Posted by johngl
If you are a regular reader of the Alcoholian, you’ve seen my many ramblings about the Dai Due (pronounced: die do-ay) Supper Club. Jesse Griffiths and Tamara Mayfield, the founders of Dai Due, are the personification of the term locavore. I have profound respect and admiration for the work they do. Changing the way people think about their food and where it comes from is no easy task, yet Jesse and Tamara are shining examples of what a couple of folks can do if they put their minds to it.
And so it came to pass that one week ago, on December 20, 2009, I ate like a little piggy at the Dai Due gathering hosted by Emmett and Lisa Fox at their top-rated restaurant, FINO.
Okay, so this speaks a lot about the restaurant scene in Austin: that an established restaurant like FINO opens it’s doors to host a gypsy Supper Club event. Pretty amazing really. It also says a lot about Emmett and Lisa’s generosity.
That pile of food shown in that opening photo consisted of Knackwurst, Bockwurst, Bratwurst, Antelope Saucisse a l’ail, Kielbasa, Fig-smoked Pork Belly, Salted Pork Belly, Duck Blutwurst (blood sausage), and finally, Louisiana Frog Legs.
Along with some shredded cabbage, sides included boiled potatoes, sautéed apples, daikon radish, and Romaine lettuce. Condiments included Fireman’s 4 Mustard, which has to be some of the best whole-grain mustard available anywhere.
Naturally, I had to sample everything. Descending from a long line of German/Croation folk, I was raised on this kind of food, especially since I’m lucky enough to have been the son of a butcher. Dad was always making sausage of one kind or another and all-too frequently I was the power plant of his hand-crank sausage stuffer.
The most glorious spousal unit and I were seated at a table of seven. It took just about two minutes for that heaping plate of food to be reduced to pork belly detritus.
We were lucky enough to be seated with Carol Ann Sayle and Larry Butler the owners/operators of Boggy Creek Farm, legendary, and perhaps infamous, certified organic urban farmers. They were doing the whole local food thing long before it was cool. They also supplied the daikon, peppers, lemons, and carrots used in the production of this fine dinner.
Other Austin notables at the table were Brian Owens, famous for sharing the contents of his wine cellar and generous host of many Wine Salons, and Marla Camp, owner and publisher of Edible Austin, a quarterly magazine that, in their own words, “celebrates local, fresh food season by season and connects readers to the local food growers, producers, artisans, cultures and traditions in Central Texas.”
It’s truly an Austin weird experience when these sorts of people get within close proximity of each other; conversation ranged from Carol Ann’s hilarious tale of tango-dancing shoes vs chicken poop to Ms. Camp’s discussion of composting vs cremation after death to deep-dives into historical architecture. Throw in running commentaries about wine, growing up in Central Texas, and starting a five acre farm in the the middle of town — well, we had some positively riveting dinner chatter. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
There was dinner music, too!
During the course of the meal, Emmett, our host, wandered by and made himself comfortable at the table and with Carol Ann.
Hmmm…it seems I’ve digressed. Let’s get back to the food, shall we?
I nearly spaced telling you about these tasty tidbits — a crostini of Albacore tuna and quail egg — that were passed around at the beginnings of this gathering of at least 70 fellow food enthusiasts. In speaking with Tamara, I believe she said that this was the largest Supper Club event ever. It was a packed house:
One might think that the large plate of food would have topped-off our gullets sufficiently, but you’d be wrong. There was a board full of Houston’s Pola Artisan Cheese offerings yet to come. Tonight’s cheeses were Muenster, Beer Tome, and an amazingly fresh Goat Ricotta. Rye bread sourced from Austin’s Word on Food Bookshop, rounded out this course.
All of these cheeses were superb. Even the most glorious spousal unit ate the goat ricotta. She never eats goat cheese. I was impressed.
And if all that wasn’t enough, we still had dessert:
This is Kugelhopf, a not-too-sweet, powdered-sugar dusted cake that, when dunked into coffee, creamed with steamed raw milk and infused with cardamom, took me right back to childhood breakfasts with my Oma (grandmother). Oma passed on over three decades ago, but I vividly recall those breakfasts together.
Finally, after saying our good-byes and thank yous, and absolutely stuffed to the gills, we waddled our way to the door and out into the brisk night air. The air was crisp and invigorating, which is exactly what I needed at that point. All that my body (and mind) wanted to do was recline and sleep off the self-induced food stupor. After a few deep breaths and a short walk to the car, we climbed in and headed home, chatting and laughing the entire way.
This was another spectacularly successful Dai Due event. If you’d like to register for a dinner, pay them a visit at the Dai Due website or stop in and see Jesse and Tamara at Austin’s Downtown Farmers Market held every Saturday.
The best things in life should be shared!
Tags: Dai Due
