Welcome to #Austin, @SwayThai!

Austin is growing up, at least in the ethnic food arena.  Here's my "secret" list of ethnic food restaurants in Austin.   Austin's attitudes and expectations  have changed drastically over the last decade, with more and more people being opened to unfamiliar and non-mainstream food and flavors.  It might just be my perception or that I don't hang around adventerous eaters anymore. 
You might have remembered Chef Rene Ortiz and Chef Laura Sawicki from La Condesa.  They've been working on this little project called Sway, and now I'm happy to say that the project has come to fruition.  Sway is not home cooking Thai, rather it is modern Australian Thai cuisine.  I've had many deep discussions about Sway since their preview dinner(s) ranging from the meaning of "Sway" to the direction they are going.  My response was that "Sway" if you say it while bobbing your head up and down  means water in Mandarin.

My takeaway from the preview dinner was that Sway leaves little to be desired.  I am always surprised and amazed by Chef Laura (send her love letters please, or at least on my behalf), and Chef Rene can execute like ninja.  I loved that many of my dishes had a component of comfort (something I consider to be a compliment about many of the ethnic food eateries), creative flare, and a capsicum induced endorphin rush. 

Rumor has it that some diners had complained about the spice level, and thus, the spice would be coming down a level.  This is much to my disappointment and horror.  I have not been back since the preview dinner, so I'm not sure how this mild the food has become.  Also, if the food is too spicy, order a beer - pils or IPA.  Or bring some ice cream with you. 

Here's some of the dishes we tried that night.  Neon lotus chicken salad with crispy lotus root, snow peas, banana blossom, and coconut-chili dressing.  Can you say yum? 

This is the XO mussels with crawfish XO, bacon, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, Thai chili, and sweet onion served with aromatic rice.  This dish was incredibly spicy and incredibly delicious!

So delicious, it gets another look.  This is the way you're supposed to eat Asian sauces....along with the rice.  This one was pretty spicy, and perfect with rice! 

This dish was the salt and pepper tofu on Thai chili. 

This is one of my favorite vegetables.  My mother planted it when I was growing up, and it was on the dinner table close to nightly.  I love this vegetable. 

The son in law was amazing - crispy farm egg, braised pork shoulder, thick soy and chili vinegar was one of my favorite savory dishes.  Asian dishes commonly use whole eggs, on many things.  The rich gelatinous yolk, crunchy garlic, and unami laden pork is perfect with the sticky rice.  This upscale rice bowl will smack your tastebuds with glee. 

It was very difficult to decide which dessert I liked best.  I really loved the jasmine tea panna cotta with red grape, lychee, palm sugar, holy basil, crunchy amaranth, and coconut-lychee sorbet.  I mean I loved it.  All the tropical fruit flavors reminded me of a Summer on my uncle's porch grabbing fruit off of trees. 

This dessert electrified my neurons.  Oh man, I. Love. This. Dessert.  This was miso-white chocolate semifreddo, sesame, crispy rice, coconut sticky rice, mango-calamansi sorbet.  Try it.  If you don't like it.  I'll finish it for you.  Unami miso + slightly sweet fruit + dark and early sesame = taste bud lust.

The lovely Chef Laura came out to greet us.  I was told by a man that he had a culinary boner for her and was afraid to talk to her.  I told him that he could still order her desserts en masse.  I had a great time at the preview dinner, and I'm so glad to report that the concept and the execution of this menu was top notch.  You'll see me back soon, probably licking the plates. 

Farm to Table @LakeWayResort and Sustainable Food Center Autumn Harvest @LaCondesaAustin

A big thanks to Josey's and Chef Jeff Axline for having me over for dinner.  Eating local and sustainable is a pretty popular movement these days.  If you haven't heard of the reasons why you might want to start eating locally and sustainably, it is high time to get a move on it! Josey's is doing a weekly Farm to Table Dinner that changes every week.  The weekly dinner is at Wednesday Nights starting at 5:30 pm.  This meal is a steal at just $25 for locally sourced ingredients.  Take a look at the November 2nd menu. 

Chef Jeff Axline purchases the ingredients himself at the downtown Saturday morning market.  He goes incognito (sorta, not really) so don't expect recognize him quickly. 

The meal starts with fluffy biscuits with butter.  Nothing says Texas like warm biscuits. 

This salad was my sister's favorite part of the meal.  Grilled Texas Pears served with organic arugula, shaved Van Sormon cheese, French Breakfast Radish, Poached Farmer's Egg, and a Fig Vinaigrette.  The grilled pears was my absolute favorite part of the dish.  I love grilled fruit (pineapple, strawberries, and peaches), and these pears were no exception.  The pears were sweet and smoky which contrasted well with the bitter greens. 

The second dish was my favorite - Pan Roasted Copper Shoals Red Drum with baby squash, sweet peppers, green beans, tomato fumet, and sweet herbs.  Taiwanese cooking at home consisted of whole fish skin-on.  Living on the coast made having crispy skin on fish a regular dinner item when I was growing up.  It has somewhat of a comfort food quality for me.  I know, I have the most unusual comfort food preferences.  This fish skin was wonderfully executed and seasoned.  The red drum was from Copper Shoals Farm located in Palacios, TX.   

