FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Some #SXSW2012 Eats

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SXSW has been filled with so much adventure already!  Thursday night I went to a kick-off happy hour at Molotov sponsored by Dachis Group, which led to a party at the W.  I had an incredibly great time getting dolled up and spending time with familiar faces.  And then Saturday was an entirely different story.

My friend Matt and I put on our warmest rain gear and headed downtown in search of something to do.  No leads, no invites, no cuteness.  We ended up at The Belmont, where we were informed that we could hang out briefly before the HP Cloud party started.  We were pleasantly surprised by freeness in the form of food and margaritas.  And each time the hostess was about to let us know that our brief stay was about to end, we were graciously given a time extension by a party-goer that was supposed to be there.

After a few hours of party crashing, we met up with a bunch of Matt’s friends and headed to Victory Grill to get our local music fix. We danced, danced, danced until it was time for more food.  I wanted pizza, but the group decided on Bomb Tacos at Lustre Pearl.  Matt and the Bomb Tacos guys are apparently buddies, so I hopped on the truck and chatted it up while my spinach and mushroom quesadilla sizzled to perfection.

Almost immediately after gorging myself on cheesy goodness, Matt decided he wanted a breakfast feast at IHOP.  I had a little “why not?” moment and decided to join.  Crepes for dessert?  Why not?

I woke up this morning feeling more stuffed than one could ever imagine, but put myself in a hungry mindset for brunch with Matt and Lauren.  We met at The Steeping Room where we guzzled Moroccan mint iced tea like it was going out of style.  I ordered a salmon, cucumber, and cream cheese sandwich with a side of tempeh bacon.  Faith is totally right, tempeh bacon is super yum!

Although my first experiences with SXSW have already been so, so fun-filled, I know the upcoming week is going to be eeeeeeeeven better!    Ariel will be arriving from LA on Tuesday and I’m so excited to explore the SXSW music scene with my best pal!

No More Tiff’s, In Pictures

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Breakfast:  Wallaby Greek Yogurt with Honey

Lunch:  Earthbound Farm Cranberry Wheat Protein Boost PowerMeal

Snack:  Tiff’s Treats (this picture times 2.5…)

Yoga at Black Swan

Dinner:  Sushi Zushi!

 So…  Regular Tiff’s Treats deliveries at the office are ruining my healthy little weekday world.  I can’t say no.  I break off halves of cookies only to return to the kitchen minutes later to take the other half back to my desk.  I con co-workers into splitting halves so the orphaned half isn’t calling my name.  I end up eating… five halves of cookies.  Five!  Thankfully the rest of my meals today were freshtastic and Zoe’s practice tonight at Black Swan was as power as power yoga gets.  But seriously, no more Tiff’s Treats please.

Familiar Faces

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Whether your an over-Facebooker, under-Facebooker, or somewhere in between, I’m certain you have a strong position on the positives or negatives of Facebooking that cause you to be this way.  I’m a self-admitted over-Facebooker that can see both sides, but I tell ya…  Being an over-Facebooker is the only way to be when you move to a new city.

Facebook not only allows you to shout off the virtual rooftops how much you love your new home, but it provides the means to meet new friends of friends and connect with old friends with whom you’ve fallen out of touch.  For the past two weeks I’ve been galavanting around Austin, posting every last one of my whereabouts and who-abouts.  This is mostly a reflection of being so darn happy with my where’s and who’s lately.  But!  It’s also a subtle way of saying “Hey Facebook friends, I just moved to Austin and if you’re here or have a cool friend here, let me know!”.

Here’s where Matt and Lauren come in.  Matt, who I’ve been friends with since Safety Harbor Middle School days, saw somewhere between one and one thousand of my one thousand status updates about Austin.  So, via Facebook, he invited me to dinner and drinks with him and his wife, Lauren.  So you see, this little over-Facebooking thing of mine worked out pretty well.

Our (unpictured) first stop was East Side Show Room, where we sipped on Moscow Mules and nibbled on happy hour small plates.  We exchanged stories about how our adult lives led us to Austin and I immediately found happiness in sharing my time with two friends that call the same place home.

Our next stop was Contigo Austin.  We went straight for celebratory prosecco and two of Matt and Lauren’s favorite apps: the white bean dip and crispy green beans.  Everything we had at both places was really tasty (actually, everything in Austin has been really tasty), but I was especially impressed with the crispy green beans.  They were the only fried veggie I’ve ever had where the integrity of the veggie wasn’t totally tossed out the window.  For all intents and purposes, they were perfectly steamed green beans with a little crispy crust.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wATaFzMIMHo&w=500&h=369]

I had such a wonderful night (thank you Matt and Lauren!!) and am very much looking forward to our next get together!

The Box, In French

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It’s a shame to be cooped up in a cubicle on a super sunshiny day, like borderline painful.  As soon as it was an acceptable time to hunt around for lunch plans and not look like the hungriest kid on earth, I did.  The first taker to my lunch-outing offer was my co-worker Elizabeth.  She suggested this food-truck-ish place that she called “the box, in French”.

We chatted our merry way to La Boite and stepped into the box of a restaurant.  The menu was small but amazing.  We both ordered the pain au lait sandwich vegetarien du jour and a Topo Chico.

The outside seating was adorbs.

Our chatter continued as we decided we could live off of bread (perhaps this bread) alone, and went to town on the goat cheese and veggie perfection that sat in front of us.