Austin Monthly's Cake Off

I attended the Austin Monthly Craziest Cake Competition last fall, and I thought I'd share the photos because I love cake.  I could probably put away an entire cake in one sitting.  I also love the photos because even though I love to bake cakes and cupcakes, I can't decorate to save my life.  I can pipe frosting, but I don't do cut out shapes or fondant.  Enjoy! It's the South Congress Cake.  Complete with trailer. Here's a cake showing an Austin icon, Threadgill's.  Other Austin icons.  This wasn't my favorite cake in terms of design, but it was by far my favorite cake to eat.  The cake was champagne chiffon with strawberries.  Awesomely crooked cake. A pancake cake. That's some awesome balance.  Fondant Leslie in a red thong.  Marzipan Bevo.

A Diner to Drive For: @MonumentCafe

Here's a diner to drive for: Monument Cafe.  You might have remember my post about the Monument Cafe (@monumentcafe) chocolate pie a few months ago.  That pie paired with 512 Pecan Porter is amazing.  @windaddict/@hopsafari and I took a little trip up to visit Monument Cafe up in Georgetown, TX.  Monument Cafe is in a new location (bigger) just a few blocks away from its original location.  The old location will soon be turned into a market (yay!).  The new location is not only bigger, but it also will be home to a large sprawling garden.  The herbs are out in the front of the cafe, and the back of the cafe will be home to the vegetables.  Enjoy the photos and stayed tuned for more news on the Monument Cafe. Thank you to Monument Cafe for having us in for a delightful lunch.  Photos by John M. P. Knox.

Look at that beautiful broccoli.  That is some gorgeous broccoli. 

The cauliflower is just at beautiful as the broccoli. 

And some lovely chard.

Here's the front of the cafe, which is appropriately in black and white.

The inside was modern yet with that nostalgic diner feel. 

I ordered the fried whole cat fish (with bone), and it was pretty fantastic.  I'm not a huge deep fried seafood fan, but this fish was crunchy and delicious.  Have this catfish, and you won't want to go back to nuggets.  Now the problem with Monument Cafe is the GIGANTIC vegetable selection.  Picking out the sides wasn't the easiest thing to do, but we had some help with recommendations. 

We also had the quiche with sweet potato fries and the squash casserole.  I'm pretty sure that @windaddict/@hopsafari wolfed down most of the quiche before I had a decent sampling.  I did manage to sneak some hot fries and heartwarming squash casserole. 

And last but not least, a chocolate malt made with house made frozen custard.  @windaddict/@hopsafari and I are huge fans of malts, and this one filled our malt craving.  If you're craving some comfort diner food, Monument Cafe is well worth the drive.  

