoblog.com on what to do, what to eat, what to see!

Tim & Billy Riggins’ house: 2604 Lehigh Dr., Austin, TX 78723

Traveling to Austin, Texas? You have to read this post on tablefortwoblog.com on what to do, what to eat, what to see!

Saracen’s house: 3009 Kuhlman Ave, Austin, TX 78702

Tim Riggins’s Land
7252 Burleson Manor Rd., Manor, Texas (this is probably farther down Burleson Manor Road from 969)

Vince’s House
2681 East Cesar Chavez St., Austin, Texas

Panther Field House
Flow Ln & Del Valle St., Austin, Texas 78617

East Dillion Practice Field
2271 Riverview St., Austin, Texas 78702

Alamo Freeze
5900 Manor Rd., Austin, Texas 78723

Garrity Motors
6328 Interstate 35 Frontage Rd., Austin, Texas 78745

Ray’s BBQ
6302 Monsanto Dr., Austin, Texas 78741

Panther’s Field
1301 Pecan St., West Pflugerville, Texas 78660

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Cacio e Pepe

Feb

2014

posted in: Main Entree, Pasta

A classic Italian pasta dish with simple ingredients that will always be a crowd-pleaser. Cacio e pepe is one of our favorite pasta dishes to make!

Such an easy pasta dish to whip together! Cacio e Pepe recipe on tablefortwoblog.com

I recently bought myself a sleep mask because my mom told me that on their last trip to Taiwan (19 hour flight), she used one and it really helped her sleep because you weren’t bothered by someone else’s reading light or someone’s laptop screen. Jason and I are headed back to Taiwan in April and I wanted to try out a sleeping mask before our flight. I heard that it could take a while to get used to or you wanna try using it before you actually need it in case it doesn’t work out or something. So, anyway, I bought this one. I didn’t know there was so many to choose from. I chose that one cause I liked how big it was (no light leakage) and I liked that there were beads in it, kinda like those therapeutic wraps you see at massage places. I felt that the beads would hold the mask down so the light leakage would be minimal and I also liked that it could be used hot or cold or room temperature. Anyway, so the first night I used it, oh my goodness. I don’t think I’ve ever fallen asleep so fast in my life. I mean, who knew that having COMPLETE darkness would cause me to fall asleep so quickly?! I’ve been using it for over a week now and I must say, I love sleep masks and I don’t know if I can sleep without one now! It does end up off my face, though, by morning, but that’s cause I think I unintentionally take it off myself in the middle of the night. I’m so weird. I don’t even realize I do this! Ok, so now after testing this out, I’m super happy/excited to see how well this sleep mask will do on my 19-hour flight to Taiwan. Hopefully, fingers crossed, I’ll sleep through most of it; with some help from alcohol and xanax, of course.

Annnnnd so far, this entire post has been about how much I love my sleep mask. Do any of you sleep with a sleep mask or wear it during long flights?

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