AUSTIN, Texas – The City of Austin is home to numerous greenbelts, which always carry the risk of wildfire, especially under drought conditions and red flag warnings. Now, crews are better prepared.

On July 18, city leaders, representatives from the Austin Fire Department and several other departments marked a major milestone in protecting Austin from wildfires.

Council member Alison Alter announced that, as of this summer, every Austin firefighter has completed “Responding to the Interface” training, an advanced level of wildfire training. 

The program started in Austin through a collaboration with the International Association of Firefighters.

“I am very confident that the completion of this course by all Austin firefighters is going to bolster the effectiveness of our response to wildfire, ensure better protection for first responders, our community and our natural resources. I am so proud of our city’s commitment to public safety and community resilience. And, I’m excited to see that AFD will be supporting other jurisdictions, especially in this region, to implement this life-saving training,” said Alter.

Austin is the largest city in the country to put all of its firefighters through the Responding to the Interface training.

If you are craving Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Singaporean, and Southeast Asian food but can’t decide on one, then 1618 Asian Fusion is perfect for you. Located near Riverside and Lady Bird Lake, you will find the restaurant in a nice apartment complex area, but once you open the door, you will feel ready to eat delicious Asian food. 

The Menu

1618 Asian Fusion restaurant has a brunch menu that will make you want to come back for more. They call their brunch menu a “Build-Your-Own Brunch Tray,” where you can choose one appetizer, an entree, and a beverage. They even have a vegan menu. If you are feeling like you want to treat yourself during your brunch, you can order one of their four $8 brunch cocktails.  

Starters

As part of your “Build-Your-Own Brunch Tray,” you can choose one appetizer. We had the Sugar Cane Shrimp; ground shrimp and chopped cilantro wrapped around a piece of sugar cane. Our waitress said the way to eat it was by first eating the shrimp and then biting into the sugar cane to suck for the juices. The sugar cane had a subtle sweetness that added to the richness of the shrimp.

From their vegan menu, we had their Crispy Eggrolls; tofu, glass noodles, taro, and yellow onion. The dish also came with house-blended vegan sauce. It was my first time trying a tofu eggroll and it was very crispy and soft on the inside.

The restaurant was also generous in serving us the favorite starters of their brunch menu: Vegetable Dumplings, Duck Pan Fried Bao, Sui Mai, and Har Kaw. 

These Vegetable Dumplings were different colors of the rainbow. Inside, they were filled with bean curd, mushrooms, bamboo, onion, celery, sweet corn, ginger, and carrots. The vegetables in the dumplings added a nice soft crunch to every bite and tasted fresh. 

The Duck Pan Fried Bao was two bao buns filled with ground roasted duck, yellow onion, and shiitake mushroom. The bao buns were golden and crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside and had a light and sweet taste that added to the flavor of the duck filling. 

Finally, the last two appetizers were the Sui Mai and the Har Kaw made mostly of shrimp. You can taste the freshness and rich flavor of the shrimp in both dishes in every bite you take. 

Entrees

One of our entrees was the Brisket Pho. It was Vietnamese beef broth, brisket, rice noodles, bean sprouts, basil, lime, and serrano slices.  The brisket was very tender; almost melted in your mouth. And the broth was light and full of rich flavors. It was served with a dumpling soup and salad.

The next entree was the Yellow Curry Tofu. It was a curry with tofu, yellow onion, oyster mushroom, white mushroom, potato, and young bamboo shoots. The soup was thick and had a spicy kick at the end that was very tolerable. It was also served with white rice and vegetable soup. 

Given generously by the restaurant, we also had the Whole Peking Duck. It was roast duck with steamed bao buns, green onions, and duck sauce. I recommend adding the duck sauce because it is sweet, and also the cooked, crispy duck skin for an added crunch to your bao bun. 

Dessert

We were generously offered to experience the Flambeau Everest Cheesecake. It was a caramelized sugar, New York-style cheesecake served with Flaming Licor 43, cinnamon powder, and coconut pineapple ice cream. Our waitress came to our table with a standing tray and prepared the dessert in front of us. The cheesecake was warm, light, and fluffy. The cinnamon was not overpowering, and the ice cream paired perfectly with the dish. This would be a great dessert for the summer.

