Best BBQ in Austin

The food in NYC is amazing, but we just can’t do BBQ like they do in the south.

There’s lots of debate as to what is the best BBQ spot in Austin. I went to a few spots while I was there over the long week(end).

My favorite spot in Austin has to be… (drumroll please)…

la Barbecue!

la Barbecue!

However I will give some honorable mentions to a few other spots that win on other aspects. Here’s my list of BBQ spots in Austin (& Dallas) thus far, I still have so many places to try!

Best Overall - la Barbecue

What to Order: Brisket, Ribs, Shells & Cheese
Website: https://www.labarbecue.com

la Barbecue has the best overall BBQ food from the brisket to the ribs to the Mac & cheese. I stopped here on Thursday before my flight (I had to get in all the BBQ I could!) and there was a line at lunch - and no these weren’t all tourists!

Upon getting on the line, we were already greeted by a nice waitress asking us if we wanted to order drinks as we wait online. Once we made it into the store (which only fit one group at a time), they offered us some brisket to try - how nice is that!

Then it came to eating the food, we grabbed a table outside and feasted! The quality was amazing and I rolled out of there super happy! The shells & cheese had a bit of a spicy kick, which I enjoyed, the chipotle slaw was good, but just not my style - but good if you like that style! And if you have any room left over, the homemade banana pudding was a great way to end the meal!

Best Ambiance - Hard Eight (Dallas)

What to Order: Brisket, Ribs, Sweet Corn, Sweet Potato & BBQ Chicken
Website: https://www.hardeightbbq.com

Hard Eight BBQ

You can smell the BBQ as soon as you get to Hard Eight. You can see and pick what you want right off of the giant grill - there are so nanny options, it is hard to choose! They had everything from brisket to bacon wrapped chicken to sausage! In addition to that, there were sides galore, I tried sweet corn for the first time! I love everything I ordered, you can’t go wrong with anything - there are also a ton of sides to choose from and don’t forget the sweet tea!

Best Pastrami - Mum Foods Smokehouse

Mum Foods Smokehouse BBQ Pastrami

What to Order: Pastrami
Website: https://www.mumfoodsatx.com

The pastrami at Mum Foods Smokehouse just melts in your mouth, it is so tender, well seasoned and smoked (you can see the smokers in the parking lot/front of the restaurant). I had the pastrami, burnt ends and brisket with shells & cheese, slaw and a few other sides. The pastrami and burnt ends were my favorites, the pastrami is a must have if you go to Mum Foods! They also have fountain drinks made locally in Austin - I really liked the prickly pear lemonade and ginger beer. And you need a caffeinated pick me up or it’s too early for som pastrami, they have a coffee shop in the front of the smokehouse - Talisman Coffee, which was very cutely themed with sloths!

This is just the tip of the iceberg for all the BBQ spots to try in Austin & Dallas! Where should I go next, what are your favorite spots?

Foodie Day in Beacon, NY

This past weekend I went upstate to Beacon, NY for a friend’s wedding. I had heard a lot about Beacon and was excited to finally make my way upstate to check it out!

I was delayed on my way up, so really only had Saturday before the wedding to explore before heading hope early on Sunday for Mother’s Day festivities!

We decided to explore Beacon, the best way I know how - through shopping and most importantly my stomach!!

Check out the stops I made along my self guided food tour! We started our adventure on the west end of Main Street slowly making our way down to the east end, where we met our friends for lunch.

Stop 1: Bank Square Coffeehouse
We started the day at Bank Square Coffeehouse, where I had a frozen chai latte! It was a cold, but delicious way to start the day! They have a large outdoor back patio for when the weather is nice

Stop 2: Alps Sweet Shop
A chocolate factory with a large variety of chocolate, they just celebrated their 102nd anniversary! Is it bad to start the day with some chocolate?

Stop 3: Glazed Over Donuts <— this was the winner and may be the best donut spot I’ve ever been to, for those of you who know me, that’s a bold statement..
The donuts here are all fresh out of the fryer (you can watch them make the donuts front in front of you), you select what donut you want - the glaze, the topping and the drizzle. I had a strawberry donut with Oreo toppings and strawberry drizzle. It was absolutely heavenly! If I didn’t have the wedding afterward, I would have had another 1 or 3!

