Eating My Way Through Austin

Last month I visited JC and BC in Austin, TX. It's taken me so long to write about it because I'm still stuffed from all the great food I ate. J and B always take me out to great places to eat. In part, it's due to all the great food options in Austin, but I think it's in larger part due to the fact that J and B just know all the really places to eat. So, Austin is a city where I don't really come armed with a list of places I want to eat. I trust J and B.

They picked me up from the airport and we went to get some lunch at Bouldin Creek Coffee House. Now, I should say the other great thing about B and J is that they seem to know the people that work/run the restaurants. This was true at Bouldin, which they started going to, I learned, a few years ago at its old, smaller location. Bouldin had a great atmosphere and a vegetarian menu. While the tacos I ordered were great (the Timmy and the Ren), it was the blueberry cornbread that would draw me back again and again. It was moist and the blueberries gave it a hint of sweetness. But if I wanted more, I could dip it into the side of Agave syrup that came with the dish. The three of us shared it, but I could have eaten a couple of them all on my own.

Right across the street from Boudlin was a cupcake place that J had read about, and me being me, I said, "Let's go!" Sugar Mama's had your normal range of cupcake flavors that we got, but also some specialty ones.
Our four-pack included the french toast cupcake. I loved the idea of this cupcake (and want to try making my own version of it). It was a cinnamon cupcake, topped with Maple frosting and bits of candied bacon. It's the cupcake on the left. It was good. I think the only thing I would try differently is instead of maple frosting, I'd try it with the maple glaze. I like the added sweetness. We also tried a couple of other Austin cupcake shops, including the Hey Cupcake near J and B's house, which would fill the center of and top the cupcake with whipped cream if you asked them to.

After we finished the Austin Half marathon, J, N, and I wandered around some of the food trucks that were at the finish line. I tried a nice fish taco. But wanting something more substantial, and a nice alcoholic drink to wash it down with and celebrate the end of the run, we made our way to La Condesa. We sat outside, which was nice.
But it was a little bit chilly and breezy. Still, it was a lovely place to relax and dissect the run. They were only serving the brunch menu, but we started with with some chips and three different dipping salsas. I really like that. It gave you choice on flavor and intensity of heat/spiciness. We ended up splitting a tamale and and egg dish with mushrooms and tomatoes. The eggs were good, but I loved the tamale. I've always had mixed feelings about tamales, but this was moist and the chicken inside was full of flavor. I loved it.

The one place that was on my list for Austin, this time around, was Torchy's Tacos. I had heard so much about this place over, that I wanted to try it for myself. It had the added bonus of being a taco truck. Now Austin is something of a trailer-food nirvana. They even have food trailer parks. We went to a few during my weekend stay. The other one that I wanted to try was closed when I was there. What I learned from my visits was Sunday and Monday are not prime food trailer park times. The next time I'll come towards the end of the week. Anyway, Torchy's has brick and mortar locations as well, but we went to one of the trailers. Now it was an odd time to go between lunch and dinner, and close enough to dinner that I could ruin my appetite,
but I didn't. Aside for the queso, I tried the fried avocado taco. This was the first time I had even heard of a fried avocado, and all I can say is I hope it is not the last time. In fact, I'd love of this idea to come to the DC or NYC area. I'd never stop eating them. Wait, maybe it's a good thing they're not here. The crunchy outside contrasted nicely with the smooth, creamy avocado. It was one of the best things I've ever eaten. And since I nice little bowl of green chile queso was accompanying my "snack" it's saying a lot. I topped that off with a nice little cake pop (from the trailer next door).

But no trip to Austin, or Texas in general, would be complete without barbecue. I had wanted to try Salt Lick. It's been on most cooking shows and is an Austin staple. In fact, I believe B and J once took me to see the pit, but we didn't stay for the food. I try not to ask for too many meat only places though because J does not eat meat. Well, one of B and J's friends was having a birthday dinner and he choose Salt Lick. Not the original location Salt Lick, but the new one, which I was told was actually quite similar to the old one. They had a pit inside and just smelling the BBQ made my mouth water.
What made this place fun though, was that aside from indoor seating, you could sit at picnic tables outside and they had live music outside. I went out to listen for a bit. You can get the Family Style, which is beef, sausage, pork ribs, potato salad, slaw, beans, bread, pickles and onions. Most people got this. J actually brought her own veggie dinner with her that she was able to eat. BBOVM or Bring Your Own Vegetarian Meal is apparently allowed at the original location. The downside to the night we were there is that they had run out of the bread they normally serve and instead only had sandwich bread. Still, B managed to get the waitress to bring out some of their normal bread by pointing out that J is a vegetarian and really there aren't many options for her there. I however, went with the brisket and a beef rib, although B did slip me some pork ribs and sausage from the family style platters that came. It was good. The meat was nice and tender with great flavor on its own. But I also really liked the BBQ sauce and they even had a nice spicy option. I just remember mopping up the sauce with the sandwich bread and then dumping more sauce on my plate and mopping it up again! The potato salad was also really good. It wasn't a mayo based potato salad, in fact it was like a vinaigrette potato salad that was mashed up. The highlight of the meal with the beef rib. I had one. It was huge and quite filling! And, by the time we left, they were out of the beef ribs.


This was just a small sample of all the great food I had in Austin, but if you need recommendations I'd be happy to point you to B and J's direction.

I'm a Geek!

For Christmas I got Star Wars cookie cutters. I used a good sugar cookie recipie, chilled and then rolled out the dough and stamped out the cookies. It's a different kind of cookie cutter than I'm used to. I didn't decorate the cookies, I feel it's a little above move ability levels at this point. But the impression is good and you know which character you're about to eat!