Facebook Fan Page: Now liking me is as easy as pressing a button.

I’ve finally done it.  I’ve finally created a Facebook fan page for….myself.  It really seems vain when I say it like that but, I needed and wanted a way to communicate with the people I’ve met, or even haven’t met yet, that happen to be following my blog.

So, if you’re Facebook savvy and feel like having my posts and musings pop up on your timeline, please visit my brand spankin’ new fan page at facebook.com/wakeupamiblog. Or, just click ‘Like’ in the box that’s now in my sidebar.

I’m also on twitter! I haven’t started a twitter account just for the blog, since I think that anything I would say for this blog would be identical to what I would say on my personal account, so feel free to follow me at @homeofficediary.

Not only does this let me actually have communication with my followers besides this one-sided post reading thing, it’s also a great way to share suggestions.  I’ve fulfilled so many of my resolutions already thanks to recommendations and ideas from my friends, I’d love to hear yours too.

Thank you all for following and I hope to see you in the Facebook sphere.

 

[Resolution] #9 Attempt an Eating Challenge

Has anyone heard of the Dos Equis ‘Feast of the Brave’ challenge?

I was fully prepared to try to eat 25 mouth searing hot wings, or go head-to-head with someone to see who could eat the most pancakes, but this challenge (again brought to my attention by an amazing friend) was just strange enough, gross enough, and all around perfect for this resolution.

It’s been a good week for food, I’d say.  First the donut burger, then the eating challenge within days of each other.

The Feast of the Brave is a nation-wide eating challenge perpetuated by the one and only Dos Equis beer company.  In Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Houston, Dallas and my own beloved Austin there are taco trucks sitting on street corners shelling out some street food that you wouldn’t really expect here in the states.  Maybe on one of Andrew Zimmerman’s Bizarre Foods adventures, but certainly not at 6th and Lamar downtown.

Depending on the city, you can walk up and receive a taco filled with things like hog ears, beef intestines, corn fungus, crickets, shark and bird gizzards. They’re even FREE.  No payment required if you are brave enough to actually consume them.

On top of that, each taco earns your city a certain number of points, and each city is competing head-to-head to see who’s the bravest of them all.

My beloved foodie friend Jake was the one who found out about it in the first place and insisted we track down the truck. Without hesitation, and determined to uphold Austin’s fearless foodie reputation, we headed out to catch the truck at an office building up north.  In the fifteen minutes we were there we consumed (collectively):

• A shark taco (with habanero apple relish) 20 PTS
• A beef intestine taco (with grilled onions and salsa) 30 PTS
• 2 Hog Ear Tacos (with shredded wild boar, onions and salsa) 10 PTS EA. = 20 POINTS
• 2 Mystery Tacos (we still don’t know what was in them, but in included an entire jalapeño) 100 PTS EA. = 200 PTS

Grand total earned for Austin, TX: 275 POINTS

Even though I was eating a bunch of exotic foods I couldn’t help but feel afterward that it wasn’t too much of a challenge.  Every single one was delicious.  The mystery taco had us both tearing up from the spice, but I felt a little cheated that I didn’t have to pick insect legs out of my teeth or fight back my gag reflex.  Is that masochistic?  In fact, I left with plans to go back the next day to have some more beef intestine. (Tastes like jerky.)

Hog Ear Taco - See, looks delicious right?

Mystery Taco - Can anyone identify? Jalapeno and possibly a serrano? Still not sure.

But, I feel that justice came the next day when we realized that we played a part in helping Austin jump from #4 to the proud Top 3.

I may have to repent with some atomic buffalo wings later this year, but for now I’m very proud to have competed in the Dos Equis Feast of the Brave!

Has anyone else in the other cities tried the tacos there?  I’d love to hear how those cricket tacos are.

[Resolution] #10 Bringing People Together with the Power of the Donut Burger

This post isn’t about a burger.

Okay, well…maybe it is.

