During a trip to New York City, I had the absolute honor of trying out
Hanjan, a modern Korean restaurant.
The food was was utterly stunning with contemporary twists on traditional
flavors. I'm so thankful for the experience.
I didn't look at the menu so I can't say for certain which dishes these were,
except absolutely delicious. The tofu pictured above was cool, firm, yet
silky and creamy. The sauce on it brought back nostalgia like no one's
business.
For the kimchi enthusiasts, this offering is sure to please. Not only
was the kimchi perfectly executed, the perfectly stacked and aligned leaves were
nothing short of perfect presentation.
Get some skewers. Like all of them. Korean grilled meats some of
my favorite dishes.
This is probably the best seafood green onion pancake ever. The seafood
and green onion were enclosed in crispy wonderfulness. This is like
traditional green onion pancake on crack.
I think these were the spicy dumplings. They were wondeful pillows of
spicy goodness. Eat with the egg yolk to truly experience what it feels
like to be rich.
And more skewers.
And this fried rice was just done well. Really well. There were
little crunchy caramelized bits at the bottom, which indicates you did it
correctly.
And for dessert, some sorbets and red beans. I was in food heaven when
I tried these. They were slightly sweetened, clean, and refreshing.
Thank you, Hanjan, for the hospitality! I will be back in the future.
Alright, alright. We all know that Austin is growing up. We're
still trying to figure out how the infrastructure(s) of Austin are going to
handle the increased population. In the meantime, we can all complain
about traffic OR we can learn to be more considerate drivers. Now that our
roads are congested more than our sinuses during Cedar Season, every little
thing drivers do to create inefficiency or to disrupt flow can have a big impact
on the bigger picture.
Here's some ways to help the Austin traffic
situation along. None of these are groundbreaking, and these aren't the
only things that you can do. Some of the more obvious ones I won't be
talking about are 1. opting to work from home if possible 2. altering your
schedule to avoid peak traffic hours 3. taking public transportation 5.
car pooling or 6.
biking.
1A. Quit blocking lanes, especially turn lanes. Some of our
intersections are big enough for two vehicles. Quit blocking the lanes if
someone else needs to use another lane. Here's an example.
For crying out loud, scoot over and the let the person behind you get where
they need to go. My persona rule of thumb: If I'm close to the light, (like
the <5 adjust="" and="" br="" cars="" disrupting="" don="" flow="" for="" from="" get="" have="" i="" in="" lane.="" lane="" light="" m="" means="" nbsp="" not="" of="" people="" plenty="" right="" slow="" t="" the="" to="" turn="" turning="" you.="">
1B. Another variation is to scoot up! If someone behinds you needs to get by
to get into their lane, by all means, scoot up!
1C. Use the turn lane. They are meant to be used by people who are
turning. If you need to slow down or stop to make a turn, do that in the
turn lane. The driving lanes are for driving, not stopping or slowing if a
turn lane is available. If I need to post a diagram of this, then maybe
you need to start using public transportation.
1D. If you're in line for a drive thru, please make sure you aren't actually
blocking traffic. Other people might be trying to get by. Either
leave them some space or go park your car and go into the restaurant. Just
because you are waiting for to order food, everyone trying to get by don't need
to wait for you. There's no need to grid lock a parking lot.
2. When you see a parking spot, take it. Unless you need to park
someone to charge your electric car or you are qualified to use a handicapped parking
spot, you don't need a special parking spot. And don't take two spots.
Pick a spot. Stay in the lines.
Here's an example of something that did happen:
I'm backing up to leave a parking lot. Someone comes behind me and
wants my spot - and only my spot. My spot is not particularly special, and
it isn't even close to the entrance of the building. I'm not sure why
someone would want my spot over many of the other spots open right next to me.
The car behind me not only blocks traffic in the parking lot; she also caused
traffic to back up into the street. Yes, that's right. People in the
street were stopped on a busy street. While this situation doesn't
directly affect me, it did disrupt traffic flow. That's not cool.
Not cool at all.
3. Communicate with your fellow driver. I can't predict where you want
to go. I can't adjust my activity to accommodate you if I don't know what
you're doing.
3a. Use your blinker. If you need to turn or change
lanes, use you blinker. Practice using it consistently, even if no one is
around. Make it a habit so that you'll communicate consistently. Not
using your blinker probably isn't as severe of a mishap as running lights or
cutting people off, but it can streamline traffic flow because people can adjust
to one another.
3b. When you do communicate with others on the road, and they adjust their
driving to help you, give them the Texas Wave. Not the birdie. I'm
talking the friendly Texas Wave. This is just a term for communicating thanks,
acknowledgement, and a general pleasant salutation. You can the "Texas
Wave" three different ways. I've illustrated them in the video above.
They are the 1. old fashioned wave (just like it sounds) 2. Two second flash
(turn on your flashers for two flashes) and the 3. Digit dance (keep your hand
on the wheel and lift two fingers). You do this because Texans are nice.
If you just got to Texas, be nice on the road. Smile because dang it,
you're in Texas now.
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