Man v Juan In a Million: An Interview with Eating Champion Christopher Huang

June 25, 2009 Peter Tsai 4 Comments

Eating Champion Christopher Huang with store owner Juan Meza

Being a foodie isn’t always about eating fancy 3 course dinners consisting of food that’s hard to pronounce. On the contrary, often the best tasting foods are inexpensive, hearty working class comfort foods. In Austin, a perfect example of great everyday, utilitarian food is the breakfast taco. Arguably one of the best breakfast tacos in town is the huge ‘Don Juan’ (made with a generous serving of potatoes, egg, bacon, and cheese) at Juan in a Million, a mecca for hungry diners in East Austin that hosts an eating challenge so infamous it was recently featured on The Travel Channel’s volume eating show, Man v Food.

In the Austin episode of Man v Food, host and eating challenge extraordinaire Adam Richman attempted and failed to break the Don Juan Challenge record held by Christopher “Hong Kong Hero” Huang, who in 2004 ate an astonishing 7 Don Juan tacos in one sitting! Huang, who set the record while he was a student at the University of Texas in Austin, has worked many jobs in the food industry including selling peanuts at a ballpark, delivering pizza, serving in a fine dining restaurant, and his current job managing Berripop, a frozen yogurt store in Houston, Texas.

Fooding blog pulled Christopher away from his busy schedule long enough to ask him about his amazing record and to get inside the head of a certified eating champion.

Click here to read more about the life of an eating Champion!

Drinks, Reviews, Wine

Random Wine of the Week – Mulderbosch

June 18, 2009 Jon 3 Comments

Buying wine doesn’t have to be a confusing experience. You can find great, inexpensive, everyday wines anywhere. This post is the first in a series designed to help those of you new to wine (and even experienced oenophiles) learn which wines you like and which ones you don’t. I’m calling it Random Wine of the Week, because I will (and hopefully you will too) select, drink, and review a random wine every week.

What I mean by random is that I will visit my local wine merchant (supermarket, liquor store, wine boutique, etc…) and select a wine based on factors that have nothing to do with the wine itself. For example, this week I have chosen a pink wine starting with the letter M. Next week, I’ll choose a bubbly starting with the letter S. The following week, maybe I’ll try a red wine with a tree on the label. And so on. I’ll keep the price range on all of these wines to less than $15.

Then entire point of this activity is to experiment and taste new wines. I would highly recommend that you start your own wine journal to capture the information from the label and your opinions of the wine.

So go on, invite some friends over, pick out some random wines, and enjoy!

Click here to see my selection for Random Wine of the Week

Comparisons, Field Trips, Food, Reviews

Austin Cupcake Comparison

June 12, 2009 Kristina 14 Comments

Why do we love cupcakes? We’re all adults here at Fooding Blog – for the most part, anyway. Shouldn’t we be eating grown up desserts like crème brulee or some kind of dowse-with-brandy-and-set-on-fire thing? Don’t get me wrong: I love a good crème brulee, but it requires a torch and a utensil.

Cupcakes, however, remind us that it’s ok to feel like we did as kids, when dessert was fun and gooey and colorful. They remind us it’s ok to eat with our hands and get a little frosting on our chins and maybe on our shirts too. Cupcakes remind us that desserts don’t always require an open flame.

Click here to read more about the Austin Cupcake Comparison

Food, Reviews

Martha Stewart’s ‘Cupcakes’ Book Review

June 10, 2009 Sondra

With the cupcake’s new found popularity, it comes as no surprise that the Queen of everything food/home/gardening/entertaining would quickly step up to release an all inclusive guide on Cupcakes. Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone’s Favorite Treat (link goes to Amazon.com) arrived on my doorstep early last week, and I was hooked at first sight. The tasty cover photo and title sum up everything that this book is about – Cupcakes!

In true Martha form, anyone who reads this book will walk away more educated about the art of the cupcake and definitely inspired to bake. The book includes 175 recipes categorized into visually appealing sections including Swirled & Sprinkled, Piped & Topped, and Birthdays! Inside, the reader will find recipes running the gamut of cupcakes from the traditional Devil’s Food to the creative and exciting Amaretto-Pineapple Cupcake. Additional chapters of the book provide inspiration on Displaying, Icing, and Preparation and include Decorating Templates & Clip Art.

Click here to read more about Martha Stewart’s new cupcake book!

Drinks, Food, Recipes, Wine

You CAN Win Friends with Salad – Taco Salad that is…

June 7, 2009 Sondra

According to the Bart Simpson song from ‘Lisa the Vegetarian,’ You Don’t Win Friends with Salad! (link goes to YouTube)

While we love the Simpson’s, my husband and I have to disagree with their song. The following take on Taco Salad is sure to be a crowd pleaser whether you are cooking for a large group of friends, your family, or making dinner for one. After all, who doesn’t like things topped with crushed chips and cheese!?

The following recipe will feed 4 hungry salad eaters.

Click here to see the rest of the post

Drinks

Charleston Sweet Tea Vodka – Frosty Beverage Friday

June 5, 2009 Peter Tsai

I’ve already talked about the delicious food I had on my culinary tour of South Carolina (Shrimp and Grits and Bojangles Fried Chicken), but it would be wrong to omit another South Carolina low country favorite that helps the locals beat the summer heat. I’m not talking about food on this one, but instead a delicious sweet iced tea vodka drink that was all the rage at the local bars.

Because sweet tea is a Southern favorite, it’s no wonder that this drink is so popular in Charleston. For those that don’t know, people in the deep south add a lot of sugar to their tea (almost too much for my liking), and the resulting sweetness is a perfect way to mask the strong vodka flavor. In fact, the first comment that most people make upon trying this drink for the first time is that they can’t taste any alcohol at all.

Click here to read more about Sweet Tea Vodka

Food, Recipes, Travel

Shrimp and Grits (Prawns and Hominy) – Great Meals

June 3, 2009 Peter Tsai 1 Comment

If you are a regular to the blog you might know that I went to South Carolina a few weeks ago to photograph a wedding in Charleston and get my Southern Cooking fix. I’ve already written about my fast food experiences on this trip (see my post on Bojangles’ fried chicken), but I did get to sample some highbrow South Carolina cooking during the wedding as well at the restaurant Tristan at the French Quarter Inn.

The bride and groom really love food, and their reception seriously had some of the best wedding food I have ever eaten. The highlight of the meal was definitely the Shrimp and Grits, or ‘Prawns and Hominy’ as the restaurant Tristan likes to call it. While those who have never had this dish might think that the combination of shrimp and grits together (pictured above on the right) is weird , trust me on this one – get over it, eat it, it’s delicious and you won’t regret it.