Dinner with Olivia

Friday night I found myself at liberty since M, who is a culinary philistine, and L are out of town, so I wanted to go somewhere more interesting to eat than the neighborhood Tex-Mex joint.  I pulled Olivia’s name at random from the Austin Chronicle’s food issue, and it became the night’s adventure.

I walked in about 8:30 (I’m a fan of late dinnertimes) and only had to wait a couple of minutes for a table.  The restaurant was quite full and the noise level was … noticeable, but not dreadful.  I asked the waitress for recommendations from the menu to fit around my diet restrictions—not a lot of carbs because diabetes, and no shellfish at all because anaphylaxis.  She recommended the pork loin with mole and rosemary grits, and I said yes to that, but not without thought—the ox tongue looked tempting as well, and I never get organ meats at home.  She also talked me into a crispy honeycomb tripe appetizer, which wasn’t hard because as mentioned, I never get organ meats at home.

The tripe was great, a combination of unction and crunch that paired very well with the lightly candied walnuts and roasted grapes that accompanied it.  I had a quibble or two with the herb mélange they sprinkled it with, but was easily able to eat around the ones I didn’t care for.  (Mint:  great idea, tarragon:  well, maybe, flat-leaf parsley:  not so much).  I think I surprised the chef a bit with my order.  He sent the waitress around later to see whether I actually liked it.  I did, and sent my plate back quite empty.  It turned out to be more filling than I expected; together with a bowl of pommes frites, also from the appetizer menu, it could have made a perfectly respectable dinner.

There was a longish interval before my entrée came; I don’t know what that was about.  Still, when it did come it turned out very interesting:  a sliced collop of tenderloin on a bed of grits sauced with a broad stripe of mole, and decorated with dabs of sautéed banana and pickled onions.  The pork itself was cooked slightly pink in the center, nicely avoiding dryness and toughness.  The mole was more peppery and lively than I expected, with chile flavor very much to the fore and nuts and seeds retiring into the background.  The grits were somewhat salty by themselves, but not obtrusively so taken with the pork.

Since I was so full from the tripe, I ended up eating only half the pork and having the rest packed to go.  The waitress tried me with the dessert menu, but I was too full to essay it, although the tobacco vanilla panna cotta sounded intriguing. I’m not sure about some of the others, though.  (Bread pudding with ROASTED SPAM ICE CREAM??  Seriously??)

Appetizer and entree for one ran me $43 with tip, which was OK for what it was.  Olivia isn’t something I would do every day, but it was certainly a nice treat and a change from the daily plod.