How to spot fake reviews

You're a business owner, and you're wondering how other businesses get so many reviews.  How did Uchi get 527 reviews with an average of 4.5 stars on Yelp (as of 1/1/11)?  How did Sugar Mama's get 314 reviews with an average of 4.5 stars on Yelp (as of 1/1/11)?  How come no one is talking about your business?  *I know that Uchi and Sugar Mama's do NOT engage in the behavior described below.  Thusly, I feel comfortable using their data.  The temptation sets in.  You want more people to know about you.  You think no one will find out.  You're antsy for people to click on your website link.  You make a fake account on Yelp.  You give yourself five stars.  You wait a few minutes.  That wasn't too bad.  So you make another fake account.  You give yourself another five stars.  That was easy.  On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog right?  So you do it again. And again. And again.  Now you have seven positive reviews.  Job well done!  You ask your employees to log onto Yelp and to write reviews.  You ask all your friends, suppliers, regulars, and family members to do it.  It isn't technically wrong, if you don't get caught.  What an easy way to increase your ratings and pump up those reviews.  WRONG. It isn't long before you get sniffed out.  You're slammed on the Master Debater's Threads, and Google Alerts show that you have been caught red-handed.  Moral of the story. Don't write fake reviews.  Social media and crowd sourced content sites already spark controversy and debate.  Throw in examples of fake reviews written by business owners or their rivals, and everyone goes bananas.  Transparency in social media has been the norm with demand for honesty ever growing.  Users want to be able to put a face with a social media voice, and rest assured that conflicts of interests are revealed.  No one wants to be tricked.    As a consumer, you do want to know which reviews are honest.  Here's some quick tips on sniffing them out. Photo and name (Lack of online presence).  No photos and fake names are often hallmarks (though not always) of fake reviews.  Some fake reviewers have become savvy and will use a stock photo on the profile, and a generic screen name.  Stock photos (often flowers, trees, or puppies) are pretty easy to spot. Names are more difficult to gauge, but there are several ways to investigate. You can Google the screen name along with the city (example: Jennie C. Austin or MisoHungry Austin).  If nothing turns up, then it can get suspicious.  On occasion, the business owners and employees will use their real names and photos when reviewing their own businesses.  That's a dead give away as it is easy to check websites for business owner names or to find via Linkedin.com.  Sometimes, they will also write the review in first person.  "I worked really hard to open this restaurant" doesn't seem unbiased to me.  Location listed on the profile.  If the location listed is not in same town that the businesses, look for other reviews in the same town.  Frequently, travelers review more than one business when visiting other cities.  If a person from Montana reviews just a single business in Austin, that would raise eyebrows.  It is unlikely (but not impossible) that an out-of-towner would review a business that isn't already well-known.  Depth and breadth of reviews.  The number of reviews, types of businesses reviewed, and the details of the reviews are also very telling.  Lack of depth and breadth generally means that the person doesn't invest much time in the reviews or only selects particular businesses to review for whatever reason.  Those types of reviews are typically vague, lack descriptions, and are generic.  Here's some examples of vague reviews (names removed):  ********* has small plates packed with big flavor. Perfect place to meet for a drink and gently roll into dinner. Appreciated the guidance of the staff with perfect pairings of both beer and wine for our dishes. We ended up ordering the entire menu and nothing disappointed! Welcome to the neighborhood,*******! Wow, the ****** are amazing!!!!! I love all the*********, my favorite was the *******. I also had the ******* which was pure, literally....and wonderful on the recent cloudy cool days.  On a warmer day, the ****** is heaven on earth! What a novelty, can't believe I've never seen ******* anywhere else. This place is off the hizzy. HmmmMmmm I know what good is and this place is good, ya hear?  Other contributions and timing of reviews.  If the reviews for the business were written before the business opened, you better believe that raises the red flag.  Also, contributing photos of "behind the scenes" or construction shots of a business is an indicator of conflict of interest with the business.  If you see the same shots uploaded to a review site that are on a photographer's portfolio, that is a dead give away.  *Anyone that has a relationship with the business or conflict of interest should either disclose it in a review or not review at all.  Narrow range of businesses reviewed and aspects revealed.  This is a completely hypothetical example, though it has happened before with other suppliers.  A supplier naturally wants their customers to flourish, so they might be tempted to write reviews for their customers.  You might find a Yelp user that reviews only sushi restaurants, and the reviews praises only the freshness of the fish, how it is handled, and how it is prepared.  The reviewer's profile might say something about fish or link to a fish wholesaler website.  It is highly likely that the profile might belong to the restaurants' fish supplier.  That should be disclosed OR reviews of the restaurants in question should be avoided.  I can understand that a supplier really wants to let everyone know about their great ingredients and food, but the behavior should still be avoided. There are other ways to let people know about the ingredients.  Sometimes reviewers will outright say that they "are employees, and that's why they know the quality of the food is so great."  Oops. Sometimes the only other reviews are for other businesses in the same family (same owners).  Positive reviews of every single store in a chain is a little less than subtle.    The same review (or clusters of reviews) appear on multiple websites, sometimes posted within minutes of each other.  That's waving the giant red flag of "someone on our marketing team was given the task of copying and pasting fake reviews to different websites this morning."  A cluster of positive reviews pop up right after a single negative review.  Sometimes businesses have fake profiles in waiting.  If they receive a negative review, they immediately unleash several positive reviews.  It is pretty obvious when they are lined up chronologically. Those are just some ways that fake reviewers are sniffed out.  The best defense against them is the time it takes to create believable fake profiles/online presence.  *I've been going back and forth on whether or not I should write this.  I thought that in writing this, shady businesses owners might find tricks to appear less fake.  Honestly though, to create an online presence to does not escape the vigilant detection of savvy internet users and the likes of the Google machine would take hours upon hours.  I would guess that it would take no less than 50-100 hours per fraudulent online presence.  The likelihood of a business investing that many hours into a single fake review is extremely low.  Those types of businesses wouldn't even invest the time in reading this post. I don't think this blog post will affect these behaviors at all.

