Austin Restaurant Week - Parkside and III Forks

The spring installation of Austin Restaurant Week 2011 is halfway over, but there are still four more days to snag yourself a multi-course brunch, lunch or dinner at a special Restaurant Week price. I've hit two places so far, both for dinner - Parkside and III Forks. I enjoyed both experiences thoroughly, and would definitely recommend either if you're still thinking about adding another notch to your Restaurant Week belt (I know I'll be needing a new notch on my belt, soon, and not in any proverbial way).

Some scenes from my Restaurant Week so far:

Buttery loaf from Parkside


Parisian gnocchi appetizer from Parkside (served with braised lamb, ramps, radish, swiss chard, & orange).


Chris' very spring-y farm rabbit entrée at Parkside. That pretty green pool is a green garlic broth.


My grilled bass entrée from Parkside - served with green olives, artichoke, foraged mushrooms, spring onion, lemon, and Espelette peppers.


Parkside's lovely and light frozen Meyer lemon soufflé.

And from III Forks:


Wedge salad. The large tomato was giving the small head of lettuce a run for its money.


Bacon-wrapped filet with red wine demi-glaze and bernaise sauce. This ridiculously tender filet tasted like it had been injected with bacon...it was warm and rich and bacon-y like all get out. Served with sugar snap peas and duchess whipped potatoes which were too whipped and wayyyy too salty for my taste (and I LOVE salt). No matter; it was easy to ignore them with that filet in front of me.


I kind of can't believe I ate this piece of chocolate ganache cake after conquering the two plates above.
But I did.

Each of these meals was $35 for Restaurant Week. I'm not sure whether it's exactly the same, but an 8 oz filet is usually $37.95 at III Forks, and their wedge salad is $8.25, so this was a great deal.

You can check out the list of participating restaurants, browse their menus, and even make reservations on the Austin Restaurant Week website, here. Restaurant Week continues through this Wednesday.

Where have you been for Restaurant Week so far? Did you love it?

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TECHmunch!

On Saturday, I got to spend the day with an absolutely terrific and energetic group of food bloggers at the first-ever TECHmunch food blogger workshop. The workshop was put together by food blog royalty Babette from Bakespace and Jaden Hair from Steamy Kitchen and co-produced by Natanya from Fête and Feast.

I was thrilled to finally meet several people with whom I'd previously only interacted online, and I picked up tons of great tips for being a better blogger. Afterwards, we mingled while sipping cocktails and nibbling fantastic food by the super-talented Shawn Cirkiel of Parkside.

Thanks to a VERY full weekend, I have more photos than I have energy, so I'll let my a few of my shots from the day do the talking:

A full house in Parkside's lovely second floor space


Our very own Austin Twitter bird kept hanging around outside the window tweeting


Salmon belly, pineapple, mint & green onion soup spoon bites


More soup spoon bites - with lentil salad, cucumber, apples, and harissa


These little croustade cups were delightful - filled with mascarpone, asparagus, and smoked tomato vin


De-luscious seared New York strip with peanuts, cilantro, and a drizzle of soy-ginger sauce


Totally addictive cauliflower dish - carmelized with chili, citrus, and Thai basil.
(if all veggies tasted like this, I would be the healthiest woman alive)


For dessert - an army of scrumptious Sugar Mama's cupcakes!


My Bakespace Martini - girly, without being too sweet (strawberry Stoli, lime juice and cava)


Marshall Wright of Eat This Lens doing what food bloggers do best

A huge thanks to Babette, Jaden and Natanya for putting together an absolutely fantastic event, and to Parkside for hosting us. It was a wonderful day!

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Livin' La Dolce Vita

When a person enters a new decade, it seems only appropriate to celebrate for at least a week. Which is how I found myself at La Dolce Vita tonight, thanks to the wonderful generosity of Jennie Chen (who shall also henceforth be known as my food event sugar mama).

Wow - what an amazing event. Whoever put this thing together should be commended. A fundraiser for the Austin Museum of Art, La Dolce Vita (Italian for "the sweet life") is held on the gorgeous grounds of Laguna Gloria and, at $100+ a head, attracts a staggering crowd (early press estimated attendance at 1600, but I would not be at all surprised if it exceeded that, as the expansive grounds were elbow-to-elbow people). Everyone was dressed in their finest, and it was quite the swanky affair.

And the food...oh, the food! Some sixty restaurants and fourteen purveyors of wine and spirits participated, and it sure seemed as if everyone brought their A-game. It got dark not long after I arrived and between the crowds and the lack of surfaces upon which to set things down, most of my photos are pretty sad, but here, for your viewing pleasure, are a few of the ones that turned out (and some of the ones that didn't).

First of all...LOVE these plates. I've seen these before, but have never had anybody hand me a free one at an event before. Hold your food and your wine and have one hand free! (Now if they could just install a little tripod, I'd be all set).

Amaaaaazing cake balls from Austin Cake Ball. Moist, rich yet still fluffy, lovely crumb, FULL of flavor. Their competition had me believing that I didn't really like cake balls. SO not the case. Loved these.


Beautiful, too!


Homemade Oreos from Perla's.
(When you're 40, you get to eat dessert first.)


Shrimp and salmon (er, I think) cakes from Austin newcomer, The Highball. Bowling, karaoke, skeeball, cocktails, and (apparently, delicious) dining can all be found here. Must check this place out.

So sad these photos didn't come out better. My favorite booth of the evening, and the one that received my "green marble" vote for best restaurant, The Driskill Grill. As evidenced by their work at the recent Chef Showdown, the Driskill has really been pulling out all the stops on presentation and originality. They had three selections - a beef tartare, a tuna tartare with fresh figs, and a foie gras with dried fruit relish and mint. Foie gras at an event where the food is presumably donated is impressive in my book (and it was the only thing I ate more than one of other than the cake balls). All were served on beautiful flat rock surfaces with a pile of dry ice stacked in the middle, and all came with an ingenius "push-up" popsicle of the wonderful cilantro sorbet they'd had at the Chef Showdown.


Beef tartare from the Driskill Grill - not the greatest photo,
but the best of the several I took at the Driskill booth.


Braised oxtail with pumpkin puree on a wonton chip from Max's Wine Dive.


Wasabi-crusted salmon roll from Piranha Killer Sushi.


Raw salmon with gala apple, pommery mustard, thyme, and chives from Parkside.


Ahi poketini on a wonton chip from Roy's.


The Whole Foods Culinary Center dubbed this "green eggs and ham." It was actually a perfectly-crisped potato cake topped with pork belly confit (!!) and an herbed hollandaise sauce. Sam I Am would've loved this version, and I did too...as well as the beautiful pressed bamboo plates.


Lemon and garlic rock shrimp with smoked tomato and lobster bisque
from Stories at the Hyatt Lost Pines.


And one more dessert - a sassy chocolate-y number from Annie's.

I simply cannot think of a nicer way to spend a gorgeous fall evening in Austin. Eating well, visiting with great people, and supporting a terrific cause - it doesn't get any better than that. La dolce vita, indeed.

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