Bella Cucina

I am going to let you in on a little secret. I just found an AMAZING new trailer -- Bella Cucina, on South Lamar, just south of Red's Porch, doing Italian street foods.  My need to *research* some South ATX food trailers for an upcoming post led me to this gem.

I pulled into the lot around noon, and I was the only one there. I went up to the window, and was immediately greeted by the owner Dominic. I said this was my first time here, what did he recommend? He asked if I was more in a meat or chicken kind of mood. I said I leaned toward meat, as I was eyeing the three meat panini (salami, soppressata, and prosciutto, I believe he said). He nodded his approval, and got it started.

While he's prepping food, I asked him about the now-closed trailer parked next to his. He said that Red's Porch (who is also his landlord) recently bought it, and they have plans to do breakfasts and lunches out of it. There's also a Mexican foods trailer that's supposed to be joining the lot too. As we're chatting, he offers me two meatballs that have been simmering in sauce.  Soooo incredibly tender, they fell apart as soon as you stuck a fork in them, and tasted so good. Another trinity of meats: veal, pork and beef, and I sing the meatball's praise to Dominic. We keep chatting, and I ask him how he got started here. His background was actually as a contractor, installing pizza ovens in restaurants. He's from New York originally (you can hear it in his voice!) and of Italian descent (of course!), and his family just moved to Austin about a year ago for his wife's job, plus her extended family were in the area.

He then says, oh I am going to throw in a small salad that someone ordered, but never came and picked up. At this point, I "reveal" my identity as a food blogger, something I don't regularly do when dining out, as I want to write about the food as it is presented to any customer. Dominic then insists on giving me two half-sandwiches to take with me. As we had been chatting, his mother-in-law and a friend have pulled up, and ordered some food. He gives me half of his MIL's chicken and pesto sandwich, because he says he knows she won't eat the whole thing! He also wraps up a porchetta and broccoli rabe sandwich (more on these in a minute), and hands me a bag with all this food! Incredibly generous.


I went to the picnic table to eat my panini. It was still screaming hot off the panini press, and there was nice bits of crusty cheese oozing out. The bread was crispy, some basil pesto and giardineria (pickled veg) inside too; dense, filling, and delicious. I posted this pic on Facebook, and one of the comments left was "I want that in my mouth NOW!" Yeah, you do!

Here's the food that he sent me off with. I think my only criticism of everything that I tried was the salad dressing -- not homemade. Other that, it was fantastic. I offered some of the porchetta to some food friends today, and they loved it, so tender, moist. And who would have thought to put broccoli rabe on a sandwich, but it really worked. The chicken and pesto re-warmed very nicely in the toaster oven for dinner, and the chicken was still in great condition.

Dominic has visions for the lot -- he'd like to beautify it a bit more, and maybe close off one of the driveways as to make it safer for kids, since it's right on Lamar. He's thought about grab and go dinner service, as the evening traffic is thick going down Lamar. Further down the proverbial road, he's got some thoughts about opening a New York style deli, with cold cuts and sandwiches. I told him he absolutely should! Austin needs something like that! I've also encouraged him to use Facebook a bit more to promote the place, and list the menu, specials, etc, as like many trailers, he's having troubles attracting diners. And I told him I'd give him a shout out! ;) So "like" Bella Cucina's page on Facebook, and get yourself over there and try his food! (I believe current hours are Mon thru Sat, 10:30 am - 3:30 pm.) Super nice, genuine guy with great food. What's not to love? Buon appetito!

Chi'lantro BBQ

So it's mid-January, and I've got to get back on my "one new food trailer a week" program. Problem is, the food trailer population keeps growing and growing! But I decided to track down one that I think is one of Austin's original "Tweet our location and find us" trailers -- Chi'lantro BBQ, a tasty marriage of Mexican and Korean flavors. 

I had a doctor's appointment off Jollyville Road this afternoon, and as luck would have it, one of Chi'lantro's trucks (YES, they have TWO trucks!) was at the Twin Towers complex on the Mopac southbound frontage road, between 183 and 360 (it's the building where Google has it's offices). Fortunately, I could see the truck in front of the northern building as I went up Mopac to made the u-turn at 360. And for a cold day, I was pleasantly surprised to see about 8 people waiting for their food. Everyone appeared to be from one of the two office buildings; I felt a little bit like a party crasher! ;)

I decided on the kimchi fries, and asked the woman taking the orders what she recommended, the pork or beef bulgogi. She immediately said the pork was really looking good today. So after a few minutes in the colder temps, I had my hot basket of fries, topped with pork bulgogi, cheese, cilantro, onion, sriracha, their magic orange sauce (it's a mayo-based sauce, I think), and sesame seeds. 

Retreating to my car, I took the picture and began devouring it! Mighty, mighty tasty. A really great balance of flavors. The pork was cut extremely thin, and probably chopped with the metal spatula while on the grill; it has a nice bit of sweetness to it when you get a bite of it with out all the other stuff. The sriracha heats you up, without overpowering, and the creaminess from their magic orange sauce is a nice texture addition too. There's not too much of the earthy cilantro, but what's there adds nicely to the depth of the flavor profile.


