Six years of hosting traveling "takedowns" -- the Yankee version of our hometown throwdowns -- has led Brooklyn native Matt Timms to finally bring his popular food fights to Houston. The Bacon Takedown made its first Texas appearance last month in Austin, which coincided with SXSW. The Houston Bacon Takedown is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Sunday, May 16, at Warehouse Live. And unlike our throwdowns, the Bacon Takedown is meant as a battleground for home cooks and non-professionals to see who can construct the most awesome item out of 15 pounds of Hormel bacon.
Interested entrants should browse Timms's website for more details, such as prizes (they're pretty good) as well as rules and regulations. The first 20 entrants will receive 15 pounds of bacon for free, which they are required to use to create an entry that will not only be judged by a panel, but by the public as well. Don't want to cook? You can attend and sample all the meaty goodness for $15 a ticket.
Speaking of tickets, the $40 tickets for Outstanding In My Backyard (OIMBY) went as quickly as they were offered for sale yesterday. The May 23 event sold out within half an hour, leaving many people who wanted to attend the low-cost, highly local version of the popular OITF (Oustanding In The Field) national dinner series hoping that the event's organizers would hold another one soon. If the success of OIMBY to date is any indication, the event -- which benefits the Houston Food Bank -- might become a regular occurrence.
Looking to get your gut filled with crawfish this weekend? The annual MDA Crawfish Boil is this Saturday, April 24, from 4 to 7 p.m. For only $35, you'll have all-you-can-eat mudbugs and music from Bo Cox and Adam Hood, among many others. Tickets are available online or at the door at the Firehouse Saloon. The best part is that all of the proceeds from your tickets go to support Muscular Dystrophy research in Houston and the Gulf Coast.
And, of course, there's always the second weekend of iFest this Saturday and Sunday. We showed you what to eat, what not to eat, how to eat vegetarian and what you're missing if you don't go. Remember, tickets are $17 at the gate and kids are free on Sunday.
