Three months ago I had my first experience with The Peached Tortilla. At the time I was beyond impressed with the BBQ Brisket slider, so-so on the Chicken Satay taco, and undecided on the Banh Mi taco. Shortly after my first visit, Ev and I checked them out again when the truck visited our hood for the Flying Saucer Beer Festival. The food itself is reason enough to keep you coming back, but that’s not what blew me away this time.
Not that anyone’s asking, but yes, I’m still here. It’s been a crazy month between Thanksgiving and Christmas, to say the least. Running has moved to the back seat, though not forgotten completely. Food truck eating has been relegated to the collapsible third row. It’s not like I’ve been laying on the couch watching reruns of Lost, hopelessly trying to understand the meaning of the damn polar bear though. Not in the slightest. I’m not sure what you’ve been up to, but here’s my month in a nutshell.
Whenever moving to a new city, there are certain go-go-to places that you leave behind in your old home and have to discover in the new one. For Ev and me this includes a solid Thai place, a great coffee shop, and somewhere to get delicious sushi. In our 6 months in Austin we have found two places that consistently turn out fresh, creative sushi, so we’ve been pretty satisfied in the raw fish department. That is, until we came across Sushi A-Go-Go.
Well, kids, the soon-to-be missus and I are heading down over east to Florida for the big day. It’s been a long time since that interrogatory run, and we couldn’t be more excited for December 4th to get here! It’s going to be a jam-packed week full of last-minute planning, prepping, and partying. Sprinkled in between the mayhem (for me at least) will be sleeping, running, and eating. In second-to-last penultimate minute planning, Ev and I skeptically scoped out the SoFla food cart scene in case we do, in fact, find time to eat. Much to our pleasant surprise, it appears to be fairly mobile-eatery abundant.
I’ve talked about hidden gems here before. You know, those places that are nearby that you never knew existed, but if you did, you’d eat there four times a week and gain 12 pounds. Well, this weekend Ev and I stumbled upon a nondescript trailer down in a burgeoning trailer food ‘hood called Pueblo Viejo, and it’s certainly a hidden gem in my book.
Oh. My. God. That’s what Ev and I thought… then whispered… then screamed… as we pulled into the parking lot. But let’s back up. Our original dinner plan this evening was to hit up Conscious Cravings (t.b.b.*), a local, healthy vegetarian trailer that I’ve enjoyed before and that we both had at Gypsy Picnic (with tepid reviews). So why all the Lord’s name in vain business? Because right next door to our vegetarian destination sat the most heavenly sight to behold. The unbearably delicious Salt Lick BBQ has set up shop in an old Air Stream trailer not 5 minutes from our apartment.
When you have a great idea and execute it well, you don’t need any gizmos or gadgets to win people over. The folks at Coolhaus have done just that with their made-to-order ice cream sandwiches. Their truck is petite, not much more than a freezer on wheels with a driver seat, but you don’t need much more than that for something as good as what they have to offer.
The day after the San Antonio Marathon, recovery was my number one priority, so what better way to recover than hit up an untested food cart? Colin smartly stayed in Austin an extra day to recover too, so he joined me as we picked up Ev from work for lunch downtown. After hyping up Chi’Lantro BBQ (a lot), they graced us with an atypical Monday lunch opening. Of course I’m always down for a Korean-Mexican fusion, but this time I wanted to go with something I can’t regularly get. And what might that be? A fried catfish po’ boy of course!
I started this post right after my second trip to Chi’Lantro and I’ve been 2 more times since. Rather than write three separate posts for my favorite Korean-Mexican food truck (and yes, there’s more than one in Austin), I thought I’d spare you and combine them all into one superpost. Each visit showcased a new menu item with some good and bad to each, so keeping reading to find out what you should get when you try ’em out.
Every so often you come learn of a hidden gem that’s been hiding in plain sight. Lucky for me (and you*) that gem happens to be a food cart less than 3 miles from my apartment. With a feature in Food & Wine Magazine and what seems to be a cult following, it was a no-brainer that I’d have to visit post haste.