The donut burger, or for those who aren’t familiar, that mythical burger creature with Krispy Kreme donuts in place of buns, was something that was consistently on my “I have GOT to try that one day” list.  It shows up on the Food Network, it makes cameos in food blogs, graces the booths at state fairs, but that calorie monstrosity didn’t quite fit into my healthy eating plans….anywhere.

But, this year’s not about thinking about trying something, it’s about trying them all.  One donut burger won’t kill me.  At least not instantly.

This post is not only about the burger, though….it’s about how a ridiculous culinary creation brought together 4 people who would have never ordinarily been found at the same lunch table on an ordinary Wednesday, but somehow bonded over one similar artery clogging interest.

1) An ordinary girl on a mission (me), 2) A close friend who just happened to ask me to lunch on the day I went on said mission, 3) A Facebook follower / night club acquaintance, and 4) A morbidly curious vegetarian spectator.

Behold, my friends Marcus (left) and Enrique (right).  Morbidly curious vegetarian spectator William stepped out for a phone call during this photo and we just couldn’t keep our hands off of our food until he got back, so the world will never know what he looked like I suppose, but he lives on in my heart as the man who willingly gave up his lunch break to, in his own words, “watch a skinny girl eat a burger capped by donuts.”

How did this turn into a group affair?  Social media my friends.  A simple post to my Facebook revealed a few friends who were more than willing to trek out to Big Daddy’s Burgers & Bar to see what the “Hangover Burger” was all about.  They weren’t even close friends really, and the one serious taker (Enrique) I’ve seen all of two maybe three times at a night club that I frequent.

I guess when you look at the menu online and see “1/2lb Texas Beef Patty, pepper jack, a fried egg, bacon on a Krispy Kreme Donut. Served with bloody mary ketchup and fresh-cut fries,” it doesn’t matter how well you know a person. It’s on.

Next my unwitting friend Marcus, who is usually across town, was in my neighborhood for a job interview and asked if I wanted to grab lunch.  “Funny you should ask,” I said, and proceeded to explain to him the glory and the greatness of the Hangover Burger.  Always up for something new, he was in too.

Even though I let Enrique know that I had another taker, when Marcus and I arrived, he was there as he said he would be with a co-worker (vegetarian spectator William).  Regardless of whether we ate together or not, he’d show up to get one for himself.  But we were all there, and the donut burger had us feeling such a sense of camaraderie that we opted to get a booth together.

There was a bit of that “let me tell you what I do for a living” talk, Marcus tuned in and out of the baseball game on the TV behind us, and curious vegetarian spectator William doled out some pretty inspiringtimidating stories about how he had a 9 year streak of accomplishing his new year’s resolutions, one of which was going vegetarian. That one stuck for the next 6 years.  …You don’t know what you’re missing here…

But I respect you.

Point is, I worried for a moment that we may be too diverse a group of characters to maintain a conversation for an hour, but I was glad to be proven wrong.  Suddenly we were talking like old friends: bonding over television shows, our pets (blue heeler owners forever), and the upcoming NFL Draft.  …And then the burgers came.

I’ve described this burger to friends as tasting a little like a combination of unicorns and guilt.  But, more realistically it’s like…the McGriddle on steroids.  Anyone remember that thing?  The perfectly mouth-watering combination of savory and sweet, of breakfast and lunch.  The glaze from the donut melds with the salty fattiness of the beef patty and bacon while the richness of the egg and the cheese hug it all in their decadent embrace.

Look, I’m not a professional food writer here, all I’m trying to get across is that this thing is good.  Real good. I’d nominate it as a rite of passage food for any foodie.

So, with good food and great company, I entered the league of chicks who eat donut burgers.  And it feels good.

I wish I could end this story with something profound about the spontaneous gathering of strangers, but we really did just part ways without incident. Of course even if we never see each other again, I can say with certainty that it’s always great to meet new people, always interesting to hear new stories, and of course…we all left with food memories we won’t soon forget.