Pictures from Behind the Scenes of the Austin Cupcake Smackdown and Pre Smackdown TV interview at Walton’s Fancy and Staple

August 2, 2009 Peter Tsai 5 Comments

This weekend was a crazy one in the world of Austin Cupcakes. Jennie Chen organized the Austin Cupcake Smackdown 1.0 which brought together dozens of local bakers in a blind taste testing competition to see who’s cupcakes would reign supreme (similar to Foodingblog’s very own cupcake tasting challenge located here).

Foodingblog played a part in this incredible event as Peter was selected to be a judge in the Amateur baking competition and he was also interviewed during the coverage of the Austin Cupcake Smackdown by FOX 7 Austin here (fast forward to 2:50 it see his interview on Giovanni’s vegan Dulce sin Leche cupcakes).

If you missed either the Pre Party or the Smackdown event itself, don’t worry. Foodingblog has you covered. Peter brought his camera along to both events to get a behind the scenes look at the events of the weekend.

Click here to view selected photos from the weekend and continue down to see the full gallery below

Events

Austin Blog Meetup “Bleetup” Pictures

July 30, 2009 Peter Tsai 5 Comments

Kristina and I checked out the Austin Bleetup (Blog Meetup) which was held at the TRIO at Four Seasons yesterday to represent @Foodingblog. The event was awesome – good people, good food, and a great location. Everyone we met was cool and we came away with a lot of new friends. As always, I had my camera in tow.

Enjoy the photos!
–Peter

Sunset at the Four Seasons

Click here to see more photos from the Bleetup

Drinks, Food, Reviews, Uncategorized, Wine

Harry Potter Feast at Alamo Drafthouse South

July 29, 2009 Kristina 5 Comments

Ok, I admit it. I am a geek. This fact is evidenced by, but not limited to, the following: I love to watch British Sci-Fi shows like Dr. Who and Torchwood; I recently purchased the original Star Wars soundtrack – on vinyl; I think Joss Whedon is brilliant; and I really wish I had tickets to Comic-Con last weekend.

My geekiness extends, of course, to my choice in novels, with authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Douglas Adams, and J.K. Rowling occupying prominent places on my bookshelf. Naturally, I have eagerly awaited the movie version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince pretty much since the book was published. Having re-read Half-Blood Prince, the story was fresh in my mind, and I was ready to see these beloved characters on screen. My plan was to see the film in its opening week at Alamo Drafthouse, because – as I’ve mentioned many times before – a pint of beer makes everything better.

I missed the infamous Hobbit Feast which accompanied the Lord of the Rings trilogy, so I was more than thrilled to find out about the Hogwarts Academy Feast to be presented with the screening of Half-Blood Prince. The five course meal was inspired by the start of term feast enjoyed by Hogwarts students at the beginning of each book.

While I adore Alamo Drafthouse for their admirable beer list and usual fare, I was slightly apprehensive when I saw the menu for the Feast. I was unsure how a kitchen which always produces such great pizza and fries would handle a terrine. After a gracious welcome from Chef John Bullington, the room turned dark and our first course arrived.

Click here to see the rest of the post

Field Trips, Food, Weird

Flavor tripping tablets: How food tastes on taste tripping pills

July 27, 2009 Peter Tsai 7 Comments

After reading a New York Times article about flavor tripping, we wanted to try it out the palate-altering “miracle berry” that turns sour and spicy flavors sweet. Luckily for us, a friend had some flavor tripping tablets and was hosting a flavor tripping party.

At his house, we were “taste tripping” while eating an impressive spread of fruits, cheeses, and beers in a fun altered state where most foods tasted much different than normal! We sampled so many different interesting flavors, and now a guest post from our flavor tripping party host, fellow food lover, Vicente Gonzales, AKA “V”.

Click here to read more about “Flavor Tripping”

Field Trips, Weird

Bizarre Bug Eating – You Ate What?

July 23, 2009 Peter Tsai 5 Comments

Falkenstein Castle – a most interesting place to eat bugs

Recently, I’ve been watching TV shows like Man vs Wild and Bizarre Foods. Seeing Bear Grylls and Andrew Zimmern eat the grossest / weirdest stuff in the world (and miraculously not dying) sort of makes me want try it too – almost as if they are daring me to do it too! While I don’t think I’ll be eating either a yak’s eyeball or a still living tree frog (that’s disgusting Bear Grylls) any time soon, I was intrigued when I heard that there would be an edible bug sampling at the “Most Interesting” party at Falkenstein Castle near Austin, Texas.

