preparing for SXSW - local musician supporting local trailers

Today I had lunch with Ben Brown of No Show Ponies at Conscious Cravings in the Longhorn food court. Very fun to dine with a local musician supporting local trailer vendors out on one of the coldest days Austin has seen this winter. Ben tried a spicy pan seared tofu wrap with chipotle mayo while I opted for the chimichurri wrap with vegan Daiya cheese. The rosemary baked fries and blueberry lemonade were pretty. delicious. Trailer-owner Rishi came out and shared that he may be in the market for an egg-roll cart to be able to provide students on campus with his hot wraps (all $5). Even though he is in the Longhorn Food Court (MLK/Rio Grande) trailer park, the students want him a little bit closer and more convenient. So – the egg roll cart seems to be a great solution. Next time I’m there, I’m going to try the black bean slider (also served on chimichurri sauce) or the spicy chickpea wrap which is simmered in Indian spices.

Also currently in the Longhorn food court are: Salt Lick BBQ trailer, Lee’s Hurricane Party (gumbo, catfish, etc.), and Hero’s frozen treats. While we were visiting, Lee let us know there may be sounds of SXSW right there at the park – stay tuned for updates. He also had fellow trailer owner Amber Glowski of Powdered Sugar lending a hand. Don’t let the temporary road construction stop you from going, there is plenty of parking and four diverse food options to try. Other vegetarian trailers in Austin include two vegan options: Iggi’s Texatarian for a vegan take on southern comfort (1104 E. 6th St. 78702) and Counter Culture (120 East North Loop 78751).

Stay tuned for next articles including information on the trailer crawl to benefit lucky j’s during SXSW (email tiffany@trailerfooddiaries.com if you’re interested in participating) and check out Ben’s music at http://www.noshowponies.com/ -

Grab Some Lunch at The Gypsy Picnic

As we prepare for the first annual Gypsy Picnic Trailer Food Festival, we are featuring the unique tastes you will have the pleasure of enjoying on Saturday, November 6th. Here is a look at the mid-day offerings from Gypsy Picnic trailers.
Continuing the exploration of one of the most popular questions I get asked, here is a question I personally ponder daily: What’s for lunch? Whether you have a friend in town that you want to share the trailer food scene with, or are just up for trying something new, I have you covered.

If you’re on South Congress, check out The Flying Carpet for some fresh and healthy Moroccan cuisine made with local love from the Souktouri family. While you’re in the area you might try the popular Mighty Cone, one of the landmark trailer businesses in Austin that offers a unique take of fried chicken with ancho sauce in a tortilla wrapped to go. Turf n Surf Po'Boys is another popular downtown trailer vendor who has a killer shrimp po’boy. You can enjoy eating it outside the trailer Ralph Gilmore green-built himself at their 2nd and Congress Av. location. Nick Patrizi, owner of The Jalopy, will slide you a gourmet rotisserie chicken sandwich from the top of his big rig that is as much a mural as it is an eatery over on 15th and San Antonio. For something south of the border, Kronic Krave Arepas is serving traditional Colombian arepas on 5th and Colorado.

Skipping over to South First, if you dine with 4th generation Austinite, John Galindo, at Izzoz, he’ll be sure to remember your name and order the next time you stop by for his tacos. Down the street from John stands the South Austin Trailer Park and Eatery: home to Torchy’s Tacos, Holy Cacao and Man Bites Dog. There you can sample tacos, cake balls, and hot dogs  - all in one spot! Further down South 1st stands Pick Up Stixx, home to chef, Cowden Ward, who is developing multiple sauces for his unique fare. Down on Barton Springs, you can catch some Louisiana fried pies at Kate’s Southern Comfort, where even folks from New Orleans come crawling back for more. Last but not least, if you are up in Pflugerville, be sure to check out the Multi-tasker sandwich from 86 This, which has slow roasted brisket with cheesy mashed potatoes.


Lunch on the fly? Austin is also home to many roving units that will post their locations and hours online or via social media. Try finding Chi’Lantro for a Korean/Mexican fusion experience or Mmmpanadas for, you guessed it, empanadas. Short Bus Subs offers hot, toasted sub sandwiches on freshly baked bread out of a short yellow school bus.

