Boots in the Oven

Pink Fest '09

Being a big, burly, cussin’, red-meat-eating, southern boy, there’s not much I like more than pink wine. Rosé, vin gris, rosato, blush- whatever you want to call it, I’ll drink it.

There’s just something about this time of year that calls out for a crisp, cool glass of booze with just a slap of color on it.

Luckily for me, my friends over at Vino Vino feel the same way, so I was stoked about attending their 3rd annual Pink Fest. They close off their spacious, tree shaded parking lot and for a small fee you get to edge through the caution tape and into a world of 50 or so of the tastiest late spring/ early summer beverages possible.

They broke it down into three categories: Sparkling, Still, and Sweet- with each table offering their own selection of each. Our game plan was to start at the beginning, work our way through all of the bubbly, rinse, and repeat with the other two groupings.

It was a hell of a plan.

Potlucks and Pig-Pickinses - Welcome to Texas!

Wow.  With Logan taking such good care of the blog, feeding and watering it and teaching it to do little photographic tricks, I had no idea that it's been almost three months since I'd written anything here.  

Welcome back, me!

After a Saturday that was overflowing with much-needed pouring rain (which didn't keep Tasty Touring and TacoJournalism from putting together a taco truck bike tour), Sunday was cool and sunny.  Perfect for a series of outdoor parties centered on eating, eating, eating!

First, we went to the Casa de Soup Peddler for the second of a hopefully continuing foodblogger potluck series.  As before, the food was varied and invariably delicious, from a perfectly cooked vegan potato and corn salad all the way up to a whole brined ham boiled with hay.  Our contribution was strawberry and pea shoot tea sandwiches, based on a bit of gastronomic insanity Logan learned about at Apicius.

Our other contribution was our college friend Jackson, newly arrived in town from South Carolina.  I'm completely thrilled that she and her man are starting a blog (Austin By the Horns link here), most especially because I loved keeping up with her doings during her three and a half years in Japan, which she blogged at Japan by Storm.

Bass Boil X

Don’t let the name fool you. The only fish in these pots were sweet, succulent crawfish. Or crayfish, if you’re some sort of carpetbagging Yankee.

Last weekend the Bass Brothers, Greg and Brian, wrapped up another entry in their decade long quest to host the perfect crawfish boil. Since we’re not in Southern Louisiana they’re already working uphill, but in my opinion they’re doing a heck of a job (and not in that Bush way.)

Since Austin attracts a diverse array of individuals and the Bass boys don’t assemble the invitation list based on one's knowledge of small crustaceans, the attendees often include quite a few crawfish virgins, so to speak.

If you’re not familiar with the ins and outs of dismembering the little guys, procuring a full meal, no matter how big the pile in front of you is, can be a daunting task. (Although I did hear one adorable girl mention that she had been “watching youtube all afternoon, so I’d know what I was doing.” Awesome.)

Thoughtfully, the hosts and their thematically beshirted friend Homer provided a mess of pre-crawfish eats.

The Hotel St. Cecilia; Brother Can You Spare a Room?

In the past, when I’ve shown up on the shiny steps of the smoking hot new hotel, the St. Cecilia, they’ve released the dogs. Luckily for me, the Hill Country Wine and Food Festival came to town and someone had the poor social sense to put me on the list for a kick off party.

Entering the Hotel.

Technically, I think they invited my graceful and well-mannered wife, but I’ve never scoffed at being a plus one.

The St. Cecilia (named after the patron saint of musicians, it is Austin after all) was conceived and executed by the Midas-fingered Liz Lambert (of Hotel San Jose fame). Her current project sports the slogan “Privacy is God.” Needless to say, they don’t encourage gawkers.

She and her business partners were able to acquire an amazing piece of property just off S. Congress and converted the Victorian compound into a quirkily chic assortment of suites, studios, and two story bungalows by the pool. Well, lap pool.

If my great-grand parents had been rockstars, they might have built something like this.

III Forks, and Quite a Few Glasses of Wine

Rachel and I arrived at III Forks on a blazingly white, sunny Austin afternoon. As we walked through the two sets of doors, I might as well have been walking into Gollum’s lair. Our friend and PR guru Paula,who was kind enough to invite us to this complementary preview, stood in the entryway repeating, “Can you see me? Can you see me? Follow my voice.”

After a few minutes, our eyes adjusted to the ambience-y lighting and I even managed to not comically knock over a huge vase in the interim.

What had drawn us to III Forks was, that like so many other high end restaurants recently, the chef there has decided to roll out a new happy hour. I’m all for new happy hours.

Mingling in the bar.

