Recent Eats

A few of the places I have been this past month. I was extremely fortunate to have been the plus one to a media tasting dinner at laV, the newly opened French restaurant at 1501 East 7th. It was fabulous all around!

Best sparkling rose I've had because it wasn't too dry for my tastes, Cremant de Limoux, Cuvee Rose, Domaine Collin NV, and it paired wonderfully with the chicken liver pate. As managing partner and lead sommelier Vilma Mazaite said, the pate is filled with butter and cream, so what's not to like? Accompanying it was brioche toast points, berry preserves, cornichons, and mustard. LaV and Winebelly probably have two of the best pates in town.

The next course was a sweet pea agnolotti, filled with ricotta, with a pea puree on the bottom, and pressed strawberries and pea shoots on top. It was as beautiful and tasty as it looks.

Roast chicken isn't something I would normally order at a restaurant, but this one is special. Executive Chef Allison Jenkins said they salt the chickens the night before, and then roast at 600 degrees, breast-side down, for an hour. Served with perfectly-roasted fingerling potatoes, on the regular menu, this dish serves two and runs $48. And worth every penny.

The bouillabaisse was chock full of head-on blue shrimp, clams, squid, and had a distinct orange flavoring to it's broth. And no, that's not French's mustard on the rustic bread, but rather rouille, a saffron and garlic sauce, similar in texture to an aioli (I was unfamiliar with rouille before this!).

Dessert was lemon and mascarpone budino with local Poteet strawberries, and brioche doughnuts. I could have licked the lovely blue ceramic bowl clean of its velvety contents!

LaV has it all going for themselves -- beautiful decor, superb service, and most importantly, outstanding food. They also have a very extensive wine list (several thousand bottles are housed in the private tasting room we were in) and highly knowledgeable staff. Surely this place will be ranking high on the top places to eat in Austin. Make a reservation and experience for yourselves.

And a few other meals of note. Dinner with a friend at my neighborhood Elizabeth Street Cafe. This is the #20, house specialty banh mi, which they gracefully let me substitute the roast pork for the marinated. They make their baguettes in-house, and it's the perfect consistency for this sandwich.

A media tasting for the new summer menu at NoVa. This was the Parmesan risotto, which several of us shared, and it was hard not to eat it all myself!

We then moved a few doors down to Bangers. It was a rainy evening on Rainey Street, so we sat inside. Extremely loud! And as this was my first visit to Bangers, I was a bit overwhelmed by both the food and drink menus. Ended up with the bockwurst (they make all their own sausages, and even have fresh ones available to take home) and Crispin pear cider.

The movie Chef (see previous blog post) made me extremely hungry for a Cuban sandwich. This one from the Texas Cuban trailer on South Lamar hit the spot!

And finally, after watching a friend make pasta, I decided to dust off my pasta maker, and give it another try. The dough recipe couldn't be simpler: 1 cup of all purpose or double zero flour to 2 eggs. That's it. No salt in the dough, but salt your pasta water liberally. It all came together easily, and after repeated passes through the pasta machine, I had dough, which I cut (imprecisely) into pappardelle.

Which then became dinner with fresh fava beans, pecorino romano cheese, fresh mint, and just a little bit of bacon. I am pretty proud of this dish!

So, just a little peek into my food world. Some of these pictures I previously posted on Instagram. Where have you been lately that's good?

Tasty Up Trailer Tour

Food trailer tour that is.

The first ever (formal) Tasty Up Trailer Tour was organized by the Statesman's food writer Addie Broyles and local Tasty Touring blogger Jodi Bart. They assembled a collection of local food trailers, most of them new to the food scene, and spread the good word via Facebook about the tour; many trailers offered specials or reduced prices on their food stuffs.

In preparation, my friend and I stocked up on $1 bills, bottles of water, some Pepto (just in case!), fresh camera batteries, and a healthy appetite for what presumably would be a day of tasty, but not necessarily healthy food. There were two official "starting points," where we could get nametags identifying us as members of the tour. We picked La Boite, on South Lamar, a coffee & pastry shop to begin our day of eating. This little European gem is fashioned out of an old shipping container, and prides themselves on featuring local ingredients in an environmentally friendly setting. After several days of rain here, we fortunately had a completely cloudless day for our day of outdoor eating. The only downside to that was it occasionally interfered with picture taking; so for better pics of their converted container, see their website. They graciously offered complimentary cups of coffee to tour participants, and very smartly made smaller sized versions of their pastries, as they realized people would be eating throughout the day. I got an almond croissant, chocolate croissant, and salted caramel macaroon. All I can say is YUM! This was a great start to the day. The macaroons were an airy sandwich cookie with a fantastic salty caramel in between, and the croissants nice and flaky. It occurs to me now.... I assume they bake their own pastries, but I am not 100% certain, and their website doesn't say specifically either. Regardless, they are delicious!


So on the same large patch of (muddy) grass as La Boite, is Texas Cuban; I have been intensely curious about this spot, as I have always enjoyed the food at Havana. As we ate our pastries, we could see a long line forming at Texas Cuban, and finally walked 50 feet downhill to join it. Things were a bit slow...once we ordered, it took a good 30 - 40 minutes for our order, and during that time, it became evident they were woefully under-prepared for the crowds. They ran out of propane (really, on a weekend? especially a special event weekend?), so half their menu became obsolete, and they had to refund people. For the tour, they offered a small Cuban sandwich, papa rellenos & croquettas; other menu items available, but these were their featured items. We ended up with the sandwich (grilled pork tenderloin, ham, swiss & provolone in a pressed sandwich) which was good, but I don't know that it was anything to write home about. I will go back another time, and attempt to have a "real" meal there. My friend had gone to check on the status of our order, and while they were friendly and explaining the situation, she overheard them say they only expected about 20 people. Well, there were easily 50 milling around while we were there...


