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Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Your A-List: Best Chinese
Contrary to popular belief, all Chinese restaurants are not created equal, and Suzi’s China Grill, with its three locations in Austin, rose above the rest in the A-List poll for Best Chinese, receiving 31 percent of the votes this week.
Suzi’s on South Lamar Boulevard has long been a Statesman newsroom favorite, especially those night-siders who crave a big Styrofoam container full of sesame chicken or basil shrimp ‘round the 8 o’clock hour when things really start to get busy. The Shoal Creek Boulevard and Bee Cave Road locations also serve sushi, which doesn’t exactly qualify as Chinese food, but I don’t hear any complaints. Y’all must be too busy chowing down.
Others receiving votes:
- Chinatown, 17 percent
- T & S Seafood, 7 percent
- Mama Fu’s, 7 percent
- Wan Fu, 6 percent
- China Cafe, 6 percent
- Pao’s, 5 percent
- Snow Pea, 4 percent
- Hunan Lion, 4 percent
- Twin Lions, 3 percent
- Asia Market Cafe, 1 percent (write-in)
- Hong Kong, 1 percent
- Peony, < 1 percent
- Nanking, < 1 percent
- Din Ho, < 1 percent (write-in)
Write-ins: Thomas Super Buffet, Buffet Palace, First Wok, Hunan Ranch (2), Hao Hao, China Dragon
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Eat local tonight at Cipollina
Eat Local Week is next week, but you can get a head start by either shopping at the farmers’ market tonight at The Triangle or by checking out the new Farm to Table dinners at Cipollina.
The monthly dinners, on the first Wednesday of the month, feature a locally sourced meal created by chef Parker White. One of the farmers whose hard work went into the dinner will be on hand to talk with diners. The three-course meal costs $35 and wine pairings are available.
I ran into some of the Cipollina folks at Boggy Creek Farm this morning — they were picking up some greens and veggies for tonight’s meal — and they said Loncito Cartwright of Loncito’s will be there tonight.
The first Wednesday of the month might be the official local dinner at Cipollina, but Chef White told me a few weeks ago that 80 percent of their everyday produce is from the area. Only a couple of other restaurants in the area are regularly using that much local food.
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What’s Dale Rice up to?
In addition to teaching political blogging at Texas A&M, the former Statesman restaurant critic if, of course, still finding plenty of time for wine and food. Sharon Roberts, head of the Statesman’s design staff, had this to report from a recent fundraiser he attended:
Dale Rice, Texas A&M professor and former Austin American-Statesman food writer and restaurant critic, served as “wine guide” recently at the “Texas Wines, Texas Stars” U-Bar-U fundraiser. The event was organized by Rose Ann Reeser and a small group of folks from First Unitarian-Universalist Church of Austin. It was held at the U-Bar-U Retreat & Conference Center, a religious and educational facility on 142 acres near Kerrville. Rice told behind-the-scenes, gossipy and informative stories about the Texas wine industry in the authoritative, always-entertaining voice that Statesman readers enjoyed for many years. Wines from Becker, Haak and Brennan vineyards and Stonehouse Cellars were included in the tasting throughout a dinner prepared by Lynda West.