Can’t get out of the office? Most of these vendors will cater upon request, but ALL of them will be at the Gypsy Picnic, showcasing up to three of their favorite menu items. If you’re still wondering "what’s for lunch?" post-picnic, you can keep a Trailer Food Diaries magazine, featuring a guide to all the vendors in Austin, in your car. We are giving away 5,000 sample copies at the picnic and will distribute a full size version in time for SXSW. Happy eating!

Conscious Cravings

- Location:  Longhorn Food Court - 1901 Rio Grande St. - @Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd
- Hours: Monday -Saturday: 11 AM - 8 PM
- Telephone: 512-782-0546
- Website: www.consciouscravingsaustin.com / Facebook: Conscious Cravings / Twitter: ConsciousCrvngs

- Cuisine: Vegetarian

Rishi Dhir spent four years as an auctions trader on the Philly stock exchange before looking for something more laid back to do.  As a vegetarian, he had created unique recipes based on his own dietary needs and thought he had something that might hold up with the general public.  As such, he heard about Austin and the trailer food scene and opened Conscious Cravings in August of 2010.  His menu is mostly hot wraps and cold sandwiches.  Rishi loves to eat the Black Bean Slider Wrap, and his customers report the Chimmichurri Seitan Wrap is sure to please.

The name Conscious Cravings was developed to inform people the food is healthy while also being short and catchy.  What does Rishi say the best part about Conscious Cravings is? “The fact that I’m allowing people to have affordable healthy tasty food that is not offered widely.  It’s cheap, healthy, organic, and environmentally food.”

Sugar Shack BBQ

- Location: UT Campus area - 24th & San Antonio St.
- Hours: Monday - Friday: 7 AM - 7 PM
- Number: 512-464-1151
- Website: www.sugarshackbbq.com / Facebook: Sugar Shack BBQ 
- Cuisine: BBQ, breakfast tacos

Sugar Shack BBQ was started out of a love for 70’s retro music and back yard bar-b-ques by partners Mark Avalos and Mark Stimak.  If you’re thinking about joining Mark and Mark in the Trailer Food revolution, they have some words of wisdom, “Don’t get fooled by places that have a lot of car traffic.  That’s the number one misconception.  If you see a place that has a ton of cars driving by you think that place will do well – but really foot traffic is the key.”  Indeed, Sugar Shack gets plenty of foot traffic at their log-cabin-shack on wheels which is a favorite place for many students to eat just behind Dobie mall on UT campus.

Playing with the college environment and their theme, their menu includes fun items like the Notorious PIG and the Bama Jammma.  The Sugar Shack’s best seller is their pulled pork with a mustard base cole slaw followed closely by their chicken breast sandwich with a white BBQ sauce.   White sauce you say? That’s right, the guys at Sugar Shack love all kinds of BBQ, not just Texas-style.  Their white sauce is a mayo-based  Alabama-style BBQ-sauce along with 6 or 7 other ingredients.  Not available in bottles yet, their red BBQ sauce is also a fan favorite. 

Powdered Sugar

- Location: Longhorn Food Court - 1901 Rio Grande St. - @  Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd 
- Hours: Tuesday – Saturday: 12 - 8 PM
- Facebook: Powdered Sugar
- Cuisine: Dessert


Amber Glowski is a social work student at UT.  Although she wasn’t technically in the food industry prior to opening Powdered Sugar in August of 2010, she brings up a good point: “Food has always been a part of me.  I’ve been eating and grocery shopping and cooking most of my life, so food is something everybody’s around no matter what.”  She bought her 1964 Shasta trailer from Kristin Gunn, who formerly operated Sugarstar, her ‘Martha Meets Metallica’ cupcake business out of the same trailer. 

In Amber’s words, “I started this business with an observation.  It’s such a piece of Austin culture – this isn’t a big thing in other big cities in Texas, Austin has it first.  I tried food trailers and I realized no one was doing funnel cake.  To me it seemed obvious: people are used to eating funnel cakes out of a truck.  Plus there is no where to get funnel cake year round – you can’t go to a store and get a funnel cake.”

Amber remembers being about 7 years old and eating her first funnel cake where she grew up at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo but not all of her customers were raised with funnel cake fun.  “It’s fun to find people who’ve never had one in their life that are 45-50 years old.  The funnel cake also spans generations from little children who are so excited or more mature people who have grown up with funnel cake – that grew up with it in the 50s and 60s – it’s fun to see their reaction.”  Amber reports the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo sold some 100,000 funnel cakes earlier in March of 2010. 