Stop 4: Trax Coffee Roasters
Cool coffee shop with industrial vibes with seating outside feet away from the tracks. The ambiance was nice, but the coffee was ok (or so I was told - Im not a coffee girl)

Stop 5: Håkan Chocolatier
Trendy tasty chocolates with fun exotic flavors, such as Quake and Dragons Breath to Strawberry Champagne and Sakura Japanese Whiskey! The chocolate truffles were very rich and tasty, but a bit pricy at $3.75 a piece - that won’t stop me from coming back though!

Seared Ahi Tuna Salad

Stop 6: Beacon Falls Cafe
Cute spot for brunch or lunch with good portion sizes, they had brunch foods, sandwiches burgers and salads. I’d recommend for some solid staple American dishes.

Korean Chicken Wings at Hudson Valley Food Hall

The night before: Hudson Valley Food Hall
I had some tasty Korean Chicken Wings and plantains from an asian latin fusion spot in the food hall. By the time I got there around 7:45 PM, most of the stores were closing up, but I managed to get my order in just in time. There was also a Mexican spot and Ice Cream spot that may be worth checking out!

Lavender Matcha Latte

Sunday Morning Fix: Elixxr
Lots of varieties of ceremonial matcha - I had a lavender matcha on my way running to catch the train home this morning. The latte refreshing, but was a bit pricy, but on par with NYC matcha prices.

 

I couldn’t just eat my entire way throughout Main Street, so took some shopping breaks along the way, here were some of my favorites!

  • Hudson Beach Glass - They blow the glass here and you can even take a glass blowing class!! Definitely on my list for my next trip

  • Zakka Joy - Give me all the pens!
    Throwback to my middle school days when milky pens and jelly roll pens were all the craze, I left the store with 5 pens, they weren’t all for me… just 4 of the 5! This store would be trouble if I lived nearby.

  • Little King - Home goods bliss, there were so many amazing home good pieces, I wanted to buy all of them! Sadly I ended up leaving empty handed, but did see some amazing pieces bowls from a studio out of Copenhagen Denmark that really caught my eye!

That’s it for my self-guided food tour, shopping finds and recommendations! Let me know your favorites or if you have any recommendations in the comments!

Salon du Chocolat 2025

This past weekend was Salon du Chocolate NYC! Salon du Chocolate is a chocolate show featuring chocolate from across the globe, including Ecuador, Cote d’Ivorie, Dominican Republic, Japan and Brazil.

We had the opportunity to sample all of the different chocolates, which was heaven - however eating my weight in chocolate did not fair so well for me by the end of today. In addition to all the chocolate sampling, there was also a culinary theatre to watch different demonstrations of how to make things with chocolate, a chocolate sculpture demonstration and chocolate fashion!

I attended the culinary workshop with Pastry Chef Stephen Durfee of Dandelion Chocolate. He taught us how to make chocolate Italian mousse, which is fluffy, especially when compared to Swiss chocolate. He also taught us how to tell the difference in flavor between chocolates from Honduras, Uganda and Ecuador. I was supposed to learn that:

  • Honduras chocolate was the least sweet and almost a bit bitter like super dark chocoalte

  • Uganda chocolate was a bit fruity/sweeter

  • Ecuador chocolate was the most rich and what you imagine when you think of milk chocolate

I LOVED tasting all of the chocolates and trying new flavors, my favorite had to be the chocolates from Royce, followed by hibiscus chocolate from Ecuador, chocolate covered cashews from Cote d’ivoire and lavender sea salt chocolate.

Check out my haul!

Happy π Day!

Pi (π) Day is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate, you can see the inner math nerd coming out right now!

For those of you who are less familiar…

What is Pi (π)?

π is an irrational number starting with 3.1415… going on to infinity. π represents the constant ratio between a circle’s circumference to its diameter. This may not be a number your average person uses in their everyday lives, but there are so many everyday items that used the application of π in some way.

How did I celebrate?

This year I celebrated π Day with lots of pi, pies & circles!

My high school friends, Yi, Ganesh and I have a tradition to get together on or around π Day for some pie! This year we celebrated early (due to work travel) and had pie at Little Pie Company, dessert first of course and then dinner. We each ate a pie our own pie - I had a blueberry crumb pie, Ganesh had a classic apple pie & Yi had a key line pie!

After we each finished our pies, we decided to have dinner at Tim Ho Wan, needless to say we were all rolling home that night.

Today I exclusively ate circle items today (except for 1 banana - oops, I was in a rush - don’t tell anyone), including a Sprinkles cupcake and an entire large cheese pizza w/ chicken cutlets, and only drank out of round cylindrical cups! Sadly I was unable to finish the 18 inch pizza, but I tried!

