Bits and Bites -- Food News

-- Austin Restaurant Week runs April 7-10 and 14-17, with this year's proceeds benefiting Meals on Wheels; check out their website for the listing of participating restaurants. Lots of options for prix fixe lunches and dinners!

-- Monday, April 8, Easy Tiger is hosting an 8-course tasting dinner with the brewmaster from Avery Brewing, $100/person.

-- Songkran, the Thai New Year celebration is coming up.
    -- Sway is offering a special menu from April 15 - 21, including duck laksa, Singapore clams, and larp moo, with wild boar, coconut cream, and cashews. Plus, they are now offering valet parking in the evenings.
    -- The Buddhist temple out in Del Valle, Wat Buddhananachat, hosts a big Songkran festival each year (April 20 this year), with TONS of Thai streets foods available. I always love going, even though I don't know what half the foods are!

-- April 25 is the Austin Food and Wine Alliance's annual Live Fire event at the Salt Lick Pavilion. An impressive listing of area chefs are participating in this year's event! Check out their website for tickets ($75) and to see the who's who.

-- Tuesday nights are all you can eat mussels at Sagra, including $4 sangria specials. 

-- Johnny Carino's are supporting autism awareness throughout the month of April. From their press release: "Guests who post to Instagram with the hashtag #carinosblue will join the Johnny Carino’s campaign; the restaurant is hoping to receive 30,000 hashtags to match the $30,000 being donated by Johnny Carino’s."

-- If you're itching to get into the food trailer business, come up with a business plan and prepare your best dish on May 4th at the Historic Scoot Inn, for your chance to win a six month contract operating the Zorro food truck, the latest entity from ATX Brands owner Doug Guller. If you want more details, email me and I'll send you the press release.


Openings....
-- Benji's Cantina at 716 W. 6th Street at West Avenue

-- Umami Mia Pizzeria (in the old Romeo's on Barton Springs) is shooting for a May opening. The eatery will seat close to 200 total, and in addition to pizza, will feature sandwiches and salads, all of which highlight the umami taste sensation -- savory, rich, and mouthwatering!

-- Also in late May, Daniel Olivella's new Barlata Tapas will open at 1500 S. Lamar.
 
-- The Brew Exchange has over 100 beers on tap, and their prices are constantly fluctuating depending on demand; their motto "buy low and drink up". They are also offering beer cocktails, which seem to have fixed prices.

China Dynasty

I am still lamenting the loss of Suzi's Chinese on South Lamar. Yeah, I know, it was Americanized Chinese food, but to me, their sesame chicken was gold medal material. South Austin clearly lacks for Asian food, particularly Chinese, Korean, and to an extent, Vietnamese. So it was with excitement that friends told me about their discovery of China Dynasty, in the HEB strip mall at Slaughter and Manchaca. (They don't have a website.)

We went on a recent Saturday evening, and at about 7:30pm, there were only a couple other tables occupied. Our waitress was friendly, though as a non-Asian, we weren't totally sure how much she really knew about the food, but she did put forth a good effort. We started with their spicy dumplings, which were really not spicy, but the sauce that's over them was really delicious. I think they were more like steamed pork wontons with a very lightly spicy, thin brown sauce poured over them; that sauce would have been good on a lot of things!

Then our main dishes came. In terms of eating the rainbow, we were not very successful, especially since you usually don't see brown in a rainbow! Fortunately, their sesame chicken dish was quite good; I'd give it a bronze or maybe even a silver medal. In comparison to Suzi's, I would reduce points for the size of the chicken pieces (these were cut fairly small), it was perhaps a bit sweeter than I recall Suzi's being, and then simply for location. This is way far south, even for me, whereas Suzi's was about a mile away from my house; it's not a quick, convenient trip if I suddenly get a sesame chicken craving.

We had spied a couple of duck items on the menu, and asked the waitress what "Eight-jeweled Duck" was, so she went to the kitchen to find out. The primary difference between it and the other duck dishes was that it's boneless, and comes with a sauce. We tried it. It's an extremely heavy breading, which once you get past that, does lead you to some meat. But I'll be honest, it could have been dark meat turkey for all I know; I am not 100% convinced we ate duck that night. The sauce was a notch or two up from your standard Chinese brown sauce, and it was very well-fried, as it did not appear greasy, but boy, that was some thick breading.

Egg Foo Young is not something you see on many Chinese menus, and my friends had tried it here before and liked it. If you're not familiar, EFY is an egg dish, like an omelet with stuff in it; in this case, I think there was cabbage, onion, and pork. It was a little hard to tell what all was in there, but you had your choice of meats, and I know we said pork. Sometimes EFY is prepared flat, like a disk, here, they were molded, so I imagine they were cooked in some sort of domed vessel, plated, and doused in more brown sauce. It's a fairly dense, hearty dish, and we couldn't finish it all. I think what gives it the "Chinese" feel is the sauce.