The upside to not eating as much at Texas Cuban, was it left room for other foods! We decided to bypass Gourdough's Big Fat Donuts (we've both been before), Brevita Coffee, & Odd Duck Trailer (have heard great things about this place, but I want to go on a night when I can really enjoy the full experience), and as we drove past on Lamar, there was a large crowd there. We decided to go to the northernmost option, Sushi A-Go-Go, at 40th & Medical Parkway. It's really cute (though in a gas station parking lot)! And it wasn't crowded! We ordered one of the day's specials, a Texas Surf & Turf roll, with ribeye, shrimp tempura, candied jalapenos, avocado, and a green sauce on top, along with shrimp shu mai dumplings. We sat & chatted with the one other tour participant who was there (see her blog, Epicuriosities), as we messily ate our roll! It was very good, but it was large pieces that sort of fell apart because you couldn't eat them in one bite. Very fresh, nice texture contrasts with the tempura. The shu mai didn't terribly excite me, but they weren't bad either. As my friend commented later, it seemed sort of odd to be eating sushi outdoors; it wasn't the most refined of settings. Although one of the points their website makes is sushi is considered a "fancy" food, and with their trailer, they hope more people will try different types of sushi rolls. The people running it were extremely nice!


Next up, BBQ. Barely a hair east of IH-35 at Concordia (just south of 38th St) is Franklin BBQ, just behind Owl Tree Coffee Roasters. They've got a couple little trailers, several tables, and some nice kitchsy yard art in the way of flamingos and gnomes. And an extensive BBQ menu. Fortunately, they were offering sample plates. And even more fortunately for us, as we got in line, we were greeted by tour organizer Addie Broyles, who asked if we wanted to split a sampler plate. As she chatted with owner Aaron, he pulled what he said was their last brisket of the day out; they smoke them for about 18 hours. He gave us little bites of the nice charred exterior to whet our palates as he assembled the carnage. Mmmmm.

On the tray, we had a sausage link pulled pork, brisket, and little bites of their cole slaw & tater salad. They also make 4 different sauces -- hot, sweet, pork & espresso -- for your dining pleasure. The pulled pork (with the pork sauce of course) was my favorite. Moist, tender, and in general, just porkalicious. The brisket was a bit fatty, but very flavorful, and the espresso sauce, with it's deep, slightly bitter coffee tones went beautifully with it. The sausage and the sides didn't impress, I am sorry to say. Addie was the hostess with the mostest, making sure all participants had nametags, and in general, making us all feel welcome.


Continuing on the BBQ trail, we then hit Old School BBQ, housed in an old bus, which moves around town. They've only been open about 7 weeks, said the affable Danny, son of the pit master; they have a spot they like along MLK, but today we found them at Cesar Chavez & Pleasant Valley. I think the bus is a fantastic idea; they've got their smoker in back, and it will be great when UT football starts again for tailgating parties. He told us they've got plans for future expansion, with pizza & burgers on the horizon. We had heard their fries were good, and they were offering specials on a brisket sandwich & the fries, and we also went for the mac & cheese wedge. The brisket was nice, not as fatty as the previous, and apparently they smoke them for a minimum of 22 hours. Apparently dad gets up every 2 hours to check the meats. They had one sauce, which was sweet at first, and then had a touch of tartness & spice. I liked the sauces at Franklin better, but it's a toss up on the brisket! The Belgian-style fries were much to my liking too; russets with the skin-on. Some of the longer pieces could have been fried a little longer, but there was sufficient salt on them. Unfortunately, neither my friend nor I cared for the the mac & cheese (sorry!). Danny said they use fontina, asiago, white cheddar, and he thought there was something else. Maybe it was the fontina (I wonder if there was Swiss in it), but there was a rather astringent taste to it. Can you see the license plate of the bus? "BBQ BUS"


Reaching our limits, we decided on G'Raj Mahal (not much in the way of a website or Facebook page as of now), as our final stop in the newly trendy Rainey Street area. It's Indian food, and of the places we went, certainly the most restaurant-like, as they have a large covered carport with tables and ceiling fans. They invite you sit, and the host brings a menu, takes your order, and brings your food. It's a large lot, with the trailer, carport, and a few other small buildings sharing the space with recycled bicycles that make up the Austin Bike Zoo. Anyway, we both opted for chai tea, a cardamom kulfi (like ice cream) to split, and some items to go. The chai was nice, though a bit heavy on the black tea for my taste, and not enough of the spiciness -- ginger, cardamom, clove, etc, that I really like in my chai. The kulfi was like a vanilla ice milk, with ground cardamom powder sprinkled on top, with golden raisins and I think pistachios on it too. More cardamom please! To go, I got a samosa, and the spicy tomato soup, which was supposed to be served with the crispy papadams, but none got put into the bag with our order. Bummer. My friend got the chicken tikka masala, which I think was a half-portion sized special because of the tour. At this writing, I have had a bite of each the soup & tikka, and they seem to have a nice kick & depth. Haven't eaten the samosa or the rest of the soup as I am still too full. They've got a nice looking full menu, though the prices on the curries & other dishes would be about the equivalent at a full-service indoor restaurant.


Boy this has been a long post. Overall, we had a lot of fun checking places out, and thank god for good weather after a week of rain. All the proprietors we encountered were super friendly, and happy to chat about their food stuffs. There are a number of places on the tour we didn't get to, and a ton more that have popped up around town; Austin Food Carts is a great site to keep up with the trailers as they come & go. Many thanks to my traveling companion of the day, and fortunately, we didn't need the Pepto!