The dessert course was a rich version of a classic - Pumpkin Pie with House Made Buttery Crust served with Persimmon Mascarpone Cream and Persimmon puree.  Adding persimmon flavor to sinful mascarpone cream can only be good.  Did I mention that I love persimmons? 

If you're looking for another Farm to Table event, the Sustainable Food Center Chef Series Austin Harvest is right around the corner.  On Nov. 12th, you'll get to taste food from:

• Tyson Cole, executive chef at Uchi and Uchiko
• Andrew Weissman, executive chef of Il Sogno, The Sandbar, and The Luxury
•  James Holmes & Andrew Francisco of Olivia
• Shawn Cirkiel, executive chef at Parkside and Backspace
• Jason Donoho and Andrew Macarthur of Fino and Asti
• Todd Duplechan of forthcoming Lenoir
• Monica Glenn of Uchi Houston
• Rene Ortiz of La Condesa

I attended the Spring Bounty Series, and it was pretty fantastic.  If you want to  be amazing by local chefs and local produce, get tickets for Sunday, Nov. 12th.  You'll love it!

Sustainable Food Center's Spring Bounty Dinner 2011

Spring is in the air, and fresh veggies are are hitting dinner tables.  I can not wait to see what spring crops bring.  The Sustainable Food Center Chef's Series was an awesome event to check out what spring veggies and meats are available.  Thank you so much to SFC, Giant Noise, La Condesa, and the Chefs for having me out for dinner.  Before we get started, I have to show off my Scan-gauge with some readouts from the Chevy Cruze Eco.  MPG is instantaneous miles per gallon.  It says 0.0 because I was stopped.  However, on my drive from my home to downtown Austin and parking, was 45.3 city driving.  Not too bad considering the Chevy Cruze Eco Automatic is rated 26 city driving. 

YAY!  This car performed better for me city driving than highway driving.


The first course wasn't started with a beer, but this is pretty awesome to have just sitting on a table.  This was Independence Brewery's Stash IPA.  Wanna firkkin?


Foreign and Domestic's Richardson Farms Pork liver custard waiting to be plated.  I was pretty hungry by the time 5pm rolled around, and staring at food did not help.  I nearly passed out from hunger be the time the food started rolling.


I caught Chef Paul Qui from Uchiko in the back preparing for dinner service.


Chef Zack Northcutt from Haddington's and Chef David Bull from Congress Austin chopping onions and grill red romaine.  I'm unsure how they aren't crying from the onions.  I wear goggles when I chop onions.


The first course is from Chef Ned Elliott from Foreign and Domestic.  It is Richardson Farms pork liver custard with piquillo syrup, natsturtium salsa, and sherry caramel.  The flavor combination was utterly fantastic, and the texture of the custard was incredibly smooth.  If you're a lover of the liver, this is the dish for you.  If you're not a liver lover, you  might not be so thrilled.  While I loved the dish, I thought that the La Spinetta Moscato made the pairing overly sweet.  I think a dry champagne would have paired better with the texture and sweetness of this dish.


The next dish is from Chef Paul Qui from Uchiko.  Spring onion dashi, squash blossoms, baby zucchini, baby carrots, on top of a goats' milk ricotta.  I think that's goats' because there should be more than one goats' milk to make the cheese.  Coming back onto the subject at hand, this dish was literally spring in a bowl.  The flavors was so light, fresh, subtle, and clean that it made me feel like my body was healing itself, Wolverine style.  Also the presentation of this dish was fantastic. The colors were simply gorgeous.


This dish is the Milago farms soft egg, elephant garlic puree, and pancetta shitake vinaigrette danube from Chef Bryce Gilmore of Barely Swine and the ever popular Odd Duck Farm to Trailer.  I must say that Chef Bryce has got that soft egg thing going on.  It is one of my favorites at the trailer, and this dish aimed to please.  The yolk of this egg was perfectly cook, congealed but not runny.  On top of the garlic puree (that was not the least bit pungent) with a bite of crunchy pancetta, #win.  Paired with Lagunitas Little Sumpin Ale, it was a perfect balance for cutting the rich heavy fats and the sweetness of the pancetta.  Double #win.


Chef Shawn Cirkiel of Parkside served up Sloan Farms rabbit, green garlic, pecans, glazed spring carrots, and a red wine sauce.  Is this dish beautiful or what?  This dish just looks so pretty with that pink carrot.


Next up was grilled Lockhart quail, grilled red romaine, candied orange, and cardamon yogurt by Chef David Bull from Congress Austin. The quail was out of this world. Chef David brined it in citrus for 24 hours, and that will be the next method I use when I cook poultry.  It was sweet, juicy, and de-boned (except the leg bone which made for a nice handle).  The sweet quail, tart orange, and subtly spiced yogurt was fantastic.
 

