It’s 2013.  Spring is here.  Summer is basically here.  And that means Trailer Food Tuesdays is back!  Taking up the amazing back patio of the Long Center, eleven food trucks looked out over the Austin skyline to serve great food to hungry Austinites.  New for this year Trailer Food Tuesdays invites one truck from out of Austin to show off what other cities are made of.  For this event Dallas’ Easy Slider drove into town to join ten of Austin’s favorite trucks (listed at the bottom of the post for posterity).

Ev and I snagged a great parking spot right up front (VIP, nbd.) and took a quick look around at the trucks (and lines) to see where we’d eat first.  With lines stretching out like, well, really long lines, we stopped at the shortest, which took us to Tapas Bravas.  This was a great thing.

Most trucks at Trailer Food Tuesdays offer an abbreviated menu so they don’t get overwhelmed.  Tapas Bravas did just that, featuring classic patatas bravas, meatballs, fried Brussels sprouts, and stuffed peppers.  I’m not sure what happened, but before I knew it I had ordered one of each.  While receiving and juggling my four plates of food, Ev headed over to Colibri Cuisine.  Anthony, one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, runs Colibri Cuisine with his wife Candy, turning out some of the best Tex-Mex you can find.  By the time I met up with Ev she had ordered a chicken quesadilla.

We got all of our food back to an open table and showed these tapas who’s boss.  The most interesting were the meatballs.  At first you’re all like “whoa, what? that’s not good” and then you’re just like “oh, hey, actually those are really good”.  They’re cooked down with brandy and the meat is super tender.  The fried Brussels sprouts were quite tasty, though a little greasy as was evident by the oil left behind when they were all devoured.  I’ll say that the patatas bravas, which are really like breakfast home fries topped with a tomato sauce and garlic aioli, were good but nothing special.  Good potato-ness, and we ate them all, but overall they were just alright.  Last up were the piquillo peppers, stuffed with goat cheese and pine nuts, which were another good-not-great option.  I was surprised they were cold, mostly because I was expecting a warm chile relleno.

The Colibri Cuisine quesadilla brought its A-game.  Crisp tortilla, properly filled without overflowing, and not too cheesy.  Billed as pineapple chipotle chicken, we didn’t taste any pineapple nor chipotle, but the beans, chicken, and veggies inside were great!  Honestly compared to the four Tapas Bravas plates, the quesadilla was the best thing we ate.  Sadly the line at Cool Haus stretched a little too long for us to wait, and everything else will have to wait until next time.

Another Trailer Food Tuesday is in the books and I’d call it a huge success.  When we arrived at 7pm, sure there were lines, but none seemed overwhelmingly long.  There were plenty of open seats at the tables and surprisingly no crowds at the beverage tent.  Perfect weather certainly didn’t hurt either.  I’m excited to see how Trailer Food Tuesdays grows in the next couple of months.  Here’s hoping for it to become a regular thing for years to come.

Hey, Posterity, this is for you:

The trucks that attended the March 2013 were The Peached Tortilla, The Seedling Truck, Tapas Bravas, Cool Haus, Whole Foods (yes, that Whole Foods), Colibri Cuisine, Fresh Off The Truck, The Best Wurst, Mmmpanadas, Wholly Kabob, and Easy Slider.