Category Archives: Austin nights

Stuff that happens around Austin… after dark.

Book of Mormon

We went to see this last Saturday at the Bass Concert Hall. It’s extremely funny and pretty insuling, although a lot of those insults apply universally to all religions.

I honestly wonder what my mormon colleagues think about it. I’ll ask around.

Impossible Burger

Have you read about the Impossible Burger?

I have, and I was terribly curious about it: a California company using high-tech to create a vegetarian burger that looks, feels, and tastes like the real thing. Sound familiar? Yes, because we covered in 2015 we talked about the Beast Burger. This is different. They somehow made plants produce tons of heme which is abundant in meat and allegedly is what gives the hamburger it’s taste.

The only problem is that the list of places that carry it is very short. Recently, popular local burger joint Hopdoddy was added to that list.

When my grandmother and aunt came to Austin for an unrelated event, I took them to try it (they only eat kosher meat, and this is meatless).

But they were sold out.

Not one to be easily discouraged, I tried again by myself. This time they had it. This is what it looks like:

Impossible burger at Hopdoddy's
Good looking burger. No meat.

The time of truth.

The inside.

Visually, it’s striking. It looks like a real hamburger. They make it red and stringy like a real hamburger. According to them, the secret is adding plant-mad heme which is abundant in blood thus meat – except this heme is somehow produced from plants.

Taste-wise: it’s pretty good. You can tell it’s not a real hamburger, but when mixed together with the bun / cheese / lettuce / tomato / etc. then it doesn’t really matter that much.

Verdict:

  • Does it look like the real thing?
    Yes.
  • Is it tastier than the real thing?
    No, but it’s close.
  • Is this healthier than the real thing?
    Maybe.
  • Is this cheaper than the real thing?
    The one I had was just as overpriced as every other hamburger sold there.
  • Is it better for the environment?
    Definitely. Beef is terrible for the environment.
  • Will this make hippies who think “all natural automatically means healthy” happy?
    No, they use genetic engineering to get plants to make lots of heme. But if you believe that genetic engineering = “bad” then get out of my blog and go read some horoscopes.

 

 

Chris Rock

Shlomit took me last week to see Chris Rock at the Bass Concert Hall. I expected the show to be very good, but it exceeded my expectations.

 

I find it interesting to see how the topics of his jokes have changed as he (unlike me) has aged. Lots of stuff about raising kids, divorce. He spent a good twenty minutes on jokes about… mortgages! Less than what’s considered average nowadays about politics, a good thing.

You will see zero photos about the show because they had the most extreme no-phone policy I’ve ever seen, forcing everyone at the entrance of the theater to put phones and smart watches in an opaque pouch that you can only open with a magnet, no unlike the security tags on clothing at stores.

The Ugly Nun: “Say hello to my little friend”

It’s been years since The Ugly Nun was last seen. Many were hopeful that was the end of it. They will be disappointed. Tonight there was a confirmed Ugly Nun sighting, and it gets worse: in spite of being celibate, she appears to have procreated.

Oh, the humanity!

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They’re ugly. They’re holy. They’re constipated. And they’re way past their nap time.

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Like Mother Superior, like son.

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Sixth Street doesn’t stand a chance.

Disclaimer: the smaller Ugly Nun is actually a paid actor, his name is Ilan Kirsch. The larger one, nobody’s sure what that is.

Momentum

I attended the Momentum dinner a week ago. Hosted by Ken Herman, columnist for the Austin-American Statesman and with featured speaker Dan Senor, co-author of Start-up Nation: The History of Israel’s Economic Miracle. Oh, and kosher BBQ by Kogan.

Mr. Senor’s talk was not about the book. It was about the recent developments in the Middle East – the toppling of the Tunisian and Egyptian governments, the uprisings in Syria, Yemen, Lybia etc.

Ken Herman at Momentum

This guy knows what he’s talking about and it was an extremely interesting and engaging talk. If you attended, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Dan Senor at Momentum