Things that Austin Doesn't Have (so don't ask) (Cedar Park: cost, shops)

[homeinatx]

Pizza in Austin varies from truly atrocious - about 90% of places to passable. Toppings are generally fine, but the CRUST!! If I want to eat saltine crackers with marinara sauce or a soggy skinless foccacio with sloppy joes on top, that's what I'll eat but it ain't pizza. A pizza crust should be chewy, never bready or crumbly or dense, some aeration, but not too much, with a little char on the bottom. The plausible explanations I have heard for the almost universal poor quality of Austin pizza is there's too much lime in the water and many places use corn flour (perish the thought) to try and get a little more chew. Pizza is best cooked in a wood fired brick oven - and contrary to the name of an unspeakably bad Italian restaurant in Austin, we don't have those here. I have had passable pizza at Homeslice, Eastside Pies, Cippolina's and Sagra, but never great pizza. The best pizzaI have eaten in Austin is at House Pizzeria on Airport, but any hole in the wall Italian place in New Haven, CT makes a better slice! Tex-Mex and BBQ are indeed wonderful here, but the bad pizza hurts, especially since I don't have a brick oven at home and so can't make it myself!

[paul6835]

My best comparison after 5 years in Austin to explain NYC pizza vs Chicago is to say that NYC is like great spare ribs with no sauce while Chicago style is like babyback ribs cooked in a sauce.

Neither tastes bad, but the prior takes skill and someone who's experienced eating enough bbq to understand why its better. I can take people from back north to County Line and they think its the best bbq they've ever had. You are also more likely to find good babybacks at a bad restaraunt than good spare ribs.

[woodinvilleguy]

love it or hate it. It is funny to see how many threads come down to Trader Joe's arguments. You have to admit that any store that has this fanatic responses must have something going for it. Not too many other brands have that response.

[WhinePatrol]

I got to page 3 of this thread and got tired of it. You know what Austin has TOO MANY OF? Whiners who moved here from somewhere else! If Austin sucks so bad, go back to wherever you moved from! We'd love to have the breathing room back!

[woodinvilleguy]

Originally Posted by WhinePatrol

I got to page 3 of this thread and got tired of it. You know what Austin has TOO MANY OF? Whiners who moved here from somewhere else! If Austin sucks so bad, go back to wherever you moved from! We'd love to have the breathing room back!

we aren't whining... in fact I even said what great things Austin has. No place is perfect. What we can do less with is people with bad attitudes claiming we are whining.

[twange]

Originally Posted by WhinePatrol

I got to page 3 of this thread and got tired of it. You know what Austin has TOO MANY OF? Whiners who moved here from somewhere else! If Austin sucks so bad, go back to wherever you moved from! We'd love to have the breathing room back!

Way to contribute a thoughtful opinion. Actually, taking the time to post in a thread you don't care about sounds kind of...whiney.

Nobody's saying Austin sucks: the idea for the thread was to compile a list of things that Austin doesn't have so that people will stop asking the same questions in this forum. It was actually sort of clever, sarcastic and good-hearted. You must have missed the point.

As usual, someone who thinks they're special because they're "from here" gets their panties all twisted up.

Have a nice evening and bless your heart

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by theSUBlime

Yeah, but that's because you're not buying anything you can really use. You can't use curry sauce to make anything besides curry and snacks are not going to make you a meal, you'll just be back next week after you're tired of eating curry.

Sorry, but the "You aren't buying anything you can really use" statement applies to 90% of what you'll buy at a regular grocery store, like HEB, Kroger, and yes even Food Town or Fiesta. No one is walking into those stores buying just milk, flour, and butter. We are all buying mostly stuff we don't really need, it's just at TJ's they don't rip you off. And many people recognize and appreciate that...

[Runemaster]

Originally Posted by mickey65

In & Out Burger

Oh... I miss In & Out...

[stan4]

A really good world class restaurant.

Lived there for five years and ate all around...had some good local dive stuff, mostly run-of-the-mill stuff...but never really found a really _great_ restaurant.

[Runemaster]

Originally Posted by theSUBlime

Yeah, I don't get it either. I think the wine section is cool, but that's about it. Trader Joe's just seems like a place for people who can't really cook, or are too lazy to. It's mostly full of sauces, freeze-dried and frozen stuffs. Preeety lame. I love making sauces myself and I like my fresh fruits and vegetables.

I never saw the allure either. Used to work two doors down from one in San Clemente when I was in my 20s and all our customers raved about it. Every time I went in it was picked over and didn't seem to have anything I couldn't find elsewhere. But, enough people obviously love it to keep them rolling in the cash.