Ready your remotes, my friends. Tonight is the premiere of the final season of Anthony Bourdain’s hit series “No Reservations” on the Travel Channel. The first episode of the season features none other than Austin, which Bourdain stopped by during the SXSW music festival in March. As I mentioned before,…
No Reservations
When he isn’t busy picking a nasty feud with any number of Food Network chefs, Anthony Bourdain is devouring his way around the world on his culinary travel show “No Reservations.” For years, viewers have switched between salivating in envy and cringing in disgust…
Enjoying his fifteen minutes (hours, days, whatever) of fame, self-declared “BBQ Snob” Daniel Vaughn is in Austin today hanging out with the big dog, Anthony Bourdain, of the Travel Channel’s “No Reservations.” They’re seen here at Franklin Barbecue, along with Vaughn’s photographer Nicholas McWhirter, Vaughn’s book agent…
I first saw Japanese takoyaki - a delectably ambrosial octopus dumpling that has graced the shops and street corners of Japan for centuries - on an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. Immediately I hopped to my computer and conducted a frantic search for takoyaki restaurants in Texas. There had to be some Japanese transplant living the American Dream somewhere in Texas peddling authentic foods of the homeland to American foodies. There just had to be. Needless to say, I got nothing, not even a nibble. I should’ve known better. The extent of authentic Japanese cookery here is as far-reaching as a Philadelphia roll at happy hour on a store-bought tatami downtown. Then one fateful afternoon, a friend called me up and suggested we visit a new food truck: Love Balls. Putting other possible connotations aside, this truck really holds true to the name. “We make balls, and we put love into them,” says owner Gabe Rothschild, 27. They certainly do, with all entrees made right to order. The process is a meticulous and slow one, but it’s worth the approximate 10-20 minute wait. Each order of takoyaki comes with eight chewy chunks of octopus encased in a searing-hot ball of dough, seasoned to savory perfection and topped with a helpful heap of special Japanese mayo, powdered seaweed and bonito flakes. “We were eating at a lot of food trailers and something was missing: Japanese street food,” says Rothschild. “And we thought takoyaki was accessible, quirky and fit into the Austin food scene. Nobody was doing it town; nobody was even doing it in Texas. And we figured a lot of people would be interested, curious about it. And it was a form we could play with.”
Ahem. I just HAPPENED to be lurking at Perla’s Seafood and Oyster Bar when Tony Bourdain (yes, that Tony Bourdain, of “No Reservations,” on the Travel Channel, sitting on the right) was having a late lunch with co-chefs Larry McGuire (middle) and Tommy Moorman Jr…
