I’ve got to say: I love Austin.

I have been pleasantly surprised by the awesome weather, welcoming people, beautiful landscape and…the food trailers.

Though Austin does a lot of things cool and weird, my favorite is its food trailers and carts sprinkled throughout the city.  You wouldn’t believe some of the gourmet, far-out or even home-style food you can find at your local food trailer.

Now, I come from California where food trailers leave much to be desired.  I’m sorry, but it’s true — I was previously never impressed by anything sold out of a trailer.

Then I moved to Austin and everything changed.

Interested in some parmesan grits with poached duck egg, brussels sprouts and mushrooms?  You can get them at Mmmpanadas.  Want a pork sausage wrapped in ham with sweet pickle relish, spicy brown mustard & Swiss cheese?  That’s the Cuban and you can get it at Man Bites Dog.

Or, how about a Beef and Lamb Kebob Pita at Kebabalicious?  There are so many choices, it’s unreal.  Plus, the quality of ingredients, preparation and atmosphere are hard to beat on a sunny, breezy Austin day.

I’m telling you…it’s awesome.

Recently, Dustin and I went to an area called South Austin Trailer Park and Eatery for lunch.  We stopped at Torchy’s Tacos for some tasty, creative soft tacos.

I ordered a Green Chile Pork taco (slow roasted pork carnitas simmered with green chilies and topped with queso fresco, cilantro, onions, tomatillo sauce and a wedge of lime) and a Baja Shrimp Taco (hand-battered fried shrimp with cooked cabbage slaw topped with pickled jalapenos and onions, queso fresco, cilantro, chipotle sauce and a wedge of lime), both on corn tortillas.

Dustin ordered a Ranch Hand and a Crossroads taco, both on flour tortillas (check out their menu for all the toppings).  Needless to say, I really enjoyed my tacos, as did Dustin, and we will certainly make it back to try more — maybe even check out the other trailer establishments right next to it which include Man Bites Dog and Holy Cacao.

Then, of course, we needed to take the 3 minute drive over to South Congress to stop by Hey Cupcake for dessert.

We shared a Double Dose (chocolate buttercream topping on chocolate cake cupcake) and a 24 Carrot (cream cheese topping on carrot cake cupcake) and a bottle of milk while being serenaded by acoustic guitar to “The Weight” (“Take a Load off Annie”).

What a great lunch!

We have also tried Flip Happy Crepes to get a few sweet and savory crepes for breakfast.  We had a Ham and Gruyere Crepe, a Chicken and Mushroom Crepe (with cheddar, caramelized onions and scallions) and a Vanilla Pastry Cream Crepe with fresh mixed berries and blueberry sauce while Jordan thoroughly enjoyed her Nutella Crepe Roll-Up.  Yum.

We had been excited to explore Austin Food Trailers since before moving to Texas and the poll here finally gave us an excuse to finally try a bunch.  So, thanks!   We will be trying out more and I hope to share our discoveries with you as we do.

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