Local Flavor

POSTED 03/09/2007 UNDER Food • Regional • SXSW07

Several years ago I stumbled upon Gothamist, which is a city blog written by locals covering New York City. I really liked the local color of the reporting, and of course there's writeups about interesting food; this writeup of by Jen Chung about how she ran into Jeffrey Steingarten at a BBQ event is a good example. It's since grown into a urban blog network covering many major cities, Austinist being one of them. When I get home, I should check out Bostonist again to see if it's gotten livelier; when it first launched, it was a bit understaffed on the writing side I thought.

Anyway, I'm in Austin and I'm hungry, so I searched Austinist for recommendations and got last year's SXSW Chowdown Guide. Just what I needed. Now I have a purpose for getting out of the hotel room.

Today's Itinerary

Kill time until around noon, when I head over to the Austin Convention Center to get registered. Maybe explore the area a bit. Study the bus routes. Do some more research on places to go and see.
Noonish - head over to the convention center, check out the Interactive Playpen,
630PM - New England Dinner with Ian, Kelley, and maybe more, so we can start to form our first day scooby gang alliances. A quick cab ride!
830PM - Then I want to check out the BlogHer Meetup because I like the whole idea of empowerment that pervades the organization, and would like to talk to people about what it means to be a part of it. There's something very similar to what they do and what I want to do, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

Of course, all bets are off if I collide with anyone I know and get steered elsewhere...this seemed to happen a lot last year, and it was kind of neat to just go with the flow. We'll see how that goes.

Comments

1. Karl G said on 03/09/2007 08:52AM...

I worked at S. Congress & 4th in Austin for a while. My favorite places for lunch (and what to get):

El Sol y La Luna - South of the river on Congress. I like the migas, which I’ve never seen anywhere else.

(Name I’m forgetting, family restaraunt) - East side of S. Congress near 3rd. My favorite encheladas verde/molé. The place is cheap and always packed

Schlotzsky’s - Love the turkey original, wish they were up in Boston

——-

2. Grzegorz Kędzierski said on 03/09/2007 09:00AM...

When I arrive in a new place (country or even city) the first thing I do is visiting a local bar or a restaurant and trying some regional dishes. It’s fascinating how different food people living just a few hundred miles from me eat.
Is it the same in US? Is the regional food from the west coast much different than from the east?

3. Lance Jonn Romanoff said on 03/09/2007 06:54PM...

This former NHite who lives now in Providence would have enjoyed going to the New England Dinner. Unfortunately by then I was in my hotel room recovering from my travel-induced migraine.

I have been reading your site for a year or so. I plan to introduce myself (which is against my introverted nature) if I run into you here.

4. Dave Seah said on 03/09/2007 08:32PM...

Karl: Thanks for the recommendations! I heard the term “miga” for the first time today, and wasn’t sure I heard it right. I’ll definitely have to try one of those before I leave. It’s hard to plan anything to eat, since the social forces are like swimming against an undercurrent of mellow fun-ness.

Grzegorz: Hey, that’s a cool habit! Today I spent some time asking texans about regional breakfast…“breakfast tacos” were mentioned, as were “fish tacos” (I think this is for lunch though). To answer your question, the cuisine does vary a lot from region to region, and it’s one thing I love about travelling, especially when people are very proud of it.

Lance: I look forward to meeting you and swapping some stories! Please do look me up.

5. Brian Gilham said on 03/10/2007 08:18PM...

David, it’s great to see you giving some love to Gothamist and Austinist. I write for Torontoist, another site in the network. They’re all staffed by dedicated bloggers who write quality articles every day. Glad to see you’re getting some use out of their work! :D