Roast beef beer bread sandwiches with Independence Brews

With the Superbowl just days away, you might need some finger foods to feed a crowd.  Here's an combination that I haven't mentioned much before (online anyways).  When I used to do water rescue training heavily in the Summers, I frequently brought these roast beef sandwiches to the lake.  Because of that, these sandwiches are a bittersweet memory of my late trainer, Dick Shumer.  Tasting them again reminded me not only of my great mentor, but also of why beer makes things a thousand times better.  Hearty roast beef and mild baby Swiss cheese sandwiched with malty beer bread and spicy, pungent mustard not only makes a great picnic snack, but also a great (and easy) dish for football watching.  I hope you enjoy these sandwiches as much as I have.  Beer bread roast beef and baby Swiss cheese sandwiches (makes ~8 sandwiches or ~16 sandwich triangles) 1 loaf of beer bread (recipe follows) 1 pound of thinly sliced roast beef (more if you like more meat) 1/2 pound baby Swiss cheese thinly sliced Beer mustard (recipe follows) I feel awkward writing out steps on how to assemble a sandwich.  Nonetheless, here it is.  Slice bread, dress with mustard (be conservative as my recipe is very spicy), arrange roast beef and cheese on top.  Cover with another piece of bread.  Stuff into your face.  Also, the thinner you slice your bread, the more sandwiches you get to make.  Beer bread recipe (self-rising version) makes 1 small loaf: 1 cup beer (I used Independence Bootlegger Brown and Austin Amber, separately. Both loaves were soft in texture and malty.  The Amber loaf had a slight hoppy finish.) 3 1/2 cups (or more) self-rising flour 1/3 cup of malt extract (extra pale)  It is okay to substitute honey, molasses, or agave nectar.  Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Add more or less self-rising flour to achieve a fairly thick batter.  It should be less thick than bread dough, but more dense than cake batter.  Humidity might also play a role in how much flour you need.  Pour into a greased loaf pan or into a 9x11 inch pan.  This recipe doesn't need to rise. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes until the center is no longer jiggly. Cool and slice with a serrated knife.     Independence Bootlegger Brown Beer Mustard (very spicy, will blow your panties off) 1/2 cup yellow mustard seeds 1/2 cup brown mustard seeds 1 cup yellow mustard powder 1 teaspoon Oriental mustard powder 1 teaspoon onion powder 1 tablespoon malt extract ( I used extra pale) 3/4 cup Independence Bootlegger Brown Soak the mustard seeds in the beer for at least two hours or overnight in the fridge.  Then add all the other ingredients and mix until it has a smooth paste like consistency (with the grains of mustard seed still intact).  The malt extract can be difficult to mix in, however a fork will help with it.  Allow to sit for 20 minutes so that the flavors can begin the bloom.  Serve immediately or store in a tight jar, refrigerated.  As this recipe is pretty spicy, the Oriental mustard powder can be substituted with the yellow mustard powder to decrease the spiciness.  These powders can typically be found in higher end grocery stores or specialty food stores.  I purchased these spices in the bulk section for less than $4 total at Central Market in Austin, TX.