Austin Food and Wine Festival

Austin, TX. has most definitely become the Foodie Capital of Texas. From famous top chefs visiting and living here (such as Anthony Bourdain, and Top Chef: Texas winner Paul Qui), to Austin finally holding it’s first Food and Wine festival… when you’re in Austin, you have a plethora of choices when it comes to food, all given the thumbs up by these greats. I’m amazed by the high-quality, top notch cuisine served here compared to my old hometown, Dallas. And just so you know, the food here was Reason #3 we decided to call Austin home!

I had the most amazing honor of attending this year’s food festival, brought to us by Food and Wine Magazine. No one honestly knew what to expect, but needless to say, our expectations were definitely met above and beyond.  I had the most amazing samplings from Stubb’s BBQ, Tiny Pies, H-E-B, and Sullivan’s Steakhouse, to name a few. Stella Artois handed out beer in their signature chalice. Chefs like Masaharu Morimoto, Andrew Zimmern, Tony Mantuano and Marcus Samuelsson were signing books. There were demos galore! Gail Simmons had a demo that I unfortunately missed out on The bar was full of all the beer, wine, tea and water you could consume. East Side King, mmmpanada and The Peached Tortilla even made an appearance. As you can see, this festival was truly fantastic!

I really have to be honest here, there were a few things that bothered me. I’m not a fan of large crowds. The older I get, the more I realize I’m quite the introvert. So, I wasn’t feeling the crowd too much. But I tried my best to tune them out and just enjoy whatever was placed in front of me, even if people were so rudely shoving me around. Obviously out-of-towners. *sigh* Secondly, there was some gnarly high winds and the grounds they chose to hold this festival was mainly dirt. Talk about a dust bowl. I left early simply because I got dirt in my eyes, ears and it stuck all over my body. I understand they couldn’t control the high winds. But perhaps some advanced planning would have helped? Maybe having the festival at Zilker Park next year would be ideal, too. It’s grassy there. And the whole reserving four-five rows out of eight for the VIP badge holders at the cooking demos did not make sense. People that were waiting an hour or more were lucky to even get a seat in the tent. Only for three rows to fill up with VIP badge holders, leaving two rows for last-minute Weekender badge holders to take and not having to wait. I believe VIP badge holders already have so many perks, the whole priority seating at the demos is one they should consider leaving out next year.

There were pros and there were cons to the whole event. But seeing as how it was their first year having this festival, I understand the whole “learning through living” process. I do hope Food and Wine learned from this year and make next year’s festival even better!

If you would like to see more images, feel free to check ‘em out on my flickr: ATX Food and Wine Festival.

Did you attend the Austin Food and Wine Festival? What did you like/dislike the most?

The Zilker Park Kite Festival, Talk About Family Fun

This past weekend, Kiddo, Husband, Brudder and I paid our first visit to the Zilker Park Kite Festival. Let me say, I was impressed. It’s as if my inner child was released. I basked in the glory that are kites (yes, kites can be pretty glorious, if you ask me). What kind of kites did we NOT see? From Angry Birds to unicorns, to geometrically intriguing to “Yeah, you’ll never get that one to fly”, it’s as if every kite imaginable gathered together on this day and made us stand in awe.

Waste not, Want not…

How many times have you heard that? I know I’ve heard it a lot. Which is why wasting food is one of my biggest pet peeves. I absolutely abhor it. When I see that some tomatoes or lettuce have gone bad in my fridge (and I mean, rotten not like, assaulting people), I hate myself. I get angry and whoever crosses my path is bound to get burnt.

The Blanton Museum of Art had a free screening last night of a rather neat documentary by Jeremy Seifert, titled “DIVE!“. I can honestly say that I knew we Americans wasted A LOT of food, but I wasn’t too sure about how much. I came into this screening thinking that this doc was going to be more about saving money by going dumpster diving, rather than putting us to shame on our wasteful habits. I can also say that I’m glad that Mr. Seifert did (with humor and heart, mind you).

Some shocking statistics from Dive!:

• Every year in the US, we throw away 96 BILLION pounds of food.
• That’s 263 MILLION pounds a day
• 11 MILLION pounds an hour
• 3,000 pounds per second
• Americans throw out a whopping one-half of the food we produce and import. This wastefulness coexists with a devastating recession and record numbers of Americans dependent on food stamps-one in eight of us, to be exact. Our propensity to waste has now reached beyond our means to do so, and yet we keep up the bad habit even while our neighbors go hungry.

  I couldn’t help it, but I was almost on the verge of tears and basically disgusted with the gluttonous lifestyle we have been leading. While there are children in Ethiopia eating mud pies made of dirt and salt to curb their hunger pains…

Jeremy Seifert realized how much food was being wasted after his friends visiting from Pennsylvania raided his local Trader Joe’s dumpster. Being new to dumpster diving, he was astounded at not only the quantity but also the quality. Sure, this was considered trash by the store, but a lot of the stuff he found was safe for consumption by himself and his family. They are eating trash. They are eating “fancy” foods they couldn’t afford. All from the dumpster of their local grocery store. Incredible.

A quote he mentioned in his documentary was the final straw in me saying, “You know what, I’m going to dumpster dive soon.”:

“Forfeit your sense of awe, let your conceit diminish your ability to revere, & the universe becomes a market place for you.”
- Abraham  Joshua Heschel

Amazing! I shouldn’t lose my sense of awe for what has been created for me. I shouldn’t be so easy to just throw it out, disregard it. It’s a shame that we have become so wasteful of something so precious.

So yes, I like to think that I came out of the Blanton a newbie food waste activist. I am eager to learn more about dumpster diving and will be contributing to my local food bank. No one should go hungry. There is just no excuse. I highly suggest you watch “Dive!” (available on Netflix and iTunes) and take into consideration how much you waste, and perhaps make a change.