Tag Archives: Texas

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

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

Interview with Olga Lee from Polkadots Cupcake Factory – Austin, Texas

Olga Lee - Polkadots Cupcake Factory

Polkadots Cupcake Factory (Menu), now fast approaching its 2nd anniversary, was one of the first cupcake shops to open up in the Austin area. We’re glad to see them thrive in an increasingly crowded Austin cupcake market, and the TastingBuds are fans of Polkadots, as shown in our Austin Cupcake Comparison Test from last year.

Peter recently visited the Polkadots kitchen to chat with Olga Lee, one half of the couple that owns Polkadots. She was hard at work, but had time to chat at the store, which specializes in custom cakes, cookies, and of course various types of cupcakes.

Click through to read the full text of the interview with Olga Lee of Polkadots

New Restaurant Alert – Maggiano’s Grand Openings

Maggiano's Little Italy - Austin

The Tastingbuds were honored to attend the grand opening luncheon of Maggiano’s Little Italy on Monday, March 1st at it’s new location in the upscale Domain. While it is new to Austin, many of you may already be acquainted with Maggiano’s – there are more than 40 locations throughout the US.

I grew up in Atlanta, home one of the older Maggiano’s… where everyone knows it as a nice, Italian inspired restaurant that is a safe go-to place to take a date or to celebrate a special occasion.

How does the Austin location stack up, and how do we think Maggiano’s will fare in the already crowded Austin Restaurant scene? Click on through to see what we thought and to see tons of mouthwatering photos

Austin Froyo Update – Addition of YummyYo

yummyyoIn our comparison of remarkable downtown Frozen Yogurt stores, YummyYo in the 360 building was still pretty new and somehow flew beneath our radar when scouting out Froyo places.

I had the chance to swing by YummyYo a few weeks ago and it’s very solid. Their original tart flavor is probably a bit better than Yogurt Spot and their green tea flavor is excellent as well. I would rank them both as 2nd in taste behind Mamboberry. I also got to try their cookies and cream flavor which was surprisingly excellent (not chemical-y tasting like some of the other yogurt places around town).

Click to continue reading about YummyYo

Flavor tripping party in Austin with the Berry Fairy

Flavor Tripping with the Berry Fairy in Austin - The buffet

Recently, we were invited to a flavor tripping party hosted by the Berry Fairy, Jenny Wang. We’ve already written about flavor tripping tablets here, so this article will cover flavor tripping with the actual Miracle Berry fruit and combine tasting notes from TastingBuds Peter and Kristina.

Click here to read about the Berry Fairy’s Flavor Tripping Party

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

Austin Cupcake Smackdown Pre Party - Baby Cupcake

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

Austin Wine Festival 2009

Austin Wine Festival 2009 - Go Texan

Today all of the members of Fooding Blog took a field trip to visit the Austin Wine Festival. Despite the May Texas heat, we managed to have a great time sampling various local wines from the Texas Hill Country and beyond.

You may say to yourself, “Wine in Texas?” Why yes, there is indeed a lot of wine in Texas. According to the Orbitz Insider Index, Austin is the 2nd Fastest Growing Wine Destination in the Nation. Also, the Wine Society of Texas tells us that there are well over 100 wineries here in the Lone Star State.

Click here to see the rest of the post