Bits and Bites -- Food News!

                                                      Events -- Mark Your Calendars

-- Now in it's fourth year, the Austin Give 5% campaign is back for Earth Day. On Monday, April 22nd, participating businesses will donate 5% of their gross sales to seven area environmentally friendly non-profit organizations; last year's event raised $60,000. There are a ton of restaurants on here so go eat!

-- Lustre Pearl is hosting the Earth Day Happy Hour Benefit Concert on Friday, April 19th from 5 - 9 pm, which will benefit the Rainforest Partnership, that works to protect tropical forests in Ecuador and Peru. $50/person

-- The Tanger Outlets in San Marcos are hosting A Taste and Style Experience, on Saturday, April 20th, and Australian chef Curtis Stone will be there at 2 pm signing books; a variety of area food trucks will be on hand too.

-- Lambert's is presenting Vaca y Vino, a cow-roast, inspired by Argentinean beef traditions, on April 21st. Tickets are $100 or $120, including transportation from downtown to the event site, which is just outside of Austin. Chefs Larry McGuire and Lou Lambert will be at the helm (or horns?), Argentine wines and other Argentine foods will be available. Proceeds will benefit the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance. 

-- The Austin Food and Wine Festival is April 27-28 at Butler Park (adjacent to Auditorium Shores)!

-- Top Chef Fan Favorite Chef Fabio Viviani will be in Austin at BookPeople on April 30th at 7 pm signing copies of his latest book, Fabio's Italian Kitchen, which will be released on the 23rd.

-- La Condesa is having a Cinco de Mayo block party on May 5th from 1 - 9 pm, with free food, music and entertainment. More info is on their Facebook page for the event. 

 -- Jack Allen's Kitchen in Oak Hill will host a Spanish wine pairing dinner on May 7th, $95/person, five courses.  

Exciting News! 

-- Our very own Sugar Mama's Bakeshop WON their Cupcake Wars battle against three other bakeries! Super congrats to owner Olivia O'Neal and her head decorator Andrea Leck, as they created cupcakes to please Weird Al Yankovic. See their Facebook page for updates, they're currently offering one winning cupcake flavor a week (call ahead to reserve!), and I am hoping to interview Olivia in the near future about their experiences!

-- Austin Cake Ball has rebranded their Domain location into Copper Restaurant and Dessert Lounge. I've been invited to try it out, and will report back! 

-- Baker Street Pub on South Lamar is happy to announce their outdoor patio is dog-friendly. 

-- Speakeasy, the 1920s lounge downtown, has remodeled their mezzanine space giving guests a better look at the stage. Also note that the entrance has moved from 412 Congress to the alley, in typical speakeasy style.



-- Oh yeah, I almost forgot! The Austin Food Blogger Alliance (of which I am a member) has produced it's first community cookbook! I am super-excited, as two recipes of mine are included in it, and I helped with some of the editing. Our official book release party is actually tonight, and see the link above to find out how you can purchase a copy!  

Openings
-- Lucy's Fried Chicken will open a second location at 5408 Burnet Road, the former Austin Diner space. Michael Hsu will redesign the space, and look for a fall opening.

-- Zoës Kitchen, a branch of a national Mediterranean chain, is opening in Sunset Valley, 5601 Brodie Lane.

-- Teji's Indian, opening at 2100 Guadalupe, the second from the Round Rock restaurant and grocery.

Closed/Closing
-- Fran's on South Congress at Mary. The family-owned restaurant decided not to renew their lease (I can only imagine what the rent was). I went for a final burger and onion rings lunch on Saturday, April 6th, and wrote a brief obituary you can see here.

-- It's OFFICIAL. The South Congress food trailers have to be out from the lot May 25, as we prepare for a hotel. :(

Daruma Ramen

I recently attended a soft opening at Daruma Ramen, Austin's latest ramen shop, brought to you from the owners of Kome up on Airport Blvd. They've had ramen on their menu at Kome, but I am sure after seeing how popular Ramen Tatsu-ya and Michi Ramen have been, they decided to venture into the land of noodles as well. 

There are a number of things that set Daruma apart from the others.
-- It's located downtown, on 6th Street (yup), on the north side of the street, between Sabine and Red River Streets.
-- It's a tiny little spot, with at very most, seating for 30, and that would be pushing it! And while I love the decor at Ramen Tatsu-ya (I still haven't been to Michi), I really enjoyed the cherry blossom wall paper, and very minimal, clean lines of Daruma.
-- They're using a chicken-based broth, as opposed to the more traditional pork (tonkatsu) broth, and they have a vegan ramen bowl too, so these broths aren't quite as rich.

There were four of us (and you can read Mad Betty's take on Daruma here), and there were four ramen bowl options, so we got one of each, and passed them around the narrow table.

Shio -- certainly the lightest and cleanest, you can taste the chicken in the broth (which also takes hours to make). This would be the perfect "chicken noodle soup" when you are under the weather. The same noodles are used in all the bowls; I thought they had a nice texture and give to them, but more on the noodles in a minute.

Shoyu -- very similar to the Shio, but with the addition of dashi (made from fish and kombu seaweed) broth, which gives it a little more depth. Also characterized by the fish cake, or naruto, the white and pink-swirled piece next to the soft-boiled egg.

Miso -- this seemed to be the consensus favorite at our table! The addition of miso to the chicken broth really brought the umami sensation to your palate. Plus you have shredded chicken, the saffron threads, and a bit of chili oil.

Vegan -- talk about eating the rainbow, this was a gorgeous bowl! This vegan broth also takes an extremely long time to produce, which also makes it a touch more expensive than the other ones. Apparently in the broth is made primarily from Japanese sweet potato and I believe pineapple. At first I didn't really get the fruit influences in the broth, but I was gradually able to taste a light sweetness with almost tropical undertones I didn't see any sesame seeds (as listed on the menu) nor really taste the ginger in this bowl, but it will surely be popular with the vegetarians and vegans!

As we were eating, owner Kayo came over to talk with us. She had seen we were taking pictures of everything, and asked how the food was. She also told us about the noodles. They had just met with the noodle man from Los Angeles, and after sampling lots of different noodles, they decided to change the noodle slightly from what were currently eating. I was happy with the ones we had, but I believe the new ones will have a touch more bite to them. 

So on your next venture to 6th Street, go check Daruma out, but just remember, this is a lighter style of ramen than the other shops in town. The friendly staff also told us what "daruma" meant -- it's the little creature depicted on their bowls that serves as their icon, that's known as a talisman of luck to the Japanese. Good daruma, indeed.

RIP Fran's

Sadly, the Fran's on South Congress at Mary Street has lost their lease and they will close on Sunday. I went with friends G + M today to pay our respects. M grew up on South 2nd Street, and went to Fulmore Middle School which is catty-corner to Fran's. He said he'd been going there since he could barely see over the counter. As we were eating, he said: "You know the thing about Fran's? The burgers always taste the same. Just like I remember them." I am sure they've been using the same flat-top grill since they were Fran's + Dan's, many moons ago.

The two ladies working at the counter today confirmed the rumors; the one on the left said she grew up there, as her parents had worked there before her. They said there were no current plans for relocation, but the spot on Cameron Road remains open. There's various memorabilia lining the walls, from the license plates to photos, including a Friday Night Lights poster. Several of the diner scenes used in the tv series were filmed here.

We'll miss ya, Fran! 

And we'll pray that this corner doesn't become a new high-end condo project. We still need some character in South Austin.


Update, 4/7/2013
According to an article in today's Austin American-Statesman, Fran's chose not to renew their lease.

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!