bluegrass to lonestar

Behind the place I buy my coffee beans, a BBQ Trailer has taken up residence.  The last time I talked to the roaster he recommended it, so we decided to give it a whirl.  Everything sounded good so we ordered 2-meat plates to get sampling of brisket, ribs, and pulled pork.  They gave us a sample of the sausage while we waited so we ended up with a taste of everything.  This is some damn fine BBQ and a ton of it.  The plate could easily be split.  The brisket had some of the best bark (the dark outside area) I’ve ever tasted.  The sides were pretty average, so maybe next time we’ll skip those in favor of some pie.

Saturday afternoon the Unicycle Football League put on a demo near our house. It is bad ass. Drunk dudes on unicycles (some missing teeth) play football while cheerleaders drink tallboys. They are supposedly starting up a league in Austin.

We had some errands to run up north, so we decided to dine at Bombay Express for dinner. They specialize in South Indian cuisine. I’ve have never had South Indian, most of the Indian restaurants we frequent offer North Indian fare. The place is setup sort of like a cafeteria. You order at the counter and grab a seat. We decided to try a Dosa, a giant crepe-like thing filled with spicy goodness, a chickpea idli, and some bonda’s with a sweet pea filling.

Sitting in the parking lot of Freewheeling Cycles is a small coffee trailer called Good Bike Cafe. I read about it on one of local cycling blogs and decided to check it out Saturday morning. The guy working was just opening for the day and gave us 25% because we rolled up on bikes. Awesome! We ordered 2 croissants (chocolate & almond), a Cuban coffee and an espresso. I have never had espresso, but it was damn good, a nice crema on top. Lauren’s Cuban coffee was even better. The croissants were super flaky, not quite as good as the one’s at the farmer’s market in DC, but close.

Saturday after spending most of my afternoon at the Bike Summit, Lauren and I ventured down to Rainey Street for some trailer grub at El Naranjo Mobile. One of the newer food trailers in Austin, it’s run a by a well respected chef from Oaxaca, Ilana de la Vega.

The menu has Oaxacan standards like molotes along with tacos, tostadas and daily specials. The appetizer menu listed the “Best guacamole ever” so of course we had to try it. We also ordered cochinita pibil tostadas and the special, puerco gringo tacos.

Best guac ever? I dunno, but it was pretty damn delicious. The cochinita pibil was different from other versions I’ve had but it was also quite tasty. The star of the show was the gringo tacos. The chile mixture that the pork was marinated in was amazing and the chunks of grilled pinapple worked perfectly with it. It’s a tad more expensive than your average taco truck, but it was worth it.