2015 Austin Food + Wine Festival: Sunday

Sunday (4/25)

We showed up a little later this time. And it seems like the other attendees had the same idea. People trickled in throughout the day and there was definitely less people. It was a little cooler that day. Thank goodness!

Easy Tiger - Rye Tartlets (with Duck Romesco). The duck was great. The rye was too dry and fell apart when you bit into it. 

Cardamom Toasts (with rum syrup and brioche). So pretty. Didn't care for the bottom toast part, but the top was really good.

Bufalina - Sage Burrata (with red wine poached strawberries and brown butter crisped sage). I freaking love burrata.

The Maple Syrup Lady - Maple Pecan Baklava, Maple Candy

Tiny Pies - Mini Pecan Pies. Cute! And very good. Apparently later in the day they had key lime, which I didn't get to try... booo. :(

 

Corner - Avocado Cheesecake (with prickly pear jelly and pistachio crumble). They get the award for the most interesting dish. The presentation is amazing first of all. The colors are so beautiful. And I got to see them plate these... :) You can totally taste the avocado, it was so smooth but light. Not too sweet and just enough.

 

Knob Creek - Blackberry Peach Tea Lemonade (with Knob Creek bourbon). My fiance liked it. Too strong for me!

 

 

Fork & Vine - Asparagus Salad. It was nice to get some veggies. A little too much sauce but otherwise another great dish. It's no scallops though. haha.

Bess Bistro - Pig Face Rillette (with kimchi bbq sauce, mung bean cilantro salad, pickled strawberry vinaigrette, on a lavash cracker). Didn't care for the lavash... too hard. But the pig face... SPOT ON. So good.

Little City - Cold Brew Coffee. I thought it was cool that it comes in bottles!

Finn & Porter - Grilled Octopus. One of the favorites of the day. The octopus was amazingly tender. Grilled to perfection and was complimented so well by the fennel/radish salad on the bottom. I wish I had more stomach space to go back for more.

La Barbecue - Brisket (on a plantain chip). I've heard great things about La Barbecue for a long time now but we've never had time to check them out in Austin. Brisket... amazing. That char is awesome. I bit mine in half and then the other half fell into the grass. I was devastated... Almost applied the 5 second rule but talked myself out of it. haha. 

 

Wu Chow - Cold Noodles (with shredded chicken, in Peanut Sauce). 

 

Anise cookie (topped with Chinese BBQ Pork and Grapefruit zest). 

Definitely the best decorated stand. The fruit carving was the center of attention for all the pictures that day. It's beautifully done. The anise cookie was so interesting. You get sweet and savory and the anise flavor. The noodles were pretty standard.

Baked by Amy's - S'mores and Brown Sugar Homemade Pop Tarts. No macarons today. Darn... These were cute too. But was just ok. Needed more filling, otherwise the crust is a tad dry. 

 

La Condesa - Chicharrones. Mini Paletas (pineapple, tequila). They had two of the most interesting looking dishes. The paletas were in dry ice so you can see the cold air flying off of them. (check the Facebook page for a video) The Chicharrones had these hot sauce droppers stuck in there. Totally cool. But wasn't so tasty. 

Cafe Mueller - Brisket Taco. Good, but after La Barbecue, the brisket didn't compare.

 

Odd Duck - Fire Roasted Calf (with oven-baked bread). Roasted calf was good, the bread was tough to bite through. Their line was super long too...

 

Pass & Provisions - Corned Beef Leg with Cabbage and Rye. My favorite dish of the day by far! First of all, it's huge!! The rye "tortilla" had a bunch of seasoning in it and I loved the texture. But the star is definitely the corned beef leg. I mean... the cooking process is insane. Loved the giant leg just hanging there. I also saw them cooking it on the fire. But it was soooo freaking tender. Melt in your mouth and went so well with the slaw. I was already so full when I got to them so I thought I'd just eat a bite or two. I ended up eating about 2/3rds of it... hehe.

 

Here are some other items where I either don't know the description of the dish and/or the vendor:
Braised Pork over Sticky Rice (topped with pickled onions and watermelon radish)

 

Black and Bleu Crustini (beef tenderloin, caramelized onions, gorgonzola)

Shrimp (honey glazed?) - these went so fast... my fiance had to wait for them to put out more. But delicious!

Tekeen - Wine Cocktail

Chef Richard Blais Demo "For Goodness Steak". Top Chef contestant and Top Chef All-Stars winner. Love this guy! Known for using interesting cooking methods. His demo had liquid nitrogen and a handheld smoker.

 

Chef Tyson Cole Demo - Uchi/Uchiko - Yellowtail Handroll. Uchi has been on my list forever, but still haven't made it there. It's quite expensive. Chef Cole was the only chef demo that made food for everyone in the audience. :)

 

It was a fun weekend. Lots of delicious food, and I got to see some of my favorite chefs! Got several autographs on my CHOMP! shirt!! :) Tony Mantuano, Graham Elliot, Antonia Lofaso, Richard Blais, and Jamie Bissonnette. I'd say it was a success!!

I do wish that both of us drank more. I felt like there were at least the same amount of alcohol vendors than food, if not more. We kind of missed out on that part of the festival... So maybe we didn't fully get our money's worth. Oh well. This was on my bucket list. And now I can check it off! Next time... the Aspen Food + Wine Festival!! :D

~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

The Latin Pig

Wow.. it's almost been a month since I last posted! It's been busy busy as always. And I've actually been cooking more! Gasp! :P haha.

About 2 weeks ago I went to go see Chef, the new movie by (and starring) Jon Favreau. I was soooo excited about this movie. The trailer looked fantastic. And it's about food! I made time on a weeknight to go watch it with some friends. It was so good. I already had high expectations and it totally exceeded it. It had passion, humor, struggles, and of course food. The food prep/cooking/plating scenes were orgasmic. I was drooling through the whole movie. GO. SEE. IT.!!! Just do it. But don't go on an empty stomach! :P

Anyways, they featured a lot of Cuban flavors in the movie, since the food truck was a Cuban food truck. haha. And they made tons of Cubanos (cuban sandwiches), just one after another. With that crispy toasted bread, the slow roasted pork. OMG! I'm drooling again!

Since I saw the movie, I had been craving a Cubano like no other. I finally made it to a Latin restaurant a few days later.

The Latin Pig
3131 Custer Road, Ste #165
Plano, TX 75075
(972) 985-9760
www.thelatinpig.com
Price: $-$$

This place was on my radar for a while but then I kinda forgot about it. In my search for a Cubano, it came up again. The reviews seemed very positive. And they've got all the things I wanted to try!

It's a tiny little place in a strip mall in Plano. Only about 4 booth for seating, a lot of people came in for to-go orders. You order at the counter and they bring the food out to you. There's a bit of a wait since they seem short staffed. But the guy was super friendly so it's all good. He even took the time to come check on us once all the food came out. :)

I got an order of Maduros (fried sweet plantains) $2.50~ Love me some plantains. For $2.50, this was a pretty good portion. The plantains were soft and sweet. Yummy!!

Cubano (roasted pulled pork, ham, swiss cheese, pickles and Mojo de Ajo; served on toasted Italian bread) $7.99~ 

Of course I got this, duh! The whole reason I found this place. haha. It had a great crispy crust and the size was good. It was pretty good, but didn't live up to my expectations and the hype I got from the movie. Mainly because it seemed a bit dry. The pork wasn't that juicy. The flavors were good but it was missing something. I took half of it to go. At home, I spread some whole grain mustard on it and voila! it was sooo much better! I realized they didn't put mustard on their Cubano. Isn't that a required ingredient?

We also got the Rabo Encendido (slow stewed oxtail) $14.99~ I chose to pair it with Arroz con Gandules (yellow rice and Latin peas), per the staff's recommendation. 

I love oxtail. It's pretty hard to find around here. The only other place I've had oxtails (other than at home) was Buttons, a southern restaurant in Addison. Needless to say I was pretty excited. Plus my bf had never had it before and wanted to try. A bit pricey for this plate since oxtails don't have that much meat. FYI, they only have this dish on Fridays-Sundays. It was served on a bed of rice. I wish there was some side of veggies or something too. But the flavor of the oxtail was really good. The meat itself was not tender enough, but sometimes it's fun to gnaw on the bones to see how much meat you can get off of it. haha. The rice turned out to be the icing on the cake. It was a really good pairing with the oxtails. We both liked it a lot. And we scraped the plate clean. My mom's oxtail is still better, but she doesn't prepare it in Latin flavors of course. I'm still glad we tried it. And my bf really enjoyed it! He'll try pretty much anything. I'm so proud. :P

Guava Pastry $1.75~ 

 

I got this to go for dessert later. Hard to find guava around here too. Although I prefer the guava we have in Taiwan where it's white in the inside green on the outside. I think latin guava is pink. It was guava past inside flaky puff pastry. It was good. Needed more guava paste though.

All in all, it was a good little find. They have some other dishes I'd like to try as well. And if I get the Cubano again, I'll ask them to slather some mustard on there!

And... GO SEE CHEF!!!! Trust me, you'll love it! :)

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~