Food-o-File

As summer shimmers to a close, there are several events scheduled this weekend to whet the appetite. The seventh annual Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival takes place Sunday, August 24 in Waterloo Park, 12th and Red River, from noon to 5pm. There will be ample parking in nearby state lots and, as always, admission is free. Vendors will be selling cold beer and all kinds of hot and spicy things to eat. The contest features incendiary entries from as many as 350 individuals and area restaurants in red, green, and special variety categories, so come on out to support your friends and favorite restaurants. This year, the commercial category will be judged by a people's choice ballot cast at the participating bottlers' booth. Judging from past years, there should be sauces from all over the country.
Scheduled for August 22-24, an outfit called Dos Habaneros sponsors the first Texas Fiery Foods Show at the Austin Convention Center. Like the original Fiery Foods Show in Albuquerque, this show emphasizes vendors and commercial bottlers and will charge admission.

And if chocolate is your passion rather than chilies, you may prefer the second annual Chocolate Sunday benefitting Another Way Texas Shares, which takes place at Barton Creek Square, also on Sunday, August 24, from 2-6pm. Several Austin bakeries, restaurants, and confectioners will enter their signature chocolate creations for evaluation by judges and participants. Each $10 ticket entitles the purchaser to taste 10 different chocolate delights. Plenty of milk, coffee, and water will be available. For more information or to purchase advance tickets, call 472-2172.

Several popular local companies have made new additions to their product lines this month. Look for Marta's delicately flavored new coconut flan exclusively at Central Market this month and for her summer special key lime flan in many area Mexican restaurants. The new bestselling bread at Bread Alone (218 S. Lamar, 477-5858) is a potato loaf with crumbles of apple-smoked bacon and chopped chives, great for sandwiches or just eating by the slice. Russell's Bakery (1500-B Spyglass, 329-6388) has added both apricot and cheese kolaches on weekend mornings. Call ahead to find out when they first come out of the oven. Look for two wonderful new tamale flavors -- smoked chicken or wild mushroom with Texas chevre -- from Hot Damn Tamales! at both People's Pharmacy delis and Cook's Night Out.

To the great relief of both vendors and shoppers, Pamela Boyar has secured a new location for her Westbank Farmer's Market. The market will maintain the same hours -- Saturdays, 9am-2pm -- at the new location on Westbank Drive in the Westlake High overflow parking lot, across from the tennis courts.

Beginning Tuesday, August 12, Jeffrey's is hosting a series of six weekly wine dinners featuring eclectic three-course meals designed by chef David Garrido paired with some of the more exotic, offbeat wines from Texas, California, and Europe. The upcoming dinner on August 19 spotlights California wines with an escabeche tuna and watercress salad, roast leg of lamb, and summer fruit beignets. Cost of the dinners is $50 plus tax and gratuity for three courses and three wines. For menus and reservations, call 477-5584. Send restaurant news, chef/menu changes, food events, or intriguing rumors to: "food-o-file," The Austin Chronicle, PO Box 49066, Austin, TX 78765.