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.

Songkran/Thai Festival at the Buddhist Temple

Songkran is the Thai new year's festival, and it's apparently one of the bigger celebrations, held in mid-April. (Read about it on Wiki here.) There's a Buddhist temple in Del Valle, out past the airport, Wat Buddhananachat, and there are currently 5 monks who live there. The Thai community prepares all kinds of street food, there is karaoke, raffles, beauty pageants, and moon bounces for the kids, and I think the monies raised benefit the temple. I've been 3 or 4 times now, and Songkran is the one you want to go to for all the varieties of food! 

We've also learned they tend to run out out of certain foods, so best to get there early. The flier I had was mostly in Thai, but I think they get started in the early afternoon, though it isn't til the evening when the pageants are held. We got there about 6 pm, and hit the ground running, buying up foods as we came across them so we wouldn't have to backtrack!

It started with a salad bar clam shell container of fried chicken skins for $5. Really it's a bargain, and they are utterly addictive! Same booth also found grilled pork skewers, which I think were 3 sticks for $6. Marinated in some galangal and lemongrass. We found yellow curry chicken in a puff pastry-type dough. Fried fish cakes. Grilled fish balls. Fried plantains, dipped in this yummy batter with black sesame seeds, that kind of caramelizes when fried. Sesame balls with a sugary egg yolk filling. There's one table inside the main hall that always makes the best green papaya salad, and they'll ask you how hot do you want it (medium!). And then there's the puffed rice cakes, drizzled with palm sugar, that I am also addicted to. So a bunch of us take some wine (don't forget the bottle opener!), and kind of have a big communal table of foods! 

Here's a woman sitting on a table, tending to the fried plantains. Yes, she's barefoot. While I've never had a problem with the safety and sanitation of the foods there, it IS a street food festival.  I had never had these plantains before, and they're terrific!

Below -- upper right: chicken skins; bottom right: green papaya salad; middle: pork skewers; bottom left: egg roll and fried shrimp, which came with a really great sweet/sour/peanutty sauce.

Above -- curried chicken in puff pastry, sesame balls, plantains; below, my breakfast the following morning! Peanut butter toast, with some of the reheated fried plantains and my beloved rice cakes, which I am eating as I write this! 

Lots of kids, seems like more people this year than last, and in general, a cacophony of noise. But the unique foods make it all worthwhile. Only disappointing thing is now I have to wait another year for the tapioca balls with peanut filling that we missed out on this time. 

Many thanks to my Thai friend Noi, who took me inside the actual temple and residence hall of the monks, and introduced me to the head monk, who was a very genial host.