III Forks is a small chain Steakhouse with other locations in Dallas, Boca Raton, and Palm Beach. It is a classic-style Steakhouse from the old school, with lots of leather, antler chandeliers, and a Governors’ room. The website actually describes the places as having “luxurious Black mahogany trimmed with triple crown molding and Michelangelo Italian marble surroundings,” just so you understand what I’m talking about.

The Funky Chicken Coop Tour!

Chickens kick ass! Consider me an official backyard fowl convert. Last Saturday was the 2009 Funky Chicken Coop Tour. It’s like an open house tour, but you know, for chickens.

Basically, anyone who wants to show off their urban bird-raising setup, signs up. Then, maps are distributed telling the curious hordes where to go. It’s all free, it’s all low-key, it’s all way too much fun.

Towns like Portland and Seattle have been doing it for a few years but this was Austin’s first foray into the arena of showing off city chickens.

We started at our friends Mando and Ixchel’s place. They have a Red Sex-link hen and an adorable little Barred Rock chicklet. You may remember that Mando is a taco savant, so it only made sense that he busted out his disco to cook up some amazing migas tacos for his visitors.

Tacos and bird watching.

Yay, Zombie Jesus Day!

While it’s perhaps not the most reverent way to celebrate Easter, I’ve got to say that the Zombie Jesus Day Party we attended was a heck of a good time.

Our friend Jennifer has a bit of a thing for the undead, so when a major world religion offered her the chance to celebrate the most famous return from the grave in a couple thousand years, she pounced with gusto.

We started out with the most adorable (only?) tray of Stigmata Cookies that you’ve ever seen. Each little finger was just delectable.

For the main course she brought out a seriously succulent pork shoulder that had been marinated in citrus juices, adobo and garlic overnight and then slow braised to perfection. You don’t want to miss spooning a hearty portion of the leftover stewing liquid all over the pork and key parts of your face.

Happy Easter!

From the most adorable baby chickens you've ever seen!

And pretty poppies!

Can you handle it?

Trio

As I sat in the bar staring at the back of Bruce Springsteen’s head and nibbling on some blue cheese and mussels, I realized that Trio left me a little confused.

I’m not normally one for hotel restaurants but the buzz, combined with the fact that I kept running into the chef de cuisine, Todd Duplechan, at the local markets had me really wanting to check out Trio, the downstairs restaurant at the Four Seasons.

Unfortunately, times is tough, as they say. Trio doesn’t exactly fit in the budget category so I hadn’t yet had a chance to explore the place. Luckily for me, the good folks there have rolled out a brand new, shiny happy hour and they invited me and some other media folk over to poke around.

What I found was a series of compromises, but not necessarily in a bad way.

On the one hand you have a young chef who’s passionate about local food, who wants to serve simple but innovative, even challenging dishes to people who seek it out and appreciate it.

On the other, you have a large corporation that has built its very successful world brand on consistentcy and meeting a certain degree of expectations. They have established a clientele who are loyal to them because they know what kind of amenities and experience they can expect when they show up at a Four Seasons Hotel.

That’s a big boat to rock.

However, Todd and his staff are making some admirable inroads.

Like most good evenings, this one started off with a glass of bubbly.

For instance, the first thing he wanted to talk about was how he had bought a pig from Richardson Farms while it was still teetering around on its little trotters in its pasture just outside of town. Then he bought it all the pecans it could handle and let it finish out its days feasting on the sweet, plump nuts.

The Luck of the Pot. And These Were Some Very Lucky Pots.

“Hey man. Do you know where I can score a woodcock?”

Yes, it was that kind of party that me and missus stumbled into when we showed up at Penny’s house on a recent Spring afternoon. The idea for a Foodbloggers’ potluck had been kicking around for a bit and luckily for us, Addie over at the Statesman made sure it actually materialized.

Now I am not a covetous man by nature, so I feel the need to get my roiling envy out of the way right up front. Penny your house is awesome, with amazing light and a great layout, and with tons of subtle but super cool architectural and design elements. I tried to sneak it out in my pants when no one was looking but it was just a tad too large.

Just look at this back porch. How could you not have a good time on it?

Also, she just happens to be a super talented photographer for Saveur and you should check out her photo blog. So what if she has a stellar house and my dream job? I’m ok with that. Sniff.

There. Now we can get back to the food.

One great thing about herding a pack of foodies together for a potluck is that you never know what’s going to turn up. The food ran the gamut from these elegant vegan samosas, from a caterer whose name I didn’t catch-

to a heaping, scrumptious pile of veal sweetbreads concocted by Ryan over at Nose to Tail at Home.