What other pie and circle items should I eat next? 🤗

Chinese New Year Traditions

Happy Lunar New Year!

This year is the year of the TIGER! 🐯

Happy Year of the Tiger!

Chinese New Year is the most important holiday in the Chinese culture, so I thought I would share some of the Chinese New Year traditions!

Chinese Zodiac 🐅

There are 12 Chinese zodiac signs: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig.

The tiger represents courage and bravery, therefor this year could be a year of resiliency and bravery.

People born in the year of the tiger are brave, competitive, unpredictable, and confident. They are also quick-witted, resourceful and well liked, however can sometimes be stubborn as well.

Traditional Greetings

Chinese New Year Sweets

Some of the most popular Chinese New Year traditional greetings are:

  • 新年快乐 - Happy New Year!

  • 恭喜发财 - Wishing you happiness and prosperity!

  • 身体健康 - Wising you good health!

Red Envelopes 🧧

Chinese New Year Red Envelope

One tradition during Chinese New Year is to give out red envelopes. Traditionally children wish their parents and grandparents well wishes (see above) and in return they receive red envelopes with “lucky” money for the new year.

The envelopes should contain new, crisp bills and not be in a denomination of an unlucky number, such as 4, which sounds like the word for death in Chinese.

Traditional Lucky Food

Similar to many holidays, there are traditional foods that are eaten to bring you luck, happiness and prosperity into the new year.

Chinese New Year Dinner

Chinese New Year Dinner

Here are a few of the dishes and what they represent:

  • Fish 🐟 - Abundance

  • Shrimp 🦐 - Laughter

  • Noodles 🍜 - Longevity

  • A whole soy sauce chicken (head and feet) 🐓 - Togetherness

  • Lettuce 🥬 - Wealth

  • Prosperity Cakes (fa gao) 🥠 - steamed rice flour cakes

  • Oranges & Tangerines 🍊- wealth, success & good luck

It is also a tradition to have an excess of food and to have the leftovers the next day, this is to represent that you are bountiful and not going hungry into the new year. My family and I try to have 8 dishes since 8 is a lucky number in the Chinese culture.

These are just a few of the many traditions for Chinese New Year!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Lunar New Year with your loved ones!

恭喜发财!

Taste of Times Square 2019

The Times Square Alliance hosted their annual Taste of Times Square featuring many restaurants in the area. Check out some of my favorites!

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Toloache

  • Tacos al Pastor

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Blue Fin

  • Sushi Donut - Salmon Sushi

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Fashion Bar & Restaurant

  • Spanish Omelette

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Bond 45

  • Nonna's Short Rib Meatballs

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Planet Hollywood

  • Banana Foster Cheesecake

Wafels & Dinges

  • Mini Wafelini

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Junior’s

  • Blueberry Cheesecake

La Rivage

  • Bread Pudding with Vanilla and Raspberry Sauce

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Happy National Dessert Day

  

 

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Hope everyone has a sweet day!!!​

​I just tasted these delicious cupcakes from Huascar & Co Bake Shop.  The flavors going clockwise were Nutty Fella (chocolate fudge cupcake with Nutella filling, Glanduja buttercream frosting with chocolate pearls toasted hazelnuts), Pink Lemonade (lemon sour cream and raspberry cupcake with raspberry buttercream frosting and raspberry chocolate curls) and Berry Champgne (pink champagne cupcake with strawberries baked in iced with vanilla-pink champagne frosting)! 

​Huascar & Co had a bunch of fun flavors and other items in the store, such as spiked tres leches cake which is one of my favorite kind of cakes!  The cupcakes were pretty tasty, more dense than fluffy, the Nutty Fella even had a filling, which was delicious. As for the frosting, I thought it was a bit hard and too bitter tasting, however they did have interesting frosting flavors to go with the different cupcakes. 

Little Havana Food Tour in Miami

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During my vacation in Miami, I wanted to more than just your typical beach and party routine.  After seeking out some recommendations from my new friends from Sunrise, Florida, my friend and I decided to take a food tour with Miami Culinary Tours.  They had a few tour options, but decided the Little Havana Food tour, would give us a new cultural tour in addition to some yummy Cuban Food!

Stop 1 - El Pub Restaurant

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Stop 1 of the food tour was at El Pub restaurant, they are best known for their beef empanadas & coffee, which exactly what we had and a great way to start the tour!  For those of you who do not know, an empanada is basically dough filled with something, such as beef.  Variations of empanadas exist in many different cultures, such as calzones and dumplings.  I also learned about the "colada," which is a Cuban coffee that is mean to be shared (you should not have a full cup, but rather a small little shot, the size of a creamer).