Chef Zack Northcutt of Haddington's can make a mean meal.  This Windy Ranch osso bucco served over polenta was so mean is made me cry and wish that my ancestors were Italian.  But they are not, even though I don't have Italian roots, this osso bucco made me feel like I was at home (even if I never ate it at home).  I'm pretty sure my mom doesn't even know what it is.  In any case, the osso bucco was meaty in texture, juicy with flavor (just the right amount of fat), and perfect with the Independence Brewing Stash IPA.  It had just the right amount of hop flavor to go against this beefy dish. I hope this gets added to the Haddington's menu on in the wintertime.  I would be shoveling it in my mouth like it was going out of style.


This drink is the Del Maguey Crema de Mezcal with Honey Liqueur, cream, and house-made Froberg Farm strawberry soda.  I loved this drink's creamy texture and strong liqueur flavor though it was just a tad sweet. 

Dessert by Chef Laura Sawacki at La Condesa was Soncrest Farms smoked egg parfait, marcona almond, Oakhill Farms strawberrry, pickled mustard seed, and smoked sea salt.  To someone who doesn't know Chef Laura's style, that might sound a bit daunting and completely unconventional.  Let me tell you straight up that Laura is not traditional, but she is downright amazing.  This dessert paired sour, sweet, spicy, smoke with creamy, sticky, cold, and crunchy into something fantastic that words cannot describe.  I have to hand it to Austin pastry chefs.  They can get downright creative and pull off crazy concoctions.

Thank you again to SFC, Giant Noise, La Condesa, and the Chefs for having me over for dinner.  And Happy Birthday to Chef Rene Ortiz!

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with La Condesa

I had the great pleasure being the guest of Giant Noise and La Condesa one evening.  Let's just say that it was an evening of eating adventure.  This was my first visit to La Condesa, and I was quite surprised at the variety of flavors that were on the menu.  Here's just a few food pornorific photos along with information about La Condesa's Cinco de Mayo celebration. Photos by John Knox. Brussels sprouts in bacon fat with grapes.  You might not think that grapes and bacon fat on brussels sprouts would go well together, but let this dish prove you wrong.  These are some of the tastiest brussels sprouts I've had.  Bacon fat makes the world go around.  Bife Lento is some of the best ribs you'll ever have.  Braised in Shiner beer, even a toothless infant can eat these ribs without a problem.  Ejotes are grilled Texas Green beans.  Call me weird, but I like green beans anyways.  These have an incredibly smoky flavor and that satisfying green crunch to them.  I hear Chef Laura talking about her desserts at Malverde earlier.  This is essentially a deconstructed strawberry shortcake soaked in rum.  When I heard her say that she soaked something in rum, I knew this was the dessert for me.  The outside of the cake had a crunchy coating from the rum, and the combination was absolutely fantastic.  A big thank you to Giant Noise and La Condesa for the fabulous meal and amazing rum soaked cake.  If you can, try to change their annual Cinco De Mayo Downtown block party.  Then you can wander in for some dessert.  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LA CONDESA HOSTS 2ND ANNUAL CINCO DE MAYO DOWNTOWN BLOCK PARTY PRESENTED BY UNIVISION PERFORMANCES BY BROWNOUT, OCOTE SOUL SOUNDS, DJ CHICKEN GEORGE AND MARIACHI TAMAZULA Austin, TX (April 22, 2010) — To celebrate the rich heritage and culture of Mexico, La Condesa will produce the 2nd Annual Cinco de Mayo Downtown Block Party on Wednesday, May 5th, 2010 from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m with guest MC Leslie Montoya of Univision’s “Despierta Austin”. The fiesta will cover the entire block of West 2nd Street between Guadalupe and San Antonio, and feature an array of food and beverages provided by neighborhood restaurants.  The free event is open to all ages and is expected to draw a crowd of up to 5,000. Local musicians Brownout, Ocote Soul Sounds, DJ Chicken George and Mariachi Tamazula will entertain block party attendees on a Sustainable Waves sponsored stage. “Last year’s festival drew nearly 3,000 people from all over Austin,” says La Condesa owner Jesse Herman. “This year is going to be bigger and better.  And we have a few surprises in store…” La Condesa will serve popular Mexican street cuisine, including grilled corn on the cob and fresh tacos. Adults can cool off with a beverage from event sponsors Cazadores Tequila, Dos Equis and  Tecate, and the kids can grab a snow cone from one of the street vendors. This neighborhood party is ideal for the whole family, with ample activities to enjoy. Area shops will also participate in the festivities featuring special gifts, novelties, and sweets to go along with the fun. When the block party ends, the celebration will continue at Malverde with a DJ set by Adrian Quesada and Martin Perna of Ocote Soul Sounds and DJ Chicken George spinning a special Cinco de Mayo set. About La Condesa: La Condesa serves up contemporary Mexican cuisine and was recently nominated for a James Beard award for ‘Best New Restaurant’, and awarded a Two Star Green Restaurant certification by the Green Restaurant Award. For more information, visit: www.lacondesaaustin.com.