Kent Wang

Salt Lick is cooked in a brick oven, John Mueller's is cooked in a pit. I think perhaps what is more important though is the fuel used, hardwood oak being essential.

If you laugh derisively at fennel in sausages, you must laugh derisively at all Italian sausages too. I'm not sure I can agree with you on that. Perhaps you can help me learn by describing the contents of these small-batch hand-made sausages. Just how small-batch and hand-made are they? Smokey Denmark's and a small proportion of the Festival vendors have sausage plants but the rest are all "hand-made" and "small-batch" too.

Agreed. I wish Austin had something like this.

Is it gelatin or collagen? Or is gelatin composed of collagen?

Most are beef/pork mixes, with the beef being dominant. I will guess that it is coarsely chopped instead of the spherical grinds that you normally see with, say, all-pork Italian sausage.

Quite possibly. I regret not having a chance to ask that question to the sausage discussion panel. All I want is a helluva lot more black pepper, some garlic, and maybe some fennel. The Meyer's garlic sausage at least gives me hope that Central Texas sausage is not entirely hopeless.

A lot of my friends complain about parking at WF Flagship. I don't get it. I just park in the second-level basement. There's always plenty of space right next to the escalators. In fact, compared to Central Market you end up spending half as much time exposed to the elements.

Official event information: http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/disp...d_feature2.html 2-2:45pm: One Hundred Years and More of Sausage Making in Central Texas: Dawn Orsak, Becky Meyer, Jim McMurtry, Jason Wootan, Lori Navjar 3:30-4:15pm: Texas Barbecue – What the Hell Is It?: Chris Elley, Art Blondin, Emmett Fox, Robbie Greig, Mick Vann, Dotty Griffith The event started at noon. We (2 of my friends and a UT Cooking Club member) got there at 2pm thinking it would be alright, but the crowd was so huge a few of the vendors had already sold out by then! I sampled all the sausage that I could, missing out on only Gonzales Food Market and Cooper's. I thought that Meyer's garlic sausage was by far the best. The rest, many of which were in the typical German Central Texas style, were rather bland. Of the other food vendors, only Big Oak BBQ had not sold out by the time we got there. Their pulled pork was nice, and as far I know they're the only BBQ restaurant in the area selling it. Their sauced up brisket was unnoteworthy. Lots of people brought their dogs. Including this one with heterochromatic eyes:

The Hong Kong market in Austin is rather pathetic, small and dirty. About the size of your average 7-11. I've been to the Houston Hong Kong and Welcome centers dozens of times but I really do not think their produce or meat is nearly as fresh or sanitary as Central Market. It is certainly cheaper, and you can get a lot of unusual items, but if the item in question can be had at either grocery I'd much rather pay the premium at Central Market.

What/where is Carnival? Is it in Austin or Plano? Saying that HEB is better than WF Flagship is a little pushing it. WF Flagship has tons of mushrooms and a much larger bulk goods section than any HEB I've seen.

Angel hair pasta

Oooh, those were featured in the film Amadeus.

Good one! This is ground pork stir-fried with a vegetable of some kind. The ground pork looks like ants. Can you name the vegetable? My mom usually makes "ants climbing bricks" (蚂蚁上转, ma yi shang zhuan) which is with squash cut to into squares, which resembles bricks.

Chinese cuisine is filled with them. A few copied from Wikipedia, which is better at describing them than I am. This is actually literally translated as Small Dragon Bun. I don't know what it has to with dragons, but 龙 (lóng) may also refer to the steaming vessel in which the buns are served. Being from Shanghai, this is my absolute favorite dim sum dish. I've had it many times and is quite good. One of my dim sum favorites. Never had cat, though I've had snake which is quite good. Of course, not all fancifully named dishes have to be exotic but nothing else comes to mind at the moment.

Yes, yes, I know Chinaman is totally not the preferred nomenclature. I am from Shanghai and love dim sum, especially Xiao Long Bao. I'm sure there have been many dim sum threads, but can a fellow Chinaman -- or Chinawoman -- or any barbarian with a truly sinified palate recommend a good dim sum restaurant for someone like me? I will be in Brooklyn Oct 27-30 and am hoping to find something much better than what's available in Austin. I have a friend who lives in NYC, so if you give me some recommendations I can send him out to recon those spots for me before I arrive. Oh, and for those curious what Xiao Long Bao is, Wikipedia has a good description:

It's been open a while now. What do you guys think? Here's what I posted on another forum. It is a rather opinionated statement, but hey, I'm an opinionated guy. You mean the flagship one? Yes, that seems to be where all the rich hot chicks are. Those are the types that buy organic not because they really believe in it but because they can afford it. I feel that Whole Foods jacks up their prices due to this "whole" philosophy that they promote, which is rather sickening to me. The prepared foods that are the major draw there are a joke. It's difficult for me to comprehend how people can think that stuff is gourmet in any way. I think most foodies agree that Central Market is superior for quality / cost. I see more internationals (usually French or South American) at Central Market.

