My friend Robb Walsh knows taco trucks. He chronicled the taco trucks of Houston for his paper, the Houston Press. He also wrote a story for Gourmet on taco trucks across the country, but alas, it is not online. For some reason, though, the powers that be at Condé Nast did put up a little sidebar Walsh did on chefs and their thoughts on taco trucks. He talks to John Currence, Elizabeth Montes, and Gabriel Rucker.
Houston Press food critic Robb Walsh discovers a pupusa truck at South Post Oak Road and Tidewater Drive (map): "A Salvadorean lady named Elisa churns out pupusas at an amazing clip. I watched her make a dozen in five minutes."
The cool graphics on the truck (including what what Walsh calls a "funky chicken") are almost worth the price of ignition alone.
When I asked all of you to pray for me diet-wise because I was headed to Dallas and New Orleans, I meant it. Here's the kind of thing I'm going to be doing for the next four days: My friend Robb Walsh, restaurant critic of the Houston Press, who perhaps knows more about barbecue and Tex-Mex food than any man alive, picked me up at the Dallas airport yesterday at 5:30 p.m. and announced we were going on a real Fort Worth food tour for the rest of the evening.
By 6 p.m., we put our names on the list at a fried-chicken and chicken-fried-steak roadhouse called Babe's Chicken Dinner House in Roanoke, Texas. While we were waiting for our table, we had a little appetizer of a very fine piece of pecan pie at Granny's Cupboard next door. The smell of fresh-baked apple pie was unmistakable, so we ordered a piece of that as well. The only problem: it was so hot, so fresh out of the oven owner Carol Southern announced: It's not ready to be sliced yet. It will just mush all over the plate. Why don't you boys go eat next door and come back afterwards for your apple pie. Sounded like a plan.
Since my "real" job (whatever that means) is in the "music industry" (radio is still part of the music industry, right?), I've always dreamed of going to the SXSW music festival. I've heard great things about Austin, Texas, and my friends and co-workers always have amazing stories of great shows that I am bound to love that take place in a really cool town. But this year, I discovered a new aspect of SXSW that makes me feel jealous about not getting to go: all the serious sandwiches.
Thanks to blogs, Flickr, and most important, the invention of the iPhone, the SXSW food porn has been pouring in since last week—and I have to say, the sandwiches look pretty damn delicious. Using previous years as a guide, you would expect me to be super envious of missing My Morning Jacket tear through their new songs at the Austin Music Hall, or Michael Stipe playing at the all too famous Stubb's. This year, however, I think I'm bummed because I missed out on all the eatin'.
After the jump, my recently created, hipster food porn-based, Austin sandwich checklist.
The trio of SXSW Festivals and Conferences (Music, Film, and Interactive), best described as Spring Break for geeks, kicks off this weekend in Austin, Texas. Maybe you've already decided which panels, screenings, shows, and parties you'll be attending—or not. That's OK, there are more pressing concerns like, where are you going to eat?
The SXSW Baby! Guide: Where to Eat During SXSW 2008 [pdf], has all the answers. Compiled and written by Kathryn Yu, a SXSW veteran and a serious eater, restaurants included meet the top criteria of hungry festival-goers: close proximity to the Convention Center, easily accessible by foot, cheap, fast, and tasty.
But you're in Texas. And Texans make some serious barbecue.
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