Downtown dining in Austin: Wiki Wiki Teriyaki 609 Congress Ave.
I guess it’s a price point that matters to me, a point where a meal is cheap enough feel decent about, and yet, the service is elegant enough to feel honored. As such, I’m afraid this version of Wiki Wiki seems to miss the mark in an already overcrowded downtown asian food market. Inside about three square blocks there are a four, maybe five asian places. Seems like the number keeps climbing, too.
At least the food is good.
Winter months, or days, seem to beg for a hot bowl of something spicy and nutritious. That how I got hooked on whatever that soup/stew thing is, pho? That’s why I wanted to try Wiki Wiki.
I’d like to give this place a good shot, since it’s a formula that seems to work well, but there are two drawbacks, sodium chloride and feng shui.
Wanting a chance to prove my local street cred by naming what was in that location before it was Wiki Wiki, but I can’t. I can go back through about three chain operations that have opened and closed there, but I can’t recall the original tenant. Part of that is that it’s a remarkably forgettable location, between 6th & 7th, on the east side of Congress. But then, it’s also got some kind of “bad juju” associated with it, as well.
The art (science to some) of placement and arrangement is a big deal. Across the street from Wiki Wiki is a recent sculpture, and it’s a woman hitching up her skirts and firing a cannon – the artillery is aimed right at the front door of the restaurant.
Bad placement.
What that statue is really about? Don’t piss off some woman, especially Texas women. They might be armed. With a cannon.
To counteract the placement of that sculpture, as I wandered in from the street, I noticed a “flowing water shrine,” the quiet tinkle of water in a fountain, a simple trick to help improve a place’s chi. Yes, and the problem was that the quadrant was off, as if it was a simple feng shui trick. If it doesn’t fool me, it probably won’t fool the wind and the water, either.
Otherwise, the place was apparently clean and well-lit, simple menu, superior green tea (iced). The meal itself, though, and I’ve only eaten there once, seemed to rely too much on salt as its main spice. The chicken was good, properly cut and sauteed to a perfect point, with fresh broccoli “al dente,” and the rice just sticky enough, without the dish being overloaded with celery (usually as filler).
When my order was ready at the counter, a woman who had been speaking in Spanish called to me to let me know my chicken was done. I could make out parts of the Spanish conversation; however, at an adjoining table, there was some talk in an Asian language about which I was clueless.
Less than a mile south of Wiki Wiki, on Congress, is another place, another chain, with a very similar menu. Between the two, despite the cannon and all, I would prefer Wiki Wiki. Price is just about the same. Ambiance is different, with the Wiki Wiki winning. But then, I might be biased. I just want to see one place survive that withering cannon fire.
website: http://www.wikiwikiteriyaki.com
The Cannon:
Angelina Eberly is depicted, firing the cannon that alerted the citizens of Austin to Houston’s attempt to steal the capital, not the money capital, but the Republic’s records. Tiny bit of Texas history. More info is here and here.
Two meat Tuesday
Questions, questions. But first, a little musical interlude: next week’s background for the weekly audio/video message. I got to toying with the material, and I spent way too much time having way too much fun, pretending that I was in studio, a real studio, and laying down tracks. Then playing mix and match. The problem? For the weekly message, I’m sure I’ll talk over all that fret work.
I’m sure I’m not the first person to mix and match such tracks, but I was stuck in loop, with the loops and samples, and I liked the way it was sounding. Whoever built the software? And laid down the actual tracks? Sense of humor, that’s for sure, the guitar work is titled “Monster Truck Guitar,” funny. Too funny.
Rock on.
Unrelated:
Picture index has been updated to include the 2005 collections – pictures, not words. (N.B.: approximately 45% of the images were taken in Austin.)
Thank you for your support:
This article, plus where I’ve been, and what I’ve got to look forward to, summed up a problem. Didn’t offer much in the way a solution, but I’m working on that.
Realizations:
I was doing three work-related items, all at once, Tuesday morning. Obviously, working on the audio track for the weekly audio-video presentation. Secondly, looking over the scopes, hoping I had everything together for the upcoming scopes, and thirdly, still trying to massage out one of two remaining scopes for the year.
I stopped, because I’ve been mulling over a comment from Sunday, and that comment was lurking like a little monster, waiting to fester and grow big, into a larger problem. I stopped and counted the upcoming scopes, 6 out 12 signs have internal references to events, actions, and placement in Austin. Recognizable locations, obviously infused with local color. That’s why I was confused about the comment, and why I didn’t get the point.
The website itself is a business venture, of sorts, but it’s also a showcase for my writing. There’s a side to it that’s only about the business, the subscription and astrology readings, but trying to divide business from my personal life is pretty much impossible. Plus there’s no way to to not link the two.
If writing is a way to figure out how wrong one’s thinking can be, then a personal journal is way to see the problems, wrestle them to the page, and address the issues. Or see that perhaps I’m giving credit to folks being able to think, or see the fine hand of my personality, shaped by my location, in the background. Usually having laugh.
We all have demons. The quality of life is dependent upon how one deals with one’s inner creatures.