 
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Stop 2 - Cuba Tobacco Cigar Co.

Next we headed to the Cuba Tobacco Cigar Factory, where we learned how cigars were made and got to see it first hand.  Fun Fact - The owner of this factory was actually imprisoned for 20 years prior to starting this factory and was sitting on the couch in the front of the store.

 
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Stop 3 - Domino Park

Domino Park is where all of the seniors go to play, you guessed it... dominos!  The park is a social club and the place to be during teh day for dominos and chess (but gambling is not allowed). Don’t forget to bring your ID, because they will card you!

 
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Stop 4 - Old's Havana

We then headed lunch at Old Havana, where we had a delicious Cuban sandwich & croquette.  A cuban sandwich consists of pernil (one of my favorites!), ham, pickle and cheese, croquettes are basically fried sticks of food, usually consisting of potato.

 
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Stop 5 - Ball & Chain

We migrated to some live Latin music at Ball & Chain for some refreshing mojitos!  Ball & Chain is definitely one of the most lively places in Little Havana, with a fantastic live band in the front of the restaurant and a pineapple theme!   They also have a nice little patio area in the back, this may have been my favorite spot on the tour - I will definitely be back next time I am in Little Havana!

 
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Stop 6 - Yisell Bakery

On to Yisell Bakery for some guava filled pastries (pastelitos).  This little hole in the wall bakery, looked kind of small and run down, but had some great pastries, bread and was very busy with locals. The bakery was crowded in the middle of the day while we were there, which says a lot about a place.

 

Stop 7 - Los Pinarenos Fruteria

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This fruit stand has a variety of fruits that you would not find at your local grocery store, here you can find giant avocados, green plantains, lady fingers (baby bananas), dragon fruit, star fruit and fresh mangos to name a few!  Here we had a very fresh mango smoothie, which you could tell was made right on the spot, I could definitely use another one in this heat! 

Fun Fact: this is one of the only open air fruit stands left standing AND was featured in some movies.

 
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Stop 8 - Azucar

Time for dessert!  For the final stop of the tour we headed to Azucar for some mantecado ICE CREAM topped with guava syrup! This shop was created by a local who saw the need to create a place for tourists to enjoy the local culture, thus Azucar was born!

 

Along the tour, we saw many roosters, both statues and real ones, very depicting of islands in general.   

Needless to say my friend and I were STUFFED by the end of this tour.  I would definitely recommend taking this tour if you want to learn about the culture, while stuffing your face!

Happy National Ice Cream Day!

Rainbow Cookie Ice Cream topped with Homemade Lemon Meringue from Bona Bona Ice Cream

Rainbow Cookie Ice Cream topped with Homemade Lemon Meringue from Bona Bona Ice Cream

Celebrating National Ice Cream Day at the 3rd Annual NYC Summer Ice Cream Blizzard - with a variety of NYC's most unique artisan ice cream makers and flavors.

Celebrating National Ice Cream Day at the 3rd Annual NYC Summer Ice Cream Blizzard - with a variety of NYC's most unique artisan ice cream makers and flavors.

For those of you who know me well, you know I have a big sweet tooth and LOVE ice cream!  

Today I attended the 3rd Annual NYC Summer Ice Cream Blizzard at the Grand Baazar NYC on the Upper West Side. There were so many varieties of ice cream it was hard to choose where to go! There was everything from ice cream mochi from My/Mo Mochi Ice Cream, ice cream sandwiches from Melt Bakery and Thai ice cream rolls from Minus Celsius Ice Cream to ice cream stuffed donuts from Stax Ice Cream, ice cream like cookie dough from 2 Dough Boyz and deep fried ice cream from Sam's Fried Ice Cream to name a few.   

I decided to get something new that I had not seen before (which is rare when it comes to ice cream) - rainbow cookie ice cream topped with toasted lemon meringue from Bona Bona Ice Cream! If you’re wondering, yes it tastes as good as it looks!  The rainbow cookie ice cream had bits of rainbow cookie in it (one of my favorite cookies), and the toasted lemon meringue added a nice touch, definitely a good decision made today! 

Thank you to my friend Della for indulging in my love of ice cream and attending this, despite the intense heat today!  

Until next time, stayed tuned for more ice cream and foodie adventures!