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

Drinks, Food, Reviews

Second Bar and Kitchen Review

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The day after Christmas is usually devoid of any food activity. After eating my way through the holidays, it is usually on this day that I vow to “eat better” or some other kind of nonsense. Unfortunately, this thinking was short lived as the @tastingbuds twitter stream was flooded with tweets about opening night at Second Bar + Kitchen(Link to Menu), David Bull’s latest creation. Click here to read the full review.

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…

Events, Food

Sugar Mama’s 2nd Anniversary Party Photos

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South Austin foodie favorite, Sugar Mama’s Bakeshop, just celebrated their 2nd birthday with another huge backyard party! My how time flies – it feels like just a few months back we celebrated their 1st birthday party in style with a crazy pie eating contest!

Even though there was no pie eating contest this year, we had something even better… CUPCAKE CANNON! That’s right… there was the shooting of pastry product out of a large bazooka-like contraption for prizes.

Click through to see more photos from the party and to learn more about the cupcake cannon

Food

Uchi Omakase Tasting Menu Photo Essay

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When it comes to Japanese food in Austin, Uchi is the one restaurant is always mentioned and universally praised by foodies. For my 30th birthday, I decided to head to the nationally acclaimed restaurant to celebrate and find out what all the hype was about.

I wasn’t disappointed one bit. Having been to Uchiko and really liking the food there, I have to say that Uchi feels a even notch or two more refined.

Here’s a quick photo essay that depicts the Uchi 5 course Omakase tasting menu, which our waiter described as “the greatest hits” of Uchi’s menu. I enjoyed my Uchi experience immensely and hope you enjoy the photos.

Click through to see more photos from Uchi

Food, Interviews

Competitive Eating Champion Joey “Jaws” Chestnut Interview with the TastingBuds + Austin Ice Cream Festival

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Number one ranked competitive eater in the world, multiple food eating record holder, and destroyer of 68 hot dogs in 10 minutes, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut graced us with his presence at the Austin Ice Cream festival this year. Why exactly was he in town? To take on a whole team of 5 other eaters at once to see who could eat the most ice cream in 5 minutes!

How did he do? We’ll get to that later, but the look on his competitor’s face above might provide a clue.

Click through to read our interview with Joey Chestnut!

Food, Recipes

Bacon Alternative – Pork Chop Egg Sandwich

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Pork Chop Egg Sandwich

As you all may have read in our Happy Birthday post, one of TastingBuds, Sondra, is pregnant. This has led to quite a change in the eating habits around the Vallejo house. The crackling smell of bacon that was once familiar, is now a distant memory. Well, I needed some bacon, or something like it, so I came up with a quick recipe that was a great “healthy” alternative to bacon!

I took a left over grilled pork chop and sliced it lengthwise so that it closely resembled bacon. Note: I’ve also done this recipe using raw thick cut pork loin, but grilling it first gives it more flavor. I then spiced each side with salt, pepper, and paprika. I heated up a little olive oil in a saute pan, placed my bacon alternative in the pan and let it sizzle away. The results? An excellent combination crispy, caramelized, smokey, spicy, and very lean. The texture was crunchy, with a slight chewiness and the perfect addition to my fried egg sandwich.

Enjoy!!

-Jon

Photo

Austin Cupcake Smackdown 2.0 Jaffa Cake Eating Contest + How to Break a World Record

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How much food can you cram into your face in 60 seconds? That was the question 14 brave souls tried to answer at Cupcake Smackdown 2.0 during an attempt to break a World Record for eating the most Jaffa Cakes in a minute.

The contestants came in confident, as the bar seemed to be set pretty low at only 8 jaffa cakes in the allotted time. However, soon after the contest began, reality set in and everyone knew that this would be a tough record to beat.

Click through to see more pictures and learn how you might break a world record!

Photo

Photos From 3 Restaurants around Austin, the Capital of Texas – Food Photo Friday

We’ve been busy and haven’t had time to blog all the cool food happenings around town! So this Food Photo Friday we are going to catch up a bit by highlighting photos from 3 restaurants in the Austin area: Maudie’s new Hill Country location by the Galleria, Fogo de Chao downtown, and downtown Indian trailer G’raj Mahal.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy our pretty photos… I’m warning you though, you might get hungry.

Click through to seer a feast for the eyes!

Discovering food together with friends, one delicious bite at a time