Don't cross 'em.

The wiry gang over at the Austin Food Blogger Alliance play hard ball, and now they're getting in the cookbook business. We can only imagine the smoke-filled backroom where the negotiations with their publisher took place.

Ringleader Addie Broyles chomping on a giant cigar "here's how it's gonna play out-see"-sounding just like a young Edward G Robinson. Publishing execs cowering, wondering at life choices they'd made that led them to this juncture.

We recommend you buy several of these books. And if you run into an alliance member just look at the ground and keep right on walking. It'll keep you safe.

http://austinfoodbloggers.org/2013/01/austin-food-blogg

One easy, easy way to set your restaurant apart in the crowded field of Austin food is to provide good service. It's a rarity, and always has been. There are too many nuclear engineers in town who've been thrown to the wolves of waiting tables for it to ever get better.

That waitress with a sneer on her face? She has an undergrad degree from UT and would rather be anywhere else in this world than where she is; hustling out pancakes to a packed house at Magnolia Cafe.

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Here's the menu and the event poster. Hope y'all can make it out:

Bacon Steak (cured heritage pork belly, confit w/duck fat) pork demi glace, chicharron gremolata (hog dust,parsley, garlic,lemon zest) sweet potato mash w/Vermont maple, brussels sprouts w/caramelized Texas sweet onion, Easy Tiger bread

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An idea whose time has come.

Buzz Mill Coffee and Blue Ox Barbecue are throwing a party tomorrow: Thursday Feb 7th 2013, and they're giving away free beer to go with pit boss Chase Palmer's smoked meat-hot off the pit that used to call Franklin BBQ home.

The barbecue ain't free but the beer is.

5-9pm

Alaskan Amber beer.

2k people read our article on Chase Palmer http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2013/1/25

We spent a wonderful afternoon touring the verdant grounds of one of Texas' prime heritage breed pork farms a couple weeks ago. Eden's Cove Farm specializes in the ancient British hog strain "Large Black"; this breed is famous for its bacon. The bellies that come off the pig are prized for their excellence.

No less a luminary than Winston Churchill raised these pigs. The great man loved bacon and needed a daily rasher so he could attend to the affairs of the state. The Large Black pork belly fueled him in his pursuits.

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Salt and Time Butchershop and Salumeria is doing business the right way.

Ancient curing methods are being honored; old school meat-aging techniques are being employed, and a reverence for tradition permeates their spanking-new East 7th street meat house.

Sunday afternoon, owner Ben Runkle peeled himself away from the crowds herded into the shop, for a few minutes to discuss his new business. Our talk ranged broadly as a steady line of people moved through the salumeria, eager to mow down on thick steaks, big bottles of Jester King beer and cases packed with both fresh, and salt-cured meats.

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Pop ups, barbecue brisket, ribeyes, frito pies, beauty queens...it was a busy week for the Scrumptious crew as we fanned out across Austin to provide minute by minute coverage of our food scene. It's cook week starting right now, as we begin 6 days of hard core prep to get ready for our Sat Feb 9th Pop Up restaurant at Tamale House East.

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We were first in line.

When word got around town back in Winter of 2011, that former Jeffrey's chef Ray Tatum was back in the game, and about to open his own pig-based food truck, we started foaming at the mouth at the chance to sit down once again at the table of the legend.

Game changer.

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Austin Texas pop up restaurants are starting to catch on.

We can't attest to how the Swoop House events went this past weekend, but 150 Peruvian food lovers packed the Tamale House East for their inaugural, in-house, pop up restaurant affair.

Long lines formed at the venue before the staff could even get the doors open, then a rush of people barreled up to the counter once the gates swung open.

It was a wild scene.

It's looking like this whole pop up restaurant trend that's been firmly entrenched in New Orleans, San Francisco and other urbane cities might just catch hold in Austin too.

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Our readership has quadrupled in the past 3 months. We appreciate all the attention y'all. Our weekly top 5, as always, determined by page views:

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