I'm the restaurant event director for the University of Texas cooking club. Here are some picks: Driskill Grill (high-end New American) Vespaio (contemporary southern Italian) T&S Seafood (Cantonese Chinese) Uchi (contemporary sushi) Austin Chronicle (www.auschron.com) is your friend. PM for more specifics.

Guilty? You should feel flattered instead!

Is this just noodles made with sliced up won ton skins? That's really easy to make. I've made a few rather excellent batches.

Hmm, I'm a bit fuzzy on the Cantonese pronunciations. Can you say them in Mandarin or otherwise describe them? PM me once you get in town. We can get some Dim Sum together. Dallas and Houston have far superiour traditional Chinese restaurants as well. What irritates me the most is the lack of Xiao Long Bao in Austin. Do you like them? They're a Shanghai specialty. In Shanghai there are even entire restaurants devoted to only serving them!

I am from Shanghai, here are my picks in order: T&S Seafood Pao's Mandarin House Din Ho China Palace (traditional menu) Marco Polo Tien Hong Dim sum offerings factor in greatly in the above scale, but the following is dim sum only: Pao's Mandarin House T&S Seafood Marco Polo Tien Hong Golden Bay (terrible) Any thoughts from other Austinites with a lot of experience and taste for traditional Chinese food?

This is an important and highly contentious title, for the best BBQ in Texas would also mean the best in the world, the galaxy and the entire universe! Kansas City and the Carolinas may have their own styles but there is no question that Texas-style is the One True Barbecue. However, Texas can be further divided into two different styles, sauce and without. From an Austin perspective, Salt Lick is the epitome of the sauce style. Their brisket is remarkably tender but the cooking process robs the meat of its moist fat. The no sauce style, as done by Louie and John Mueller, depends on the smoke and the spartan salt and pepper rub for flavor. If one had to choose between these two styles, I think it's obvious that the no sauce style is more Texas and True as it allows the meat to really shine through. After all, when judging steaks one would never even consider anything marinated. Brisket is the cut that is the most important in Texas BBQ. I do like sausage, beef ribs and turkey but there really is nothing as quintessentially Texas as brisket. Sure, I've laid down a lot of seemingly arbitrary rules (Texas style, no sauce, brisket) but if one were to go about the contentious -- and possibly pointless -- task of crowning the King of Texas BBQ, one has to lay down some rules. Texas Monthly said/says the best in the state is Louie Mueller's in Taylor. I've been there about three times and I go to his grandson's John Mueller's in Austin all the time. I think Louie's is a cut above John's as the briskets I've had there are consistently better with deeper smoke rings and Louie's serves beef ribs while John's does not. There are actually only a few establishments in town that still use wood, and John's is one of the last. Salt Lick is very good as well, but I've disqualified it because they employ the sauce style. It's not a blind disqualification though; if you ask me to simply choose whether Salt Lick or John Mueller's (or Louie's) is better I will flatly tell you that I prefer Mueller's. I'm sure there are many many more establishments in our fair state that deserve attention, but as many of them are often located in remote locations it is not practical for me to go to them all, but I certainly hope to do so eventually.

I believe the only other two places are Madden's and Christopher's, both of which are much more upscale than Cafe Eccel. Having dined a great deal in Austin, I'd definitely say that Eccel is just mid-range "cafe" fare, at least compared to what we have in Austin.

I've dined at Cafe Eccel and Messina Hof Winery. Messina Hof is way better and only slightly more expensive. I had the best quiche there. It was very tall and made in a spring-form pan with some very nice cheeses. I had the swordfish at Eccel and it was quite lackluster.

I have a friend who is a chef at one of the better establishments in Bryan-College Station and he certainly has a lot to say about his competition. I won't mention where he works just yet, as I'm curious if there are any BCS residents that have an opinion about the finer establishments in the area.