January 12th Blog

Posted by on Jan 12, 2007 in Rob's Blog

I’m heading up to Beluga in Round Rock tonight for dinner with Marge, my daughter Jenn and her new husband John. Fish and Jae, two of my favorite restaurant owners, are having some kind of Russian rock band in to mix with their killer menu. Now there’s a combination: their classic Ahi Tower and Ivan and the Howlers (not really sure if that’s their name). Should be fun.

As many of you know, I sometimes find myself in the role of talk-show host on 590 KLBJ-AM when I fill in for Jeff Ward from 3pm to 6pm. Sometimes I talk food and wine, but often I comment on the social and political scenes. I’ve been doing it for the last 10 years or so and always immensely enjoy my outings on the air. One thing is abundantly clear to me: I’m not as liberal as I used to be. I’m leaning much more to the libertarian side and have developed an increased disdain for politics and politicians in general.
The reasons are quite simple. The majority of our national and state representatives sell us out on a daily basis. Lobbyists for powerful multinational corporations essentially write most of the legislation that’s passed and our reps are used to walking around with their hands out. That’s how we managed to get such stunningly inefficient legislation as the new Bankruptcy Law (one of the most unnecessary pieces of legislation to come down in 90 years). This one was bought and paid for by the typical vested interests.
And the number of earmarks (ways congressmen direct federal dollars to local pet projects) has gone through the roof.

I mentioned earlier that I would not want to own a restaurant. Nor would I ever, under any circumstances, want to run for any kind of office unless I could guarantee that every lobbyist would have to stay at least 10 miles away from any state or national capitol.

Saturday night we’re heading for Sampaio, the Brazillian restaurant on Burnet. Chef Magda is an excellent cook and I’m looking forward to her wares. I’m often asked if we are going to get a Churrascaria (such as Fogo de Chao) in Austin. I would love to see us have one of these South American meat palaces in the river city but that does not appear imminent. San Antonio had one for a while, Du Brazil, out near the airport. But it closed after a fairly short run.

The closest ones to us are in Houston and Dallas. Now that is some seriously tasty meat.

I’ve been asked to MC the Busby Foundation’s Taste of Austin event for ALS (Lou Gherig’s Disease). It’s going to be at the Hyatt on February 22nd from 6:30 to 9:30pm and will feature tasting stations from some of our finest restaurants: definite attendees include III Forks, McCormick and Schmicks, Kenichi, Roy’s, Moonshine Patio Bar and Grill, Dona Emilia’s, Mirabelle, Jeffrey’s, The Veranda, and Sicola’s: A Culinary Experience. This is going to be one very tasty evening. Please make sure to mark your calendars for this terrific event.

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