West Coast Malaysian-Tamilian Pop-Up Moves to Austin

West Coast roaming Malaysian-Tamilian pop-up Wolf and Woman is landing in Austin for one last event this month. After that, chef Kaci Goff hopes to open her new food business, White Elephant, as a restaurant sometime in 2023. Her last Wolf and Woman pop-up will be with Midnight in the Garden on Saturday, October 29.

Like Goff did with Wolf and Woman, she will showcase her Malaysian-Tamilian heritage through White Elephant. “I have been trying to showcase South India as much as possible since a lot of what we’re familiar with as Indian food in Western culture is northern Indian food,” she tells Eater.

That means dishes with tamarind, coconut, and lots of spices as opposed to more creamy or gravy-based dishes. With the future Austin restaurant, look out for items like poori, grilled octopus, and lamb rendang, using Texas ingredients. She also likes to showcase lesser-used cuts of meat like heart and liver — in fact, this approach led to a pop-up at Austin restaurant Foreign & Domestic last year.

For White Elephant, Goff is looking to partner with a sommelier to showcase local wines and low-ABV cocktails and other partners to get the restaurant going.

Goff started Wolf and Woman in Seattle and moved to San Diego before this last stop in Texas. Under that brand, she has a line of masalas and hot sauces that Goff sells via Instagram — those will continue in the Wolf and Woman name.

Courtesy of Kaci Goff