It’s been WAY too long since I’ve posted any sort of blog post about food, food trucks, or really anything you put in your mouth. In an effort to get back to it, I’m going to try something a little different. Rather than a full, detailed post about each and every food truck I’ve visited (like I used to do), you can expect more ad hoc “summary” posts about places I’ve really enjoy recently. The focus will probably still be on food trucks, but honestly that’ll be because that’s where I eat most!
To kick things off, this past weekend Evelyn was out of town. And I went a little overboard, so I’ll (try to) keep things brief.
After a bit of a hunger-induced meltdown (yes, like a
toddler…just ask Jeff), I picked up Jamaican soul food from Gemma Love on South Congress. The goat curry was packed with flavor and came with some great plantains. Definitely worth a stop if you just can’t deal with the wrapped-around-the-building line at HopDoddy.
Between lunch and dinner I met up with Travis for a “pre-ssert” at Cow Tipping Creamery. It’s no secret CTC is my favorite food truck, ice cream, and place to eat, period. I got the “Grahamtastic Stacker” special: Graham ice cream with chunks of chocolate chip graham cake, chocolate sauce, and chocolate crumb.
We met up with Jeff for dinner at Valentina’s Tex-Mex BBQ downtown. My go-to order is one brisket taco and one chicken taco. The chicken taco is so unassuming, so unexpected, yet so delicious. The homemade flour tortillas cannot be beat. Forgive the terrible picture, but know that these tacos will bring tears to your eyes.
We stopped at a new-ish cocktail bar called CU-29 for an after-dinner drink. A little pricey (everything seemed to be $12), though most of the drinks took some serious effort. I had a pretty simple bourbon-based drink called Man of War. Not a bad cocktail bar, though I probably won’t go back unless invited out to meet up with others. Here’s Jeff’s “Peanut Butter Delight”.
The next day I found sweet redemption from the day before (when the line was too long and I had a meltdown) and was able to get a sandwich from Hey!… You Gonna Eat or What?. My favorite (non-BBQ) sandwich in the city, the Texas Mesquite Turkey was as good as ever, filled with fried green tomatoes, jalapeno jelly, and pepperjack cheese on ciabatta. I can’t handle how good it is.
Finally, that night checked out the new Unconventional Oven pizza truck down on Riverside. It really
felt a bunch of guys who thought “hey, you know what? let’s start a pizza food truck!” I ordered the Russel, with tomato sauce, mozzarella, Brussels sprouts, red onions, mushrooms, and topped with a pecan pesto. They do a thicker pan pizza-type crust, which isn’t my preference, but they do it well. The brush of garlic butter around the edge is a nice touch too.
To round out the sensible weekend I walked across the food trailer park to OMG Cheesecakery. I had no choice but to get the PBJ cheesecake, made up of peanut butter cheese cake and topped with some tasty grape (I think?) jam. It was smooth and creamy and just the right size to eat half now and half the next day.
And that’s it! And by “that’s it” I mean I ate a week’s worth of indulgences in two days. I told you I went overboard.