Overall, I'd say that China Dynasty had decent food, but not exceptional. It did scratch my sesame chicken itch for the time being, but didn't think about things when we ordered, and had too much brown sauce!

Next South Austin stop in my quest for good sesame chicken -- Hunan Lion, where I haven't been in years!

Bits and Bites -- Food News

Events
-- Trailer Food Tuesdays at the Long Center resumes on March 26th; the list of tasty truck at this month's event can be found here.

-- Sagra will have an Easter Buffet for $25/person on March 31st.

-- Texas Veg Fest will be April 6th at Fiesta Gardens. 

-- Edible Austin is sponsoring a Children's Picnic and Real Food Fair, on April 7th at the French Legation. 

-- Austin Restaurant Week returns April 7 - 10 and 14 - 17. Check out their pages for what spots will be participating. 

-- The CultureMap Tastemaker Awards will be April 11th at the Driskill Hotel, $50/person, which benefits the Austin Food and Wine Alliance. 

-- On April 14th, the Sustainable Food Center's Chef Series Spring Bounty dinner will be held at La Condesa, $125/person, benefiting the SFC. The multi-course dinner will feature chefs from Congress, La Condesa, Lenoir, Olive + June, Salt + Time, Smoke + Chicken Scratch, and Sway.

-- And the iconic food trailer park on South Congress Avenue has gotten a brief reprieve, and the trailers are there through May, though I hear some are already moving out. Hey Cupcake has migrated about a block north, next to Homeslice. 

Openings
-- Smashburger, part of a California burger chain, has opened in Southpark Meadows.

-- Arro, the latest project (this one being French-inspired) from 24 Diner and Easy Tiger's Drew Cullen and his pastry chef wife Mary Catherine, will open in the former Haddington's (601 W. 6th) later this year. (Yes, Haddington's closed last weekend.)

-- Searsucker, from Top Chef and The Taste's Brian Mularkey, will open in the former Maria Maria (415 Colorado) later this spring.

 

Yeti Frozen Custard

A big Austin welcome to Yeti Frozen Custard! They have just recently moved to Austin from San Diego to launch their business, and are serving up cool, creamy, velvety deliciousness! Located at 1502 S. 1st Street, in the lot with LA Barbecue, at Elizabeth Street. Look for their teal blue truck (with the giant yeti) in the back of the lot. They're currently keeping hours the same as LA Barbecue, 11am til sold out, Wednesdays through Sundays, though with SXSW this week, they've also been hosting some music showcases. So if you come for barbecue, don't forget about dessert!

Yeti has vanilla and chocolate custard, and can also make you a Dizzy Yeti, with your choice of a topping (like a Blizzard from DQ, but better!), or a Floating Yeti with fizzy soda or Cuvee coffee. I had a Dizzy Yeti -- chocolate custard with peanut butter cups mixed in (trust me, they're in there!). See their website for the full menu.

This is Andy in her truck! Check their Facebook page and/or Twitter feed for updates; they have been really good about keeping these current, which I appreciate, and their branding is really spot-on. Yeti is delicious, and I am excited they are in my neighborhood. So go stop by, and tell her I sent you!

Oh, and you can take a pint home too!

Bits and Bites -- Food News

St. Patrick Day Celebrations
-- Fado, beginning at 9 am! Tickets are $10, and available in advance.
-- Chicago House, beginning at 10 am, featuring "the Blackened Bucket," Thirsty Planet's Bucket Head beer with Guinness.

Nominations
-- Two local chefs, Andew Wiseheart of Contigo and Mat Clouser of Swift's Attic are both up for Food and Wine Magazine's People's Choice for Best New Chef, Southwestern states. Go to the website and vote for your favorite(s) before March 18th!

Events
-- LOTS happening at Springdale Farm in the coming weeks. On March 17th, they will host a Peelander-Z Family Jamboree concert; March 23rd, a spring concert from the Zenith Quartet; March 30th, part of the Funky Chicken Co-op Tour; April 14th East Austin Urban Farm Tour; AND the announcement of Chef Sonya Cote's latest locavore project, Eden East, and outdoor dining establishment there at Springdale. From the press release: "Eden East's custom dinner experience will deliver prix fixe, multicourse meals bringing guests into the aura of the farm. Patrons can dine al fresco -- just feet away from where their food was raised -- or inside the cozy confines of a 1920's farmhouse surrounded by an exquisitely decorated pecan orchard."


Openings
-- Yeti Frozen Custard, a new food trailer, has opened next to LA Barbecue on South First Street.  (It's delicious, I just tried it! Blog post coming soon.)
-- Flour and Vine has taken over the space occupied by Hugo's, at 300 S. Lamar.
-- Coming later this spring to the old Romeo's on Barton Springs, Umami Mia Pizzeria.
-- Smashburger, a fast food burger chain, is coming to Southpark Meadows.