Over the span of three days a couple weeks ago, I was lucky enough to dine at both the downtown Austin locations of Truluck’s and Eddie V’s as a guest of each restaurant.
The similarities were many. Both specialize in fine dining seafood and steak, both are part of a family of restaurants — there are ten Truluck’s  and five Eddie V’s — Roaring Fork and Wildfish Seafood Grille are also part of the Eddie V’s group. There are two locations of both in Austin — one downtown, one in the …

If you are into food, live in Austin, and are paying attention, you might know that a new food truck is in town. It is called Chi’Lantro. According to their Web Site, the name of the business is the result of fusing the words Kimchi and Cilantro.
Kimchi is key in Korean cuisine and Cilantro adds freshness to Mexican street food.
Part of the allure of Chilantro is supposed to be that they move around all the time and you have to follow them on Twitter to learn their whereabouts. I believe …

This will be my second attempt at live blogging a class. The first was a Central Market cooking class geared to food bloggers in Feb. 2008.
It’s 6:30 p.m. on a Tuesday and I’m sitting in the very first of a 12-week class called Tipsy Tech: The History and Practice of Cocktail Mixology. The class is co-taught by Lara Nixon, writer of the blue ruin blog and owner of Boxcar Bar, a freelance cocktail and education service; it’s also taught by David Alan, aka the Tipsy Texan.

Tipsy Tech class at Twin …

Olivia from Sugar Mama’s Bakeshop is one of my favorite small business owners in Austin. She is as sweet as the name of her shop, fun to be around, experimental with new technology, and baker of my office’s monthly birthday treats.
With her new breakfast hours and menu rolling out tomorrow, she offered to bring over some early morning treats for me and my colleagues late last week.

The lemon bundt cake was my favorite. Still warm from the oven, light and spongy, it was perfect with my morning black coffee.

Other favorites …

Do you think it’s dumb that I didn’t know that macarons existed until a couple weeks ago? Not macaroon, macaron!
A macaron is a French almond-based meringue sandwich filled with flavored ganache. The macaroon we typically see in the U.S. are made with coconut and is heavy and dense.

La Boite, the awesome new coffee shop housed in a refurbished shipping container on South Lamar began serving macarons the week before the Tasty Up trailer tour.
That day we reveled, oohed and aahed in the salted caramel and chocolate with strawberry cream flavors.
I …

I was thrilled to receive an invite to Christian and Jamie of Austin Food Journal’s house for one of their now-legendary pizza parties. My friend Carla from Austin Urban Gardens reintroduced us at a food blogger event and apparently pressured them into it. We are forever grateful.
Christian is a masterful pizza cook and showed Adam and I how to roll out and toss the dough properly. If you want to try his recipe to see if you can get his amazing results, he has posted it here.
Christian was making the …