Austin Food & Wine Festival

I spent my Sunday volunteering at the Austin Food & Wine Festival.  Since it was a weekend-long event, and I wouldn't have been able to enjoy the entire span of it if I'd bought tickets due to work, I decided to volunteer on my day off.  It was a really enjoyable experience.  I got to watch a few cooking demos and eat great food/sample yummy wines.  Here are a few pics I took while there.
Roasting Pigs



Cooking demo by Marcus Samuelsson


Marcus Samuelsson Up Close
I don't know why this photo keeps uploading sideways ;P





Tidbits I learned:
  1. The reason unsalted butter>salted butter is because salt acts as a preservative so usually unsalted butter is fresher than salted.  (I had always used unsalted because it was easier to control salt levels myself, plus, I like having one butter in the fridge for both cooking and baking) 
  2. Save shrimp shells for making a really flavorful, layered ramen broth
  3. Gewurztraminer wines pair really well with spicy foods. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Copy Cat Kerbey Queso

Image
You cannot be a proper Tex-Mex lover without eating at least 1 quart of queso per year.  I'm pretty sure I started the year off in the right direction by making this copy-cat Kerbey Queso for NYE.   Kerbey Lane Queso is my favorite in Austin.  So creamy, so cheesy, and so good.  White queso with pico and a scoop of guacemole in it that you kind-of have to dig around in, which makes it soooo good.  Have I said how good it is? That being said, I've tried so many queso recipes.  I've made beschemels, I've used expensive, good cheeses.  No queso seems to hold that creamy consistency very well.  So when one of my friends, Rachel, was back home in Austin from her now home-town in Seattle she asked one of the servers what's in it.  She just had to know.  The server leaned in close to her and whispered, "it's white processed cheese."  OMG, my mind was blown.  No wonder it's so flippin' good.  I think the HEB brand white queso is...
Read more

Mom's Bun Bo Hue Chay (Vietnamese vegetarian spicy "beef" noodle soup)

Image
After many requests from my sister and cousin, I finally documented my mom's vegetarian bun bo chay !  Get ready, this recipe is kind of intense and usually takes 2 days to make.  My mom makes a giant pot of it and the whole family eats it in the span of a day or two.  She freezes the broth for later use (if there is any left over!).  The flavor does enhance each time the broth is reheated, so it's usually better the second day and each subsequent time.  It's so good, I often prefer it to regular bun bo (Spicy Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup). Bun bo Hue  is a specialty of the central region of Vietnam, where my dad's side is from.  You won't find it as commonly as pho  or bun  (vermicelli bowls) in most Vietnamese restaurants.  This is a soup that is a labor of love and family and spicy-tolerance.  My ong noi  (paternal grandfather) used to make the best bun bo hue !  Now my Aunt Angelique/ Co Be  makes a cleaner, tast...
Read more