All posts by Peter Tsai

Reviews

Great Food Documentaries To Get You Thinking

Food Documentaries on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon

Ever since I cut the cord on cable TV about a year ago, I’ve been enjoying Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Instant Watch for their wide selection of movies, TV shows, and more recently, their wealth of documentaries about food and the food industry.

As foodies, we tend to have a niche within the food world that we are drawn towards. Some foodies love pigging out on BBQ, some enjoy the finer foods in life, some are all about eating local, while other foodies are about vegetarian or gluten free living.

While we might know a lot about our particular area, I find it fascinating to learn about other foodies’ interests and deepen my knowledge on a particular food subject.

Read about the 3 documentaries by clicking here

Food

The Simpsons Make Fun of Foodies

The Simpsons are cultural icons that have been a part of American and world pop culture for 20 years. During this time the show has featured played host to countless celebrities, politicians, and tentacled aliens and have parodied many cultural phenomenon in their 20+ year run.

With a show this popular, you know you’ve made it when the Simpsons make fun of you, and last week the Simpsons’s was all about poking fun at foodies! If you like food and haven’t seen the episode “The Food Wife” yet, you should watch this hilarious show about the food blog that Marge, Bart, and Lisa called “The 3 Mouthkateers”

Click here to read more about the Simpsons Foodie Episode

Austin, Food, Travel

On the Texas BBQ Trail – Lockhart, Texas BBQ Tour Comparison. Who’s BBQ is Best?

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With the title of the “BBQ Capital of Texas”, you know that Lockhart, Texas’s brisket, sausage, and ribs are going to be special. But with 4 famous BBQ restaurants within a mile of each other, which one should you go to?

For us, the answer was all of them! This weekend, myself and 8 friends spent the greater part of a day discovering not only which Lockhart Bar-B-Que restaurant (Kruez Market, Smitty’s Market, Black’s, or Chisholm Trail) has the best grub, we broke the rankings down by meat type in each establishment and have a suggested itinerary for you if you want to make the same meat eating journey.

To Find out which Lockhart BBQ we liked the best, click through to the entire article

Food

Asian Buns in Austin – “East Side King” Shangri-La Trailer – Full Menu Preview

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The Austin chefs featured on “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations” for bringing delicious Japanese inspired foods to the local trailer scene are at it again – opening their 3rd East Side King trailer in 2 years. While all 3 East Side King trailer locations feature Asian inspired menus, each location serves up slightly different cuisine.

The Liberty and Grackle ESK locations feature larger portions that likely require utensils, but the new Shangri-La location is all about the Bao, which are small, portable Asian Buns that are perfect for eating with your hands.

To learn more about the new East Side King Restaurant Click here

Recipes

Gadget Review – The Limebrero Promises to get Lime Juice into your Beer Faster and More Efficiently

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Happy Cinco de Mayo! Let’s celebrate with sombreros, Mexican beers, and a first from the TastingBuds! Yes, we are entering the age of new media with 720p HD video!

The following post is a video review of a new product that I heard about on the Diggnation show. The guys on the show liked the Limebrero, a hybrid fruit juicer / funnel that fits a standard beer bottle, so I thought I would give it a try.

I chatted with the Limebrero guys on Twitter asking if I could do a review for our food blog, and a few days later they not only sent me a Limebrero for review, they also included another product called the Lime Funnel.

Did the Limebrero work as advertised? Is this gadget actually more convenient than the old fashioned way of squeezing a lime into your favorite Mexican beverage (Dos XX in this case)?

To find out, either watch the short 2 minute video review, or click through for the answer.

Food

Rice Bowl Cafe – Best Taiwanese Food in Austin

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My parents are both from Taiwan. I grew up listening to post WWII stories from the mother country – you know the ones about working hard on the farm, walking barefoot to school, and barely having enough to eat. That last point is very important – because they didn’t have much food when they were children, my parents appreciate food and view it much more fondly than your average Joe. I have a feeling that most people in Taiwan have a reverence for food in the same way my parents do.

So where can you find authentic Taiwanese food in Austin where they care about food quality as much as they do “back home”? My favorite Taiwanese place in Austin is Rice Bowl Cafe, where you can get a little taste of the “motherland” here in the Live Music Capital of the World.

To read more about Rice Bowl Cafe – Taiwanese Food in Austin, Texas click here

Uncategorized

The Peached Tortilla in Austin, Texas – Food Photo Friday

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It’s always great to see good restaurants evolve and refine their menu as they continue to experiment and take their food to new places. The Peached Tortilla (which happens to be one of my favorite food trucks in town) is no exception, as owner and fellow Atlanta to Austin transplant Eric Silverstein (@peachedtortilla) and chef Lou Cantu (@Lou_PeachedTort) have been getting more and more creative with their fushion / mashup style mobile food.

If you haven’t been to the trailer in a while, today’s post shows off some of their newest creations in picture form.

Click through to see more pictures from the Peached Tortilla

Food, Weird

Bizarre Asian Food in Austin – 10 Ways to Eat the Weird

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Stir Fried Silkworms at the Korean Restaurant Together in Austin, Texas

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of eating bizarre foods, and I’ll go out of my way to eat something just to say that I’ve had a taste of the weird. I’ve eaten strange stuff like crickets here in Texas, snake meat / venom / blood in Taiwan, and donkey in China. I ate blood sausage and beaver carpaccio in Argentina, and turtle in Cambodia. While I’m not quite as adventurous (or rich) as Andrew Zimmerman, I can hold my own when it comes to eating Bizarre Foods.

Most savvy Austinites know where to find Mexican bizarre foods like menudo, beef tongue, and deep fried pork intestines (check out El Taquito) so I’ll skip over those and focus on weird Asian delights, where I have some expertise.

Click through to read more about Asian delicacies in Austin, Texas

Food, Weird

Eat Bamboo Like a Panda: Sustainable Produce From Your Backyard

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It’s nearly impossible to hang around foodies these days without hearing the words organic, sustainable, or some form of the word local (locally sourced, buying local, locavore). Well, today I’m going to propose a new type of backyard crop that’s all of these things – you might even have some in your backyard already.

Most people know that bamboo grows like a weed in hot climates like the ones found in Texas, so there’s no need for fertilizers or pesticides to get it to grow (containing it might be another issue). What many people don’t know however, is that bamboo is an excellent and delicious food source.

While we can’t eat bamboo straight-up like pandas do, billions of people around the world (mostly outside of the United States) find boiled, freshly sprouted bamboo shoots to be delicious (see the recipe at the end of this post).

Click here to learn more about growing and eating bamboo, and my parents’ farming adventures

Events, Food

Gypsy Picnic 2010 – Great Idea, Lots of Room for Improvement

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November 6th, 2010 marked the date of Austin’s first Gypsy Picnic, an event that was billed as an eclectic day of food, music, and fun. Austinites were certainly excited about the event – the Austin-American Statesman estimates that 15,000 people attended the event and at the time of publication, Gypsy Picnic had 8,099 Likes on it’s Facebook page.

However, as is the case with many Austin Festivals, Gypsy Picnic’s first year was not without its challenges.

Click through to read about our harrowing tale of waiting… and waiting… and waiting…