Drinks

I had two coffee drinks during my experience: the Café Sua Da and the Matcha Espresso. The Café Sua Da was a Vietnamese iced coffee with condensed milk and half & half. When you take a sip, the dark flavor of the espresso combined with the sweetness of the milk and half & half makes the drink very smooth. The other was the Matcha Espresso. The earthy taste of the matcha was very subtle and combined perfectly with the milk and espresso. If you love the taste of real matcha and espresso, this drink is for you. 

A drink I did have that was a choice in the “Build-Your-Own Brunch Tray” was the Chia Melon Tea. It was dried winter melon and dried pandan infused water with chia seeds. The flavors of the melon tea were sweet but tasted freshly made. You may think the chia seeds would be too much and a distraction when you take each sip but they weren’t. 

Location and Timings

Sun – Thurs: 10am – 9:30pm

Fri – Sat: 10am – 10:30pm

Happy Hour: Mon-Thur: 4pm – 6pm

Brunch: Saturday – Sunday: 10am – 3pm

Address

1618 E Riverside Dr, Austin, TX 78741

We enjoyed the restaurant and will go back again sometime. It was a very welcoming, intimate restaurant that would be great for getting together and having a memorable meal. Sharing a meal is traditional in many Asian cultures, and 1618 Asian Fusion is a great place where you can do just that with family, friends, or a date.

Austin, Texas, led the nation in dropping rent prices for the month of June, according to a new report from Realtor.com.

The South generally saw a surge in housing units as more builders target the area because of mass migration post-pandemic.

After Austin’s year-over-year rent drop of 9.5 percent, San Antonio, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee, also saw significant rent price decreases of 8.2 percent and 8.1 percent, respectively.

More From Newsweek Vault: How to Invest in Real Estate

“It’s difficult to know just yet if this is simply a trend or a long-term slide, but markets that were white hot during the pandemic like Austin and Nashville are experiencing a deceleration in demand,” Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor at the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek.

More From Newsweek Vault: Learn How Real Estate ETFs Can Help Avoid the Hassle of Rental Properties

Beene said the boom in remote work has regressed, and many workers have had to relocate back to their home office, which for many is outside of the southern cities they migrated to during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Realtor.com also attributed the drops to substantial increases in the supply of new rental units.

“To meet that demand, suppliers needed to come into the market and have now oversupplied the market with housing,” Kevin Thompson, a Texas-based financial expert and founder of 9i Capital Group, told Newsweek. “What you are seeing now is the natural market forces finding an equilibrium price, which will naturally fall, especially when you compare them to year-over-year numbers.”

Nationwide, rents fell 0.4 percent year-over-year in June, marking the 11th consecutive month of rent drops nationwide. The median rent for a studio to two-bedroom unit in the top 50 metro areas was 21.2 percent, or $305 higher than the same month in 2019.

“Rents have been steadily falling for almost a year, though the pace of the decline has slowed,” Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, said in a statement. “But rental costs have risen significantly since before the pandemic and inflation has further strained renters’ budgets, underscoring the need for more supply to meet demand and to keep renters from contributing an increasing percentage of their incomes to housing costs.”

The pandemic saw the housing market become severely disrupted, with some markets like Tampa and Miami in Florida seeing rents skyrocketing by up to 40 percent. Tampa and Miami still have some of the fattest rental-price growth versus their pre-pandemic levels, with Tampa up 39.5 percent and Miami 39.2 percent.

Beene said that in comparison, smaller metropolitan cities like Austin have smaller suburban areas that ultimately offer cheaper rents and even mortgages.

Austin also saw the number of homes for sale to climb by 26 percent to 13,227 active listings, according to the Austin Board of Realtors.

“As these markets continue to mature and have states that are seeing economic growth in all areas, it’s natural to see people reassess their living options,” Beene said. “If you can save a few hundred dollars in rent by driving to work 30 minutes each day, you usually do it.”

Thompson said that while the remote work age might be coming to a close, many workers will fight against it and could potentially come back to the city as housing prices become more affordable.

“Austin and other areas that have experienced substantial growth will likely see those growth rates decline to more sustainable levels,” he said.