From Austin to Boston and Back Again

I love getting gifts in the mail. I mean, who doesn't? So when the Boston Food Bloggers and the Austin Food Blogger Alliance teamed up before the holidays for a little cross-city swapping, you know I was in for the ride.

I went to Austin a few years ago for a conference, and while I didn't get to see an awful lot of the city, I loved what I did see. I ate more barbecue than I thought possible at The Salt Lick, spent a fair amount of time browsing in Austin Books & Comics, somehow managed to go to both Cornucopia (for awesome popcorn) and Walton's Fancy and Bakery (for baked goods) about once a day, and bought some crazy things at the City-Wide Garage Sale that now adorn my rooms. I couldn't help but wonder what magical items I would get from Texas.

But first, I had to package up my goodies! I shopped around for some of my absolute favorite local items, like Sweet Sloops from Harbor Sweets, a few different varieties of Q's Nuts, and Little Lad's Herbal Popcorn (the herbs are dill and nutritional yeast). I also added some local honey (which I bought on tap from Follow the Honey), some olive oil from Central Bottle, some chocolate-covered cranberries, and some homemade chocolate peppermint cookies that I had made for the Food Blogger Cookie Swap. Of course, like just about everyone else in the ATXBOS swap, I included a copy of Edible Boston, and I also threw in a farmers' market shopping list pad. I tried to get the package out the door as early as possible because I knew the Christmas season would be so hectic.

 Not long after, I received a box in the mail from my swap partner, Kristina of Girl Gone Grits. It was a good sign, I think, that she had used a tequila box to send everything to me :) Inside, I found a wealth of Austin goodies: two kinds of meat rubs (Fiesta Brand and Gordon's), Texas Texas Salsa (the first kind Kristina tried after moving to Austin), Pie Society Crimps (tasty little bites of pie with nutella), RoundRock Honey, Texas Pasta in spinach and basil (which I'm saving for a really cold night), pickled blueberreis by Confituras (who knew you could pickle blueberries?!), Fig Honey Habanero jam from A Texas Twist, Pumpkin Ginger jam (made by Kristina herself!), a few copies of Edible Austin and a few other Austin periodicals, and (shhhh, don't tell!) a little nip of Republic tequila and homemade (!) limoncello. So many good things in one place! I'm looking forward to having little tastes of Austin to keep me warm throughout the winter.

The Edible Word: Confections of a Closet Master Baker, Part 1

In today's book market, it is quite possible to read only food memoirs and have no time left to read anything else. And I would probably read many more food memoirs if I didn't love a variety of other genres and wanted to spread the love around amongst them all (I'm currently reading some time travel comedy, although it's lagging a little, and I'm ready for some short story horror). So when Stephanie at Dispensing Happiness said she was organizing a reading/blogging group for a new food memoir, I signed up immediately.

And I'm really glad I did. I was sent a copy of Confections of a Closet Master Baker by Gesine Bullock-Prado and felt immediately compelled to put down that time travel comedy (yes, I've been reading it for a while now - I told you it was laggy!) and dive straight in. I mean, with a first line of "I saw the devil at age three and he gave me chocolate. It changed my life forever." how could you not want to start reading?

I loved every moment of this book. Gesine jumps around from her childhood in Europe (where her mother was an opera singer) to her life in Hollywood (working for her sister's production company and slowly losing her soul) to the machinations of a working bakery in Vermont (where she escaped to after Hollywood), and yet the story doesn't feel disjointed at all. Each snippet of story lets us into her world a little more. While reading, I wanted nothing more than to curl up on the couch with some coffee and a piece of cake and keep reading (I was on the go, however, and it was above 90° out - curling up wouldn't have felt that good). Gesine's tone goes from light and entertaining to heartfelt and sad in moments - I was choking back tears, sitting in a cafe that wasn't nearly as nice as her own bakery, as I read about her mother's favorite recipe.

I was excited about this book even before it arrived on my doorstep. I was in Austin a few weeks ago for a conference, and while doing my food research for the trip, I discovered that Gesine had recently helped to open a new bakery in town. And on my first day in town, my friend and I went to Hut's Hamburgers for lunch and noticed that Walton's Fancy and Staple, Gesine's new bakery, was just down the street. So we stopped in for dessert, and I totally fell in love with the place. Over the course of the trip (5 days in total), we visited the bakery three times, bringing more and more people with us each time. I loved the space, filled with cozy cafe tables and a variety of plants and beautiful furniture and objects like the jars above. It was airy and bright, and there was even a second room of seating that provided a more intimate and quiet space.

