Tampa - 4/2/13

The Day After The Superbowl.

It's amazing that anything happens at all in this country after superbowl sunday, as I'm sure 90% of people would have got completely wrecked. That's certainly how it felt anyway!

Today we went to St. Petersburg, home to the Dali museum. This was very interesting and made me aware of something that I was not previously: his surrealism period for which he is best known in pop culture, only lasted a few short years before he fell out with the 'organisers' of the surrealist movement. I suspect that this falling out came about at a similar time that Dali got together with his future wife & muse Gala, at the time the wife of Paul Eluard, one of the founders of surrealism.

The exhibition was excellent - he started painting at the age of 12 with his early work being very colourful and impressionist in nature. The gallery was organised in a rough linear time with a clear progression of skill and his interests, finishing up with his masterworks that around 4 meters in height and 2 1/2 wide each taking maybe a year to complete. The one technique that did re-occur throughout his middle-later work was the optical illusion - making a larger picture become apparent from lots of smaller images cleverly combined together and often only obvious when standing 20 feet away or more. A talented chap.

After this, we went for a walk in St. Petersburg, having been told that it was a place for little independants & boutiques. There were a few open, and a lot of galleries & art supply shops, but also mostly closed - no doubt due to the rigours of the previous evening.

That evening, we'd been promised a trip to Bern's Steak House. Stefan told us that all the meat that they sell there is reared on their ranch; the cutlery and cooking steel is made specifically by them for the restaurant by their steel shop down the road. All the fresh produce is also grown on their farm and all staff are apprenticed on the ranch/farm for about 4 years before they are allowed in the restaurant. This trip sounded pretty attractive. Valet service for the car with the main reception being fabulously opulent: you can always tell when somewhere is posh, pricey and good - as it's full of the well-heeled older generation.

Sitting down, cocktails were ordered and were given menus. The wine menu was about 1cm thick - all held in their cellar, as they are also famed for having over 5000 different wines, ports, brandies, sherries, you name it. In their collection is the only 2 surviving ports from 1870 in the world ($400/1 1/2 ounce measure). The steak menu (A4 sized) could only be called absolute. Any (decent) cut in sizes from 8oz to 64oz (for a party) could be ordered, and the price included a french onion soup starter, house-made onion rings, carrots, spinach and incongruously, a baked spud. B and I opted for Rib Eye, Stefan for a specially aged fillet and Joy the same. We ordered a side of creamed spinach (which wasn't as good as the Austin steak house's as it goes, but still great). Included in the menu was extensive description of how they prepared the different cuts of meat, the thicknesses and recommended cooking time. Unbelievable.

The steak was fabulous. Really, the nicest that any of us had ever eaten, with the exception of Stefan who had been there before.

After the meal, the restaurant has this scheme where they escort your party around the kitchens, which was also excellent; Stefan had arranged a special visit to the meat locker (not even the manager gets to go in there) as he knew one of the head chefs - the smell hits you first, a delicious aroma of curing meat, categorised and aging - a rough (conservative?) guess of the value in the meat there was maybe $20,000. Following the kitchen tour was a wine cellar tour - all fully temperature controlled, neatly labelled and ordered, and while being in a few rooms, we were informed that it was barely 1/5th of their entire collection. A very serious operation.

After the tour, we went upstairs for dessert. Yes, they have a dessert floor, with individual booths (complete with closing doors and period entertainment system with modern internals). B had an aged port (not the 1870 one though!) and enjoyed it very much.

All in all a thoroughly entertaining experience and surprisingly cheap, considering. Despite the excellence of the food, I think it worked out to roughly $70/head - putting the final nail in the utterly feeble coffin presented by Scammo's back in SF. Bern's was a very impressive place, and would definitely put it as number 1 place to eat for steak when we come back.

Austin 26/1/13

Saturday!

Both felt a little hungover, and debated about whether to go shopping or do something proper. The guilt of wasting time in Austin got the better of us, so headed south about 30 miles or so to New Braunfels. This was a town that was billed as 'charmingly German'. This was clearly not the case, but perhaps Americans thought that it was. Having said that, it was a nice place, and had a villagely feel to it; found a farmers market with loads of delicious local produce - Jerky, Honey, Cheeses and most strangely of all, flavoured olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Had lunch and then set off to San Antonio, which was only another 30 miles south or so. San Antonio has the most 'European' feel to it out of any town that we have hitherto visited - was set out similarly, sunny, relaxed - and of course, the home of the Alamo.

The Alamo is the symbol of Texan resistance, and the root of their individualism. Around the 1830s there was an ownership tussle over Texas between the Mexicans and the then US. San Antonio knew that the attack was coming, but only had 100 or so irregulars manning the fort, bolstered by another 89 men from surrounding states who answered the call for help with Davy Crockett being one of those. The Mexican regular army then attacked and wiped out the defenders, only to be shortly afterwards be removed from the fort themselves as the US regulars arrived - too late to help their countrymen - but numerous enough to beat the Mexicans.

Arriving back in Austin about 5-ish, had a bit of a relax before heading out for steak and BBQ. The restaurant (Lamberts) that had been recommended by the waiter at Snack Bar had a 2 hour wait. Clearly popular and great, but we were not up for waiting for that long. There was another steak place nearby (Bob's Steak and Chop) - a bit pricier, but we reasoned that it would be good. Ensconsed at the upstairs (open air) bar, we chatted to the bar man about steak choice. He recommended rib eye for myself and rack of lamb for B. Our neighbours at the bar inevitably heard our accents and started chatting to us, very nice couple who were from Texas and who we also ended up talking to for the rest of the time there. It happened that the woman had also lived in the same small village as the lawman from Lubbock, 5 miles from where B grew up.

The steaks and lamb were fabulous. Truly one of the nicest I've eaten, and the lamb - again - perfectly cooked, tender, juicy and loads of it. It came served with what seemed like a single, large, raw carrot. In reality it was aldente and glazed in cinnamon, with the potatoes covered in a peppercorn sauce. A side of creamed spinach was also ordered, and again was absolutely fantastic. Despite B being gutted at not getting to try BBQ, she enjoyed her food immensely. The couple next to us also suggested that we visit a BBQ place called 'Franklins'. This is an unusual place, opens at 11am generally, but queues start forming around 9am for lunch. They come down the queue, take your order, and basically serve until they run out of meat.

A short note on steak size - the smallest they offered was 12oz, the largest 24. The barman suggested that 12oz would be sufficient - 16, he said, would be like a double portion, although and I quote, "24 is normal size for a Texan, but double for normal folks." 12oz was sufficient for me - I was tempted by the 16, as who can resist such a large slab of tasty meat? On reflection, it was just as well that I went for the smaller. Not sure who would be able to manage a 24oz steak along with the additionals.

Around this time, a text from Kate and David arrived, so we made tracks via one of the cycle couriers - a pedal powered tuk-tuk essentially, to the bar where their friend was singing. This was a fun evening, and got to meet some of their other mates; towards the end of the night, another musical friend of theirs told us of a party up the road at Robert Plant's house. Somewhat sceptical, we went along, as a party is a party, right? It didn't turn out to be *quite* at his house - that was next door, but he owned the one we were at for renting out. The band that was set up in the kitchen was pretty good although the kitchen was rammed and was difficult to get into and out of. A bit of hanging around chatting to randoms and was time to go home. Kate & David offered us a lift home which was very generous, stumbling into our flat at around 3.