The funnel cake was traditionally made in cast iron skillet over a burner.  It is Dutch in origin and outside of the being well known as a ‘fair’ food, it is still very popular in Pennsylvania where large Dutch and Amish communities exist.  With Amber’s vision, Austinite’s can now relive the excitement and wonder of fair time funnel cake by visiting her “Powdered Sugar” trailer year round.

Counter Culture

- Location: UT Campus area -120 E. North Loop- @Avenue F
- Hours: Wednesday - Saturday: 12 - 8 PM
                Sunday: 12 - 6 PM
- Telephone: 512-897-2602
- Website: www.countercultureaustin.com / Facebook: Counter Culture / Twitter: CCVegan
- Cuisine: Vegan & Raw foods


Sue Davis traded one art form for another when she moved from a black and white fine art printer in the photography world to a chef in vegan restaurants.  She has been a vegetarian since the early 90’s and has been eating a vegan diet since 2002.  Originally from Massachusetts, she moved to San Francisco in the late 80s, to Austin in 95, and spent some time in LA before returning to Austin to develop her vegan trailer food business.

Sue opened Counter Culture in July of 2009 with a small basic menu that includes mainly sandwiches, salads, raw food and desserts.  The Philly Seitan is probably her best seller and it’s not hard to see why since she makes the seitan herself without the help of preservatives.  You won’t find any tofu on Sue’s menu, she feels like it’s everywhere and is used as a substitute for meat too often.  Rather, she makes everything from scratch.  Since she doesn’t over advertise about her vegan menu, it’s one of her favorite things to serve an unknowing citizen and have them be pleasantly surprised.

In addition to her background with photography and culinary art, Sue is a vinyl record collector and former DJ.  She has singer/songwriter-style acoustic music at her trailer during Sunday brunches.  Sue rationalizes, “A brunch tab can get pretty high if you order mimosas, but here it’s different.  Every Sunday I do a different themed brunch from Southern home cooking to breakfast burritos, and you can bring whatever you want to drink.”

Takorea

CLOSED - 8/2010 - goodbye, Takorea.

- Cuisine: Fusion tacos

“East meets Mex”

Paul Kim was in commercial real estate finance before he put Takorea on the map.  Growing up in both Missouri and Texas and living in New York for a few years gave him a real interest in eating and cooking diverse food.  His concept blends Korean BBQ and Mexican food.  He started working on his idea just by cooking and having friends over to try his food.  Once he got his recipes solidified, his friends helped improve it. 

Paul says, “I feel like I’m doing something somewhat unique.  I want to be an ambassador of the good things of Korean food are to people that haven’t tried Korean food.”  His personal favorite is the beef taco in a cabbage wrap while the crowd favorite seems to be the hot dog with beef on top.  His customers are from all around the globe, including a Chinese Bulldog, but he had the opportunity to serve his first Korean Mexican while on the job in his first year.

Hero's Frozen Treats

- Location:  Longhorn Food Court - 1901 Rio Grande. St. - @Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd
- Hours: Tuesday -Saturday: 11:30 AM - 7 PM
- Telephone: 512-961-3372
- Website: www.herosfrozentreats.com / Facebook: Hero's Frozen Treats / Twitter: HerosAustin
- Cuisine: Dessert - Frozen Yogurt
 
Although Dustin McMillian’s “Hero’s” shaved ice trailer is super-hero themed, the business is actually named after his Town Lake Animal Shelter adoptee, Hero.  Half Rottie, half hound, she doesn’t come to work with Dad because of the health food regulations, but Dustin serves free dog treats for his canine visitors.  With a background in online marketing, Dustin’s creativity is evident in multiple aspects of his business.  From the name of the size of the cones (small for a ‘villain’, medium for a ‘hero’, and large for a ‘super-hero’) to the quirky board outside with daily Chuck Norris factoids the Hero stand is ripe with eclectic humor that Austinites of all varieties appreciate.

The frozen zombie is a crowd pleaser with shaved ice as fine as snow on top of a frozen yogurt.  You can select flavors for both.  The best selling shaved ice is the Tiger’s Blood, which is a combination of berries and coconut.  When you walk up to place your order, you can hear a mix of indy rock and Dustin’s current favorites playing off of Pandora: Bowling for Soup, Japan Joy, Against Me, What Made Milwaukee Famous, and of