Last Tuesday Food Network’s Eat St. came to Austin to kickoff their five-trucks-in-five-days profile of Austin’s mobile food scene. They’re here filming for Season 2 of their show, after having already profiled ChiLantro BBQ and Lucky J’s last year for Season 1. Their first stop was at the Jalopy Rotisserie and Press, profiling Nic, his truck, and his delicious food. Lucky for me I was able to swing by and even make an on-camera appearance!
Well, really it should be Mission: Hold That Thought. Before heading back to Florida (to get married of course!) I mentioned I’d be scoping out the South Florida food truck scene. Well who knew a week’s worth of wedding prep plus driving an hour each way to find some food trucks would make things a bit challenging? Not this blogger! But that’s exactly what happened. Setting my priorities straight I made the game time decision to forgo the mobile food. With a trip already planned back to SoFla for Christmas, it was easy to delay the inevitable face-stuffing for a later date.
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.
It’s pretty amazing how many new food trucks and carts have been sprouting up all over Austin. Thanks to Austin Food Carts I’ve been able to keep track of the newest kids on the block. More than anything I enjoy seeing what new niche food style will be on the city menu, like made-to-order ice cream sandwiches, customized funnel cakes, or specialty mega-doughnuts. However, this is actually about the exact opposite, where a new food truck is offering a nearly identical experience to a well-established favorite, or so I thought.
Being relegated to North Austin for work has its pros and cons. The biggest pro is that I drive against traffic to and from work, so I’m rarely caught in any bumper-to-bumper frustration during my commute. The downside of working in the great white north a few miles from downtown is the lack of food trucks frequenting the area (we need to eat delicious food from mobile kitchens too, you know!). Anyhow, thanks to a socially savvy creator of Korean-Mexican fusion, I was able to partake in some delicious and creative fare without having to cross any zip codes.
Those of you who are privileged enough to know me certainly understand my excitement for new and unique food. I mean, my running blog transformed into a running PLUS food blog for that very reason. Surprisingly, Austin has proven itself to be quite accommodating to my food addiction (I think I would die without food!). Case in point, there’s a sweet event going on here the first weekend of November that’s going to let Austin flaunt its [food] stuff: The Gypsy Picnic!
