So, if you’ve been a cave for a week, you might not know that SXSW is in full swing here in Austin. For us that means traffic downtown, street closures, visitors trying very hard to look cool (except that they can’t possibly look cool because they’re wearing huge badges hanging from their necks), music EVERYWHERE, and lots of parties. We were lucky enough to be invited to one such party at the Whole Foods Market Culinary Center, hosted by Austin 360 and the lovely Addie Broyles.

We had a GREAT time. I actually don’t have oodles of photos to show for it… I was having so much fun talking to other bloggers that I didn’t notice a lot of the food. (!) Oh, I did eat some of it…

Like these little goat cheese-caramelized-onion-tart-things…

And these spoonfuls of shrimp and fennel and grapefruit…

But mostly I talked. And talked. And talked.

But I listened, too! Chef Jesse Griffiths from Dai Due talked a bit about fish and freshness and food…

And cooked up some lovely flounder with polenta and asparagus.

Tyson Cole of Uchi talked about the art of sushi, and his plans for a new restaurant, and making perfect rice.

He whipped up these lovely rice balls filled with trout and green grapes.

We did wine tastings, and ate bruschetta and potato tortas, and met new people. We made a plan with these guys to do a New Mexican food night sometime soon, and we were so proud of this gal for all she’s accomplished within the Austin food community. It was a great night.