Comparisons, Field Trips, Food

Austin Frozen Yogurt “Froyo” Comparison

July 14, 2009 Peter Tsai 14 Comments

a sneaky photo taken at Pinkberry in NYC

UPDATE 9-11-2009 – YummyYo added to the list of reviewed stores (but not added to the scoring since a side by side comparison was not done).

It has been a hot, sweaty summer full of record 104 F degree days here in Austin, Texas. Luckily this Austin Comparison adventure is dedicated to tasting the cold, sweet, and delicious treat that has become a craze in America, tart frozen yogurt (AKA Froyo).

The tart yogurt craze first blew up in Asia, where tart yogurt products have been popular for many years in the form of candy, soft drinks, and even liquor. The craze only recently hit US shores via Korea in the form of the soft serve frozen yogurt store Pinkberry, which has been the obsession of many and a frequent destination for celebrities in NYC and LA. According to legend, after the “reality” show stars of “The Hills” mentioned Pinkberry, the stores’ popularity took off like a rocket. In fact, when Pinkberry first opened up, hour long lines (not unlike ones to get into an exclusive nightclub) formed around the block to get a taste of the sweet stuff.

Now a few years into the craze, enthusiasm for frozen yogurt has not cooled one bit – in fact, frozen yogurt stores have since popped up in cities all over the nation. Austin is no exception and tart frozen yogurt shops offering a wide variety of flavors and toppings can be found in many neighborhoods around town. This past weekend, the staff of FoodingBlog and friends got together to compare and sample the original tart yogurt and green tea flavors (the flavors available at Pinkberry) from four frozen yogurt shops close to downtown: Yogurt Planet, Swirll, Yogurt Spot, and Mambo Berry. Our judging was done based on several predetermined factors and all scores were averaged together.

Continue Reading about tart frozen yogurt stores in Austin, Texas

Travel, Weird

Mantis Prawn – You Ate What? / Overseas Bizarre Fooding

July 10, 2009 Peter Tsai 2 Comments

Today’s “You Ate What” adventure takes place on a boat cruise through beautiful Halong Bay, Vietnam. On this amazing trip, we visited a floating live fish market literally built into the middle of the bay, where I ate some of the freshest and tastiest food I’ve ever had in my life.

The market vendors sold all sorts of fish, clams, crabs, and fruit, but the absolute best thing I had there was the delicious and somewhat unusual mantis prawn.

read more about the tasty Mantis Prawn…

Drinks, Reviews, Wine

Random Wine of the Week – Marques de Gelida Cava

July 1, 2009 Jon 2 Comments

Cava500

I have lived in Texas my entire life, so I shouldn’t be surprised that we have had 10 straight days of 100+ degree temperatures here in Austin. On toasty days like these, nothing is more thirst quenching than a nice sparkling wine, served chilled.

This week’s pick is a Spanish sparking wine, or Cava. Sparkling wine goes by many different names around the world. The most common sparkling wine is Champagne, which comes from the Champagne region in France. In Italy, they call their sparkling wines Prosecco. In California, they call their sparkling wine, well sparkling wine. You get the picture.

Random Criteria: Sparkling wine that has a crown somewhere on the label
Wine: 2005 Marques de Gelida Cava Brut Reserva
Origin: Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, Spain
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Price: < $15 (From Costco)
Notes: This cava was the perfect way to end another 100 degree day. The nose (smell) of the wine was predominantly fresh cherries. When you take the first sip of wine, the bubbles and the mild acidity dance across your tongue. The first thing I tasted was strawberry, then as entered my second glass, the wine smelled and tasted like fresh flowers. This cava is classified as a Brut, therefore the wine has almost no residual sugar (it is not sweet). If you are looking for a sweeter sparkling wine, look for the word “dry” on the label (I know, it’s a bit confusing). This cava is going to go quite well with the shrimp I am grilling for dinner today. Enjoy!

What are your thoughts?

Cheers,
Jon

Food, Interviews, Weird

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

The Tasting Buds | Austin Food Blog