It is that time of year in Austin when the promise of the temperature breaking below triple digits is just around the corner. Until then, you need to actively seek some form of icy goodness to keep you cool. Lick grants serious ice cream aficionados (aka toddlers) and foodies alike an amazing array of flavors to choose from. Trust me, no matter how strange the flavor sounds, you are in for a delectable treat.
Portions are just right
Lick serves up their ice cream in gelato sized (earth friendly) cups. Not being a huge dessert eaters – we usually get a couple of scoops to share among 2 people and it’s just right.
Instagram photo of raw oysters taken by @supertsai
We all know that a huge number of chefs, restaurants, and foodies have websites, blogs and Twitter accounts. Social media is an excellent platform for us to talk about and share pictures of the food we so love.
Instagram is a simple social media platform with an emphasis on a single photo per post. Instagram’s visual and instant nature makes it a perfect medium to show off what you are currently eating or cooking.
I don’t remember the last time I had chocolate milk. It’s too sweet, tastes more like powder mix than any good chocolate I’ve ever had, and drinking it out of paper milk cartons ruins the entire experience. It used to taste good when I was 12, but it’s not suited for adult tastes.
Don’t even get me started on strawberry milk, that’s gross.
Just when I was about to turn my back on flavored milk altogether, I discovered something delicious on a recent trip to Korea… sweet banana flavored milk!
Why hasn’t anyone in the United States thought of this?
It’s a great time to live in Austin for foodies. It seems that every few days, a new restaurant is opening up somewhere in the city. A couple of years ago it was easy to know about all of the restaurant openings around town, but now it’s almost impossible to keep up.
Now that Austin has become the place to move to for many (including entrepreneurs and restaurateurs) it feels like the city has hit a tipping point where the food scene is changing in profound ways as new flavors and cuisines are introduced.
Whether at a new sit down restaurant or trailer or food truck, Austinites have more food options than ever.
When I think about childhood, I immediately remember mom’s home cooking. When I think of comfort food, I don’t think of meatloaf and fried chicken like many other Americans – I think about Taiwanese street food. One of my favorites is a savory, flavor packed pork dish that’s quite simple to make at home.
Back in the motherland you can get Taiwanese pork rice (魯肉飯 / 滷肉飯 / lu rou fan) in any street market and in many Taiwanese style restaurants. I haven’t found it here in Austin, Texas so I have to make my own using mom’s recipe.
Updated on Oct 22nd 2013 to include new places (Rockin Rice, Hanabi, Ichiban) and closures (Shilla).
For a city of its size, Austin is an unlikely destination for Korean food. However, when you consider that Samsung, the largest Korean company and one of the leading electronics manufacturers in the world, has a huge factory here that’s staffed by many Korean nationals, it comes as no surprise that there are an abundance of Korean businesses in Austin.
Korean food in Austin is located mostly in the central part of town on Lamar Blvd, although some markets and restaurants are located up north closer to Samsung (which is located on East Parmer Lane near I-35). There are a few Korean fusion restaurants and mobile food trucks downtown, but for the really authentic stuff you have to look north of 51st Street.
As the non-cooking Tasting Bud, I put myself in a precarious situation when I inadvertently volunteered to supervise the craft services department for a feature film production. We filmed for 21 days over the course of the hottest month of summer 2010, and each of those days, I fed and watered anywhere between 50 and 125 cast, crew, and extras. Costco, both Austin locations, became my best friends, and I spent more than the GDP of a small country on ice and water. Did I mention it was hot?
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”
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.
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.