Looking at their other menu items, it's mostly Korean flavors made into Mexican foods -- tacos, burritos, quesadillas, with a rice bowl thrown in too. Not sure how the tofu would do bulgogi-style, but with that succulent pork, don't think I'll be getting the veggie option there anytime soon.

The Mighty Cone

Street fair and festival foods are certainly a favorite category. You don't need utensils, food items are generally pretty easy to eat, and deep fried items are certainly in abundance. Mmmmm.....how can you go wrong?! One of the newest trailers to hit Austin was born at the Austin Music Festival by the wild game enthusiasts at Hudson's on the Bend. What apparently was a huge hit for Hudson's at the hot and dusty ACL is now a "permanent" fixture, and not just for one weekend in September. The Mighty Cone has now reared its pointy little head.

Situated on our hip South Congress Ave (SoCo), The Mighty Cone is in the same lot (someday to become high end apartments or will the economy kill that plan?) with Hey Cupcake, one of the early entries into Austin's trendy trailer/airstream eateries. They've barely been open a week, but this is the time to get your doors open, as multitudes of hungover SXSW party-goers could use a little fried food to cure what ails them. A report from over the weekend said the line was around the block at lunchtime. My friend and I decided to brave it anyway, heading over on St. Patty's Day. Fortunately, at 11:45 am, we beat any lunch crowd, though we were hardly the only ones there.

As you can see from the menu board, it's not an extensive list of offerings....but from this first taste of it, I'd say what they do, they do well. (But I would expect that from the folks at Hudson's.) I got the Crunchy Chicken Cone, my friend the Deluxe Chicken & Avocado Cone, and we split an order of fries. Their crunchy eats are coated in a cornflake crust with sesame seeds, and fried beautifully, as there was no grease whatsoever. Did I mention tasty? Really tasty. The tortilla-wrapped chicken was very crisp, and served with a cole slaw with a creamy, spicy dressing on it, a nice amount of heat. You can make out the shape of the corn flakes, since they're not totally pulverized. The thin cut fries were also fried to perfection and a bit of chili powder sprinkled over them. The red picnic tables are outfitted with cone holders, a definite necessity. My only complaint is that the slaw slid down to the bottom of the cone, making it a bit hard to eat without a fork....such is life, I suppose. I was totally happy with the chicken, and the chicken-avocado got high marks too.

Saw some sliders being eaten; they too are served in a cone and looked pretty yummy. Didn't see any desserts coming out, but they sound so good, I'll have to return for them -- funnel cake and a wild turtle cone! And as the side of their trailer says: eat at Hudson's for under $10!

Lulu B's

** Editor's note: closed in 2016

Finally. Finally!!!!

1) I went to Lulu B's.
2) It rained!!!

More on #1 in a sec. After the promise of rain by the local weather forecasters during the passage of 4 hurricanes this summer & fall (Dolly, Felix, Gustav & Ike), and how they were wrong EACH time, we finally got measurable rain today! I think I may have close to an inch at the house. Now, if only the humidity would go away, and we could really have a "fall."

Back to LuLu B's. I basically pass it twice a day on my way to & from work. It is a trailer, serving a limited Vietnamese menu, that is literally sandwiched between Austin Quality Tires and Office Depot, just south of the Lamar & Oltorf intersection. The trailer sits under a giant live oak tree, which provided me coverage as the drizzle started up again just after 2 pm today. Their menu consists of bahn mi -- the legendary (and elusive in South Austin) sandwich of French influence; bun, or vermicelli bowls, and summer rolls. I had the Chinese BBQ pork sandwich, and after asking the guy at the counter for his recommendation, he suggested the chicken lemongrass vermicelli bowl.　 They've got several gently used tables and chairs out under the live oak, each with bottles of sriracha and sambal oelek for the heat-seekers. I got my food, and headed home, getting a bit of a free carwash in the process.

The bahn mi was simply fantastic. Tasty pieces of beautifully char grilled (but not burnt) pork, which have a nice subtle sweetness to them. I could eat that pork every day! The relatively tender (as in, not too crusty) French bread is stuffed with the pork, thin strips of carrots, daikon radish, cuke, cilantro and either a jalapeno or serrano (it was fairly hot!). Absolutely stunning in looks and taste, and at $4.50, extremely worth it! The picture you see here is the other half of the sandwich, which I am about to eat for dinner!




The bun was good, though not as outstanding as the bahn mi. The lemongrass chicken has nice flavor (props to the guy at the counter); often you order a lemongrass dish, but it barely has a lemony flavor, much less lemongrass. This hits it. The chicken is on a bed of romaine and vermicelli noodles, with cilantro, maybe some basil (?), chopped peanuts, and a fish sauce dressing on the side. Overall, it's missing a pop though.... I think it needs lime juice. But it's very fresh, quite healthy, and I will happily return!