On the road again: Austin, day 2

I can't talk much about these business trips, but it was a very busy day.

I can mention the rather odd way it began: about half an hour before I had to get up, a time period that was a large chunk of the sleep I got, my alarm clock exploded to life with the words, "Bill O'Reilly is mad at Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian."

Weird words to wake up to.

I suppose it serves me right for not following my usual travel rituals and verifying the alarm is off each night before I go to bed.

Dinner tonight was at Max's Wine Dive, whose URL you can unfortunately read as, "max swine dive." That prompts my imagination to create many images, such as a pig on a high board, the highest of high boards, about to leap for a record.

Or maybe that's just me.

In any case, we went there because the menu featured so many just plain messed-up dishes that I had to try some of them.

Such as this concoction, the Texas Poutine, which includes jalapeno grit fries, bacon gravy, house made pickled jalapenos, and Water Oak Farms cheese curds.


It was tasty and odd, exactly as I'd hoped. I would have preferred a stronger brown gravy and a bit more jalapeno in the fries made of grits, but I'm still very happy I tried it.

Tastier still was the Texas Haute Dog, which we, of course, ordered Texas-style: an Angus Beef dog on an artisan bun with chili, jalapenos, and cotija cheese. It was wonderful and enough different from any other hot dog I've tasted that I was proud to have added it to my long list of hot dog variations I've eaten.


Note the onion rings on top: they and the peppers were as close to vegetables as this meal came.