So over three visits, I got to try many of the bakery's offerings, including a few that I would later read about in her book, such as Golden Eggs and Savory Rock Scones. Above are a cream puff and one of Gesine's famous macarons (and a lovely cup of espresso). And everything at Walton's was downright cheap, at least according to my Boston sensibilities. When I got home and started reading the book, I was happy to have a better idea of all the foods Gesine was mentioning. Reading the book made me hungry enough - at least I knew what some of the stuff tasted like!

You can also check out Gesine's blog and read the first 15 pages of the book on Amazon.

Part 2 of my post is here.

Walton's Fancy and Staple

Austin Wrap Up

I was on a plane years ago when the lady I was sitting next to asked me where I was from. "Boston," I said. I certainly wasn't expecting her response - "Oh, I love Texas!" I was a little too shocked to tell her that I wasn't talking about Austin. That was probably my first realization that I do have something of a Boston accent (although not in comparison to many people in the area).

I finally got the chance to visit Austin, though, last week, when I was in town for the Society of American Archivists' annual meeting. Luckily, my grad school classmate Melissa, who went to the University of Texas for college, was my guide, and she took me to all her favorite places.

One of our first stops was Kerbey Lane, a 24-hour cafe with a creative menu. Their queso is probably the best I've ever had - a subtle cheesiness mixed with guacamole and pico de gallo. Three of us couldn't get to the bottom of the bowl, although I was trying my hardest. I could have gone back there at any other point during the trip just for more of this stuff. I ended up stuffing myself further with their gingerbread pancakes, and I had a hard time deciding between the pancakes and the seasonal zucchini bread French toast.


The conference was over by Saturday afternoon, and I was really excited to be able to go to the 3rd Annual Austin Ice Cream Festival. I was greatly disappointed by the event though - I was expecting something more like the Scooperbowl, where you pay your entrance fee and then get to try samples from a variety of different ice cream companies. Instead, each company had their ice cream truck selling scoops (although some were selling sample sizes for $1). This made it hard to try lots of different flavors and purveyors.

An afternoon of ice cream did not stop us from eating more a few hours later. We hit Trudy's for dinner, another of Melissa's favorite restaurants. I stared at the menu for ages, but finally settled on the stuffed avocado, a whole avocado filled with chicken and cheese, then deep-fried and smothered in sauce. I mean, how can you go wrong with avocado and deep-fried?!


Sunday, my last full day in town, was filled with more eating. We had brunch at Romeo's. Although it was hotter out than I had been used to (from Boston's weird, cool early summer), the tomato soup was recommended. It is smooth and thick and creamy, with just enough salt to really bring out the sweetness of the tomatoes. I also had a BLT pizza, topped with big pieces of bacon, tomato, smoked mozzarella, and a hearty sprinkling of chopped lettuce, all on a thin and crispy crust.


For dinner, we made the pilgrimage out to the town of Driftwood to eat at the Salt Lick. Friends have been telling me about this place for years, and it really did deserve the hype. We got the family-style meal, which includes unlimited brisket, sausage, ribs, cole slaw, potato salad, beans, pickles, and bread. The meat was amazing - I'm not usually a fan of sausage, but I loved the seasoning and the snap of the casing. The ribs were so tender that they were almost impossible to eat by picking them up - the meat just fell right off. I even enjoyed the cole slaw and the potato salad because they weren't the traditional kind, loaded with mayo, but were vinegary. We saved just enough room for the peach cobbler - I definitely needed something a little sweet at the end of the that huge meal.


Of course, that wasn't all we hit. We also visited Hut's Hamburgers (amazing onion rings), Walton's Fancy and Staple (a beautiful bakery with delicious pastries), Epoch Coffee (if I lived in Austin, I would hang out here all the time), Mekong River (delicious Vietnamese), The Jackalope (Ace Pear Cider is my new favorite cider, although I don't think you can get it in MA...), Cornucopia (40+ flavors of popcorn? Uh, yes!), and Whataburger (the honey chicken biscuit makes an amazing breakfast).

Overall, my trip was great (although exhausting), and I really enjoyed the city. I wouldn't mind going back (maybe during a cooler time of year) to see more of the area.