Dinner with @ColumbusSalame @CarillonAustin, Drool Away!

The few days before the Austin Food and Wine Festival was kind of like the few days before Christmas.  Parties and meeting were going on all day long. The Columbus Salame dinner the Carillon was a real treat.  A big thanks to Columbus Salame for hosting a lovely meal.  Most photos by John M. P. Knox.

The evening started off with some bubbly, straight up salame, and a salame education.  Columbus Salame is produced in a number of sizes and flavors.  The basic flavor of salame is pork and pork fat.  When you cut into a piece of salame, it should have distinctive areas of meat and fat.  If it looks emulsified, you probably need to upgrade your salame selection.  Other flavors that can be incorporated in salame can be spices and herbs. 


Salame can be big or small.  Slice thin or thick for different textures.  Thicker slices for chewier, meatier textures.  Thinner slices for a more delicate flavor.  You can see in the picture below that the meat and the fat are distinct, and not blended into something pink and homogenous looking. 


Photo by John M. P. Knox
The dishes were prepared by Chef Josh Watkins and crew at the Carillon, and they are bound to make you think twice about salame as an ingredient in dishes.


This first dish is mache, watermelon, secchi, and minus 8 syrup.  It was absolutely fantastic.  Fatty meat with freshing watermelon was a fantastic way to cleanse and wake up the palate.  Photo by John M. P. Knox

Hawaiian Blue Prawns, finocchiona, charred tomato, corn butter, and cilantro was my favorite.  It reminded me of Cajun cooking - shrimp, corn, butter, and pork fat flavor - with a well-balanced flair.  This dish was not so complex that the flavors were lost, but rather all the flavors blended together like a Piano Guys melody.  Also, like a true Texan, I sucked the shrimp heads.  I know it isn't ladylike, but it is a shrimp with the head on.  That's the best part.  Keep in mind that you're supposed to such the heads of crawfish too.  A good foodie does not let the best part go to waste.   Photo by John M. P. Knox

This dessert was a combination of some of my favorite flavors.  I love almond.  I love almond cake.  I love just about anything almond.  And I really like almond scented soaps.  This dessert was Almond cake, fennel butter, hot sopressata caramel, fennel chips, hot sopressata brittle, and olive oil ice cream.  Almost cake plus salame brittle was comfort food in several ways.  The almond cake reminded me of desserts I ate growing up, and brittle made of pork and fat needs no words.  This was a fantastic way to end a fantastic meal.  Thank you to @ColumbusSalame and @CarillonAustin for hosting such a fantastic dinner! Photo by John M. P. Knox

Most awesome @Chef_Morimoto photo & Saturday demos at @AustinFoodWine Festival 2012

The first day time event of the Austin Food and Wine Festival started with possibly the most awesome photo ever.  I mean ever.  I must admit that I am little bit biased since I was photographed it.  Gifted with a media pass, I was able to get into the grand tasting earlier to spot Morimoto.  I started watching the Japanese Iron Chef somewhere in 1999 or 2000, and needless to say, I was a little in awe (kinda sorta, ya know). 

Morimoto is one of those magical legends of celebrity chefs, and he was doing a book signing.  As I waited for him to do his signing, the personality started to come through.  He gave me the Hook'em!  And then a double Hook'em!  See below.

If you want to know, I'll give you my six cents on how to prepare for the festival.

1. Wear comfortable shoes.  You'll be walking from where you parked to the festival, and all over the festival.  The terrain is quite sandy and dirty, so best be prepared by wearing shoes with traction.
2. Sunblock.  Sunblock.  Sunblock.  And sunblock.
3. Unless you have a VIP pass, it might be wise to wait until the last hour of the grand tasting.  During the VIP period, it was pretty tame.  However, during general admission, it could get a little squishy.  If you wait until after most of the crowd had eaten their fill, the tents started to clear out.
4. Neti-pot (with distilled or boiled water) when you get home.  It was quite dusty, and your sinus will thank you.
5. If you must wear a dress or a skirt, make sure it has some structure and substance so it doesn't get blow around.  The wind was causing some free peep shows.  
6. Arrive very early to the cooking demos.  The lines can start as far as an hour in advance. 

Here's some photos from the grand tasting.  It seems like pie is big this year, so do make sure you hit up all the pie vendors. We got to check in with our friends from Columbus Salame (San Fran, CA) pictured below along with many other Austin Favorites. 








 HEB had a really neat center piece of bamboo stalks. 


I was happy to see that Alaska Brewing was represented well.


Kitchen Aid put on a display that would make any baker wet his/her pants!

After eating a great deal of super tasty treats and drinks, I headed down to check out the Tyson Cole hands on demo.  I didn't get to participate, but I did get to take some photos. 

Chefs Tyson Cole and Paul Qui stop for a second to give us a smile. 

The hands on demo area.

Busy chefs preparing for the demonstration.

This guy made a hilarious face, and yes, he was having a great time. 

The final product from some of the attendees. 

More happy sushi students.

This woman did a great job with her display, and she seems quite pleased with herself.