Big Top Candy, Cissi's Market, Gumbo's, and Elevation Burger

You might have noticed that I was a little preoccupied for the last 2 months with Cupcake Smackdown1.0. Now that it is out of the way, sort of, it's back to posting the usual stuff. We've got some new beer and food recipes on the way along with Cocktail Throwdown. Still on the posting que - Hanging with the Beer Wench, Aqua Fresca, Cupcake and Beer Meet up, and Chocolate Beer Mousse meet up. Upcoming events include Hatch Chile Food Blogger's Pot Luck and the Austin Hot Sauce Festival. This post is going to highlight some of my favorites from Big Top Candy, Cissi's Market, Gumbo's, and Elevation Burger, in reverse order, cuz that's how I uploaded them.

Elevation Burger - Being So Hungry (silly pun), I ordered the Vertigo Burger with 10 patties and fries. Okay, so I also ordered for the photographing, but anyways. A cheeseburger at Elevation Burger is pretty good. The meat is leaner, but with cheese and dressing, it the leaner meat was balanced. I thought fresh fries were pretty tasty. There it is for Elevation: don't stray for the cheeseburger and you'll be a happy camper.




Cissi's Market - I sampled a variety of the foods here, but the offerings that stood out in my mind are the desserts. My favorite item from Cissi's are still the Earl Gray Eclairs that were brought by Jette at the very first Austin Food Blogger's pot luck. These truffles were also fantastic. Rich, creamy, and served with sesame toffee..... Mmmmmmmm.


The Gumbo's food blogger event was delightful, and it was wonderful to see everyone again. What I liked about this menu is that many of their dishes feature alcohol. I shall me contacting them again soon to have a little chit chat about cooking with booze. My two favorite dishes from this evening were the Red Fish Francine and the Crab cake. The texture of the Red Fish was solid in structure, yet flaky. It was perfectly seasoned and served on the a tarragon sauce and crawfish tails. Simply delicious. I like the crab cake in particular as it was full of crab. Seriously, they mean crab cake. It was slightly heavy on the mustard, but served with a spicy chipotle jimaca slaw, it won me over. There you go, two lovely dishes from Gumbo's.

Crab Cake with chipotle jimaca slaw

Bread pudding

Red Fish Francine

Beef Tenderlion with a red wine reduction sauce

Oyster Rockefeller

Big Top Candy is a must go for those who like things weird and sweet. I stopped by with @socialTNT for some sweets and drinks. My favorite drink there is the cucumber soda. Made with cucumber juice and just ever so slightly sweetened - this drink is a spa in a glass. It might sound weird, but it is delicious and low calorie. I might have to make my own version soon - with moonshine of course. This is my recommended Big Top Candy drink.

Cucumber soda

Seasalt Truffle

Tiger's Blood Creme Soda