Fun With Your Food

Can you believe it? The Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival is already coming up this year. I went a couple of years back and had a FABULOUS (if not a little muddy) time.
See?

I was able to attend a media launch of this year’s new logo at whole foods with my good friend, The Smart Kitchen. She’s got some great photos that you should check out from it, here.

Italian cream cake ball.

Austin Cake Ball will be part of the festival this year and after talking with them I was happy to hear a *RUMOR* that they will be coming out with a NEW cake ball for summer… The ROOT BEER FLOAT. They’ve only made it once before for another media event but it was such a HUGE hit it *may* come back again. Keep your fingers crossed, I am.
There was plenty of texas wine to be had but this was my favorite sample/sip/bite.

Unique spoons of adult jelly shots with muscadet, fresh grapes and goat cheese pearls. They we’re like a whole wine and cheese course in one bite.

The Texas Two Sip Blind Tasting.

As you can see, the bottles were covered. One was a texas variety and the other was non-texas. I chose the Texas varietal for all samples but one I believe. Even with the blind taste test my favorite TX winery won: McPherson.

Great event- yum

The Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival Events are March 31st – April 3rd

You can buy Tickets HERE

Busy day here.
Feel free to flip your lid over this foodie photo…

Pumpkin Spiced Austin Cake Balls from the Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival Media Launch

http://www.austincakeball.com/

and

http://texaswineandfood.org/

I was in Egypt about a month and a half ago. The regime change and protests had not yet begun. The National Museum in Cairo was not yet looted and I had no problems taking clichéd pyramid photos with thousands of other tourists. As with every trip I take, I was there mostly for the food. Of course the four thousand year old history and culture had some sway as well. My trip lasted 10 days and I spent time in Cairo, Aswan, and Luxor. What follows is an account of my favorite Egyptian eats. Feast your eyes on this!

*I should note my mom was worried about my plans to visit. By this point in my travelling career my mom has gotten the idea that most countries I go to have revolutions soon after I leave… so far she’s right. Apologies for the stress mom!

Wood-fired Egyptian flat bread

Woman making bread

Kushari from Abou Tarek. Yep, Anthony Bourdain went here and so did I.

(Youtube footage of Tony at Abou Tarek)

Rows of spices at the markets

Sweet potato (or yam, I’ve forgotten) fresh from the cart at the market

Tea with mint (Shai)

Me enjoying Shai

Nubian aged cheese and molasses with flat bread. I have to say I HATED the cheese but the molasses made up for it.

My BIRTHDAY cake. This is the first time I celebrated my birthday outside of the states and the fact that I still ate cake thrilled me

Zalabia- warm fried dough soaked in honey. If there were a perfume that smelled like this dessert, I’d wear it.

Buffet of appetizers including tahini, olives, cucumber salad, garlic dip (? didn’t catch the name), hummus and probably a couple other things I’ve forgotten.

Full yet?

Teddy B

I feel like my culinary experience at Trace in the new W Hotel downtown can best be described in two words.

Drinks
&
Desserts

These are my favorite two items I’ve had there. Yes, dinner is amazing. Yes, appetizers where fantastic as well. If I went back though, it would definitely be for their unique, fun cocktails and desserts.

My first taste of Trace was this cocktail:

A black pepper strawberry martini with basil leaf garnish. This is the first cocktail that got me starting to think about cocktails in a new way. So much so, that I ended up infusing my own vodkas and making my own cocktails at my super bowl party (but that’s another story all together). The warmth of the pepper did not over power the subtle strawberry and the aroma of the basil on top just sold the whole thing.

And just like that it was time for my second cocktail

A cucumber and jalapeño cocktail. This drink snuck up on me and hit me in the back of my throat; in a good way.

Dessert time!

Sour cherry sorbet w chocolate stout cake. I should mention that I’m biased with anything stout based but my favorite part of the dessert was the sour cherry sorbet.

Other pluses of my visit include 1) GREAT service 2)Warm cozy yet modern atmosphere

Cons:
1) PRICEY. Cocktails average 10 bucks a pop and entrees are 20-30. This is NOT a place you could/would go to weekly basis but a place you save for special occasions.
2) No happy hour specials. I REALLY wish they had a fun happy hour. I would go often if they did.

For now Trace will be a place to have one drink to start the night and then head out some place down town.

Teddy B