Photograph from Fellowship of the Rich on Flickr Since my "real" job (whatever that means) is in the "music industry" (radio is still part of the music industry, right?), I've always dreamed of going to the SXSW music festival. I've heard great things about Austin, Texas, and my friends and co-workers always have amazing stories of great shows that I am bound to love that take place in a really cool town. But this year, I discovered a new aspect of SXSW that makes me feel jealous about not getting to go: all the serious sandwiches. Thanks to blogs, Flickr, and most important, the invention of the iPhone, the SXSW food porn has been pouring in since last week—and I... More

The trio of SXSW Festivals and Conferences (Music, Film, and Interactive), best described as Spring Break for geeks, kicks off this weekend in Austin, Texas. Maybe you've already decided which panels, screenings, shows, and parties you'll be attending—or not. That's OK, there are more pressing concerns like, where are you going to eat? More

Ed Crowell, Kitty Crider, Dale Rice, and Renee Studebaker of the Austin American-Statesman all spent an entire week in April as locavores, trying their best to eat only food that was grown and manufactured within a 200-mile radius of Austin. Crider points out that "while Texas is a large agricultural state, Travis County is not," and so while there were many things they chose to do without (bananas, tortilla chips), there are also foods they expanded their definitions to include (oranges from the Rio Grande Valley, seafood from the Gulf), and others they rationalized into keeping like coffee, tea and spices saying, "after all, this country's pioneers traded afar for those things, too." All four writers kept detailed diaries... More

Austin area meat eaters and music lovers will tell you about the wonders of Stubb's, the barbecue restaurant and live music venue on Red River founded by the late chef and pitmaster C. B. Stubblefield. The recently published Stubb's Bar-B-Q Cookbook has recipes from the restaurant as well as Stubblefield's personal cookbook, as well as photos and stories from his colorful life. The Austin American-Statesman's Kitty Crider shares the book's recipe for Korean Steak, Stubb-Style, created after Stubblefield served in Korea and "discovered that Koreans and Texans have much in common: Both love beef, chili peppers, and grilling over a charcoal pit."... More

The 29th anniversary of Austin's pandemonious potted pork festival is coming up—this year's SPAMARAMA® will be held April 7, from noon till six. There's a SPAM™ cook-off, of course, with cash prizes going to the winners of the Open and Professional categories, as well as the People's Choice Award; the SPAMALYMPICS™ features storied events like "the SPAM® Disc Shoot, the SPAM™ Call (remotely similar to a hog call), the SPAM™ Can Relay and the SPAMBURGER® Eating Contest". Keep Austin weird, indeed. [via Weird Eats]... More

The yearly South By Southwest conference in Austin is coming up this weekend and so Virginia B. Wood of the Austin Chronicle put together Smoke Trail, a guide to eleven purveyors of delectable BBQ around the city center: "Central Texas is nationally known for great barbecue, and we consider the capital to be the burnished buckle of that famous barbecue belt. In part because Austin is where the South meets the Southwest, we've got it all here – the mesquite-smoked West Texas cowboy style, the German/Czech sausages and dry-rubbed smoked meats, and the soul-satisfying deep South style of meats smoked over hardwoods and slathered with sauce. Working on the assumption that many of our March visitors will be concentrated... More