Tootsie on Tour: Austin, TX

**Disclaimer: The content of this post reflects my own personal views, opinions, and experiences.
This post does NOT express the views or opinions of my employer.**

The venue: Bass Concert Hall


(stock photos)

Covid Tests to Date: 60

TikTok: Was too tired to make one this week, too bad for you :p

---------------------------------------------------------------

Our travel day turned into a 15-hour slog due to a "mechanical issue" with our plane.
I'd much rather endure a delay than have the plane I'm on fall from the sky!
However this did make our day a lot longer and more stressful than expected.

All three meals at the airport, a few flight changes as our tour manager and American Airlines tried to get us where we were going.
Eventually we got to Austin in separate groups, with the earliest group arriving around 9:30pm (that's me, lucky) and the latest arriving I think around 11:30pm or midnight (oof).

I unpacked and went straight to bed, but did note-to-self that my refrigerator does not seem to be working very well...it's definitely hovering around 50F in there, which is not safe.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, I woke up early because I was stressed out.
This week the theatre is 3 miles from our hotel, and we have been given rental cars to share, but it still means extra time to get to and from the venue each day and extra planning for all sorts of things like meals and show prep and warm-ups.
That and the fact that I hadn't been able to get groceries yesterday AND dreams about my lukewarm fridge all had me up at 7am.

I went to the front desk first to report the fridge for insubordination, then walked to Easy Tiger, a local bakery right down the street from our hotel.

As soon as I stepped outside I felt better.
It was one of those magical pre-spring days; overcast, the air cool and humid, but there was a hint of warmth to come, and the birds were singing their heads off in anticipation of the haze lifting for the sun. It's the kind of morning that reminds me of Easter Sundays at my mom's house...of being gently shaken awake at 5am for sunrise church service, but feeling excited rather than annoyed about the early hour.

With this calming aura of times past around me, I had a very nice walk to the bakery.

Founded in 2011, Easy Tiger is a beer garden slash bakery that makes rustic breads and German pretzels and beautiful pastries, and also serves a few egg items for breakfast, and also holds events and baking classes. The breads are made each morning with local ingredients, on site.
I wanted to take pictures of the baking equipment and pastries, but there were four employees staring at me and I didn't want to be a weirdo.

Torn between a 40% rye/sourdough blend and a sourdough quinoa, I finally settled on the quinoa just because it's slightly more unusual.


It has a lovely texture, the toasty quinoa grains have a crunchy pop.


After a brief stop in my room for coffee and to pray for maintenance to come look at my fridge, I walked to Target for groceries (and a bag of ice to preserve said groceries). I'm grateful to be within easy walking distance of a Target this week! It was a surprising 86 degrees out, so by the time I got back I was all hot and bothered, but maintenance was there to swap out my fridge just as my bag started to leak from the ice so that was perfect.

But I still wasn't done. After all, I got up at 7 and it was now only about 10am.

I went walking again, this time to 99 Ranch Market.
It's an Asian grocery chain--like, one of the really big ones.
I knew that I would love it. And I did.


No, I didn't get any Peking duck, but I sure wanted it!
And there were soft fluffy castilla roll cakes in the bakery, and succulent-looking bites of seafood in the back, and exciting and exotic ice creams and dumplings in the freezers. I wanted it all, so so much. But, we are only here for a week, and I have a tiny baby fridge.

So I window shopped and that was fun. Then I picked out what I could carry back and eat for the week.


( Read more... )