Well, January's not quite over but I am slightly behind the times! Here's my Top Nine photos from Instagramin 2019! Are you following me on IG?! I post more over there than I do on the blog.
Going clockwise from the top:
My one non-food picture, my main man #CharlieWhiskers
Chicken tinga tacos at ATX Cocina
New product from Upriver Cacao, cold brewed cacao, being demoed at Central Market Westgate
Hong Kong Noodles with char siu pork at Me Cong Bistro
Carbonara at the Artipasta trailer
Chicken liver mousse from Winebelly
Setting up for a Kamayan dinner at Be More Pacific
H-Mart's food court, including the Korean fried chicken and onion rings at Donkey Mo's and udon + tonkotsu from Roba Katsu
My homemade miso soup
Happy eating, y'all and here's to another year of delicious eats (and fuzzy cats!).
Greetings 2019 -- we welcome you with open arms! Here are my top photos from Instagram of 2018, food, a little politics, but no cats! Must work on that! ;)
Food from June's All Day, Peached Tortilla, and Din Ho. Cake by my friend @soojee and wooden board from my other friend @cooperandclaire with food styling by me. See my Instagram for all the details! :)
Happy New Years y'all! Time to go make some black eyed peas.
I bought a new pie dish last week and was immediately inspired to put it to good use! With a smidge of fall-like weather in the air, I thought I would try to summon more cooler temps and less humidity by making something autumnal. I am not a fan of pumpkin, so that was immediately out, and I know I'll be making pecan pie for Thanksgiving, so I decided to pass on that too. Going though some of my saved recipes (three binders worth, and then some!), I came across Pear Butterscotch Pie that had appeared in Gourmet magazine in 2009.
A photo posted by South Austin Foodie (@southaustinfoodie) on
The one note I left on my printout when I made it before was "yum!". Not very descriptive, but it was precisely that. Especially when served a bit warm with fresh whipped cream.
I think I can now add "Yum, YUM!" to my notes. It's a very easy pie to make, only made complicated by the crust. I made my own crust, because I am a pie-purist in that respect. I use Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipe, though I use half butter and half vegetable shortening. And I used Bartlett pears and fresh grated nutmeg, which I think always makes a difference. But if you are not a crust maker, the refrigerated pie crusts will certainly do, and you could do a lattice or other fun, fall-like motif. Do try to use the fresh nutmeg though!
And thanks to the Austin American-Statesman, who featured my Instagram photo in the newspaper, as part of their #austin360cooks hastags.
Enjoy! And meanwhile, I am still waiting for sweater weather........
Here's a little wrap up of some of the tasty things I ate this past year!
Top row: burger at Shake Shack soft opening, Indian food from Asiana, my mom's lamb chops at Christmas
Middle row: dim sum from Chinatown, cream puff from Cream Whiskers, LA BBQ
Bottom row: Gus's fried chicken, sandwich at Lucky Puccia's, pastrami plate at Pieous
Wishing you a happy, healthy, and very tasty 2016! Thanks for reading and following me on social media! Cheers!
-- Crabbie's Ginger Beer, the UK's best selling alcoholic ginger beer has finally made it's way to Texas. To celebrate, Fado's will have a launch party on August 8th, beginning around 8 pm. The first 50 people get a free Crabbie's drink! Full disclosure: their PR people contacted me, asking if I would mention on my blog, and sent me samples. I had never heard of Crabbie's before, but I am completely hooked! Serve over ice, with a twist of lime, and it's a perfect refreshing drink for this hot summer weather! Central Market Westgate has started carrying it as well. -- Pay It Forward with Daniel Curtis Benefit will be August 8th, 7 - 10 pm, $75/person at the AT + T Conference Center. The event benefits the Lone Star Paralysis Foundation,
and has an amazing lineup of area chefs donating their time and talents.
-- Olivia will hold their 5 year anniversary dinner on August 8th, $125/person, TEN courses with drink pairings! Email for reservations: eat@olivia-austin.com
-- Houndstooth Coffee is holding a Japanese Iced Coffee brewing class at their downtown location at 401 Congress, on August 10th at 4 pm, $30/person. Tickets can be purchased at either Houndstooth location.
-- Plinio Sandalio, pastry chef at The Carillon restaurant at the AT + T Conference Center, has unveiled some new lighter summertime desserts and digestif pairings, such as corn fritters with salted
butter ice cream, spiced lime curd and cotija crumbles served with bacon moonshine!
-- There's a Kickstarter underway for a digital thermometer called Range that hooks into your iPhone or iPad, making your smart device into a smart thermometer. Developed by an Austin company called Supermechanical.
Openings -- Planet Sub, a sub and salad shop has opened in the Brodie Oaks shopping center on South Lamar (by Sprouts); from their website, another location is in the works for downtown at 9th and Congress.
-- Smashburger opens its second location on August 14th at 14028 N. Highway 183 (Cedar Park), with plans to open a third location in the
Mueller development in late 2013.
-- Mighty Bird, a new rotisserie chicken concept restaurant will open two spots, one at 2900 Anderson Lane and the other at 12200 N. Highway 183. -- Royer's Pie Haven will open in the old Toy Joy at 29th and Guadalupe. -- New food trucks I've seen in South ATX: Snap Foods (healthy!) at South Lamar and Bluebonnet and Potato.A (poutine) at South Lamar and Mary (behind Corner Bar). -- The new HEB at Mueller opened last week. Went to check it out with a few other foodies. The building is stunning, gorgeous architecture, and even sitting on the covered patio for lunch (close to 100 degrees out) wasn't bad at all. Gotta be honest though, the cafe food was mediocre (brisket and fried Brussels were decent) but other items were unexciting (egg rolls drowning in grease, chicken with strange texture in Asian chicken salad {probably previously frozen}, under seasoned salmon bowl). And the rest of the store is just like a regular HEB (though a nice one, like at Escarpment or 360/Bee Caves). Been there, done that.
Closings -- To my major dismay, SPIN Modern Thai closed last week. I only ate there once, about 6 weeks ago, and it was one of the best meals I've had in a long time. A very informative interview with the owners ran in the Austin Chronicle; basically, they made some bad financial decisions coupled with major repairs that they couldn't recover from. One of the chefs says he will be assisting his sister get Titaya's back open later this fall.
-- East Side King trailer at the Grackle Bar has closed. (Bring it south, though there has been steady construction on ESK's brick and mortar spot on South Lamar!)
Misc.
-- I had the pleasure of meeting former Top Chef contestant and Italian restaurateur Fabio Viviani at a food blogger meet-and-greet just prior to his book signing at BookPeople on April 30th. He oozes charm, talked non-stop, and was excited to meet a group of dedicated food bloggers. He asked for our cards, and said he was always looking for guest bloggers for his online magazine. Well, sure enough, about a week later, I was contacted by his PR team, asking if I'd like to write a guest post on lasagna, for National Lasagna Week. So if you saw my Summer Skillet Lasagna post from 2 weeks ago, that's the recipe I created for Fabio! You can see the entire issue here, and my lasagna is on page 12!
