Considerations for planning your next home party
Whether planning a small get together or creating an elaborate theme party like a sweet heart social, there are many factors to take into consideration when entertaining at your home. Co-owners of Lemon Grass Creative Concepts Beatriz Gamboa-Marty and Vanessa Marty, MBA share their creative expertise in party planning. “A few questions will help you [...]
The Souvenir Menu – Cipollina
For Clarksville residents in central Austin, great food within walking distance has been the norm for decades. Jeffrey’s, long considered one of the best restaurants in the state has been at 12th and West Lynn since 1975. For Austin Restaurant Week recently I visited Jeffrey’s sister restaurant, Cipollina, about a half a block away. Though [...]
The Souvenir Menu – Thai Cuisine
The majority of the restaurants that you find in the Souvenir Menu are the tried and true; places I really like and been to many times. Sometimes it’s not an old place, but one that I’ve visited so often that it makes the cut. ‘Thai Cuisine’ is a modern, casual restaurant in a small shopping [...]
The Souvenir Menu – Coco’s Café
Years ago on an episode of the TV show Frasier, the father was offered Chinese leftovers; he made a face and asked “who has Chinese food for breakfast?” The answer came back “about a billion Chinese people”. I remember that line particularly because so many times, I’ve asked friends out to dinner and heard “can [...]
Harvest time at the Messina Hof winery
If you’ve ever wanted to help pick grapes from the vineyard and then squash them with your feet, now is the time to do it at Messina Hof. The winery’s 2010 Summer Harvest continues every weekend until August 15. I was fortunate to have been invited to their July 16 Moonlit Harvest Dinner and got to [...]
Austin Daycations: Fredericksburg Wine Tour
If you are looking for a summer getaway that is both time- and budget-friendly, the town of Fredericksburg is just down 290, a little over an hour west of the Austin city limits. There are nine wineries and several tasting rooms in the area. Don’t have a designated driver? There are a number of charter [...]
The Souvenir Menu: Authentic German at the Walburg Restaurant
I tend to eat a lot of different things each week; Thai, Japanese, Indian, Burgers, BBQ, Chinese, Italian, Mexican, etc., but sometimes I like a little variety. We have a couple of good Persian places and even an Ethiopian restaurant in town, but what we lack in Austin is a dedicated place for good German [...]
The Souvenir Menu: Salad Niçoise with a Malbec rosé
In the book “A Year in Province”, Peter Mayle explains that in France, even the simplest questions on food can become a twenty minute plus discourse-or even an argument-about the correct ingredients and method. Such was the case with one of my favorite summer meals, salade Niçoise. I had always accepted that the salad that [...]
Rio’s Brazilian restaurant
Upon returning from a month trip to Brazil, I returned with new favorite foods and cravings I could not satisfy. I was drinking liters of Guarana, a Brazilian soda similar to Fresca, and was breaking the bank and my diet trying to go to Fogo de Chao on a regular basis. With my tan starting [...]
The Souvenir Menu: Estancia Beef at Central Market’s “Passport Argentina”
May 12 through the 25th, Central Market held its “Passport Argentina” event, featuring a wide variety of produce, guest chef cooking demonstrations, and even tango demonstrations. I had the real pleasure of meeting Bill Reed, CEO of Estancia Beef, a new meat supplier to Central Market. Bill’s company provides free range, grass-fed beef from Argentina, [...]
