The Austin FOOD & WINE Festival took over Auditorium Shores for two days, showcasing all kinds of famous chefs and local vendors. Originally I wasn’t going to attend (due to seemingly exorbitant ticket prices), I was able to win some passes thanks to Twin Liquors! With two entries, but Evelyn out of town, I scrambled to find some friends who had no plans this weekend. Luckily two were free to divide and conquer. Onward to the festival!
This weekend Austin gets to play host to the Austin FOOD & WINE Festival. It’s a spin-off of the famed FOOD & WINE Festival held annually in Aspen. Saturday and Sunday the festival will take over Auditorium Shores to showcase locally- and nationally-famous chefs doing what they do best. To unofficially kick things off, the Salt Lick made for the perfect venue to prove you can’t have too much meat and alcohol in one place. This is Live Fire!
Austin has no shortage of summer-like days, typically spanning from March through November. All that hot weather means there can never be too much ice cream, and who doesn’t like ice cream? Let me put it this way: show me someone who doesn’t like ice cream and I’ll show you a social pariah someone who hasn’t been to The Ice Cream Social. It’s a new breed of ice cream truck, less focused on junky novelties and completely focused on churning out small-batch ice cream with big flavor.
I work at National Instruments, a 13-peat top 100 companies to work for. No question the reason it has made the list every year since before Y2K is its consistent focus on employee happiness and well-being. Clearly someone at the top knows happy employees means good work, so NI does its part to make sure we’re happy. One way they do that is with quarterly deck parties — company-wide festivities for employees to get away from their desks and mingle amongst each other in the Texas sunshine.
Hill Country Pierogi, a trailer near and dear to us all, just celebrated it’s half year-versary. That’s right, they’ve been spreading pierogi love to Austin’s locals and visitors for six months! To celebrate they broke out the booze, pulled off a guest appearance by Coolhaus, and threw a delicious party for all to enjoy.
It’s the end of an era. Two weeks ago I made the rash well-thought out impulsive decision. Get my brief, shaky justification here. Basically I committed myself to yet another challenge without fully understanding my reason behind it. But over the last two weeks I’ve come up with a succinct, well-reasoned response that should at least appease the most fervent skeptic.
I’m fortunate to have showers at work so I can run during my lunch break. There’s a route through nearby neighborhoods that take me over train tracks right at the end. As I was finishing up I saw a train coming. Not one to risk death to save 3 minutes, I decided to let it pass rather than jump the tracks. Smart, right? BUZZ. Just after the engine passed me I heard it downshift and start braking. A minute later, it was stopped. I saw 4 options:
WTF! Stupid trains.
It doesn’t take much for me to make rash decisions. Example? I read a local Austin blogger’s post about effects of coffee — more specifically, caffeine –and right then and there decided to remove coffee from my daily routine. That’s right, I’ve undertaken a challenge I once thought to be so far out of reach, well it’s like thinking about qualifying for the Boston Marathon… hmm… So I’m giving it a try!
Now that I’m a little over a month of eating gluten free I thought it would be a good time to provide another update. Since my last post on the topic I’ve had a few lapses. On the one hand, it’s a bummer. I’ve been avoiding gluten as much as possible, so any slip up is a blow to my confidence in sticking to my goal. However, I have a great excuse: social pressure. Let me explain.
Update: Sadly Lembas is permanently closed.
With my recent switch to gluten free eating, I’ve become much more aware of how pervasive the g-word is. Well just two days after making the jump, a new trailer hit the pavement with a menu free of grains and gluten! Fear not, it’s not just serving celery with a side of beef. No, the menu makes eating gluten free feel more like just eating. I submit to you my trilogy of visits to the one trailer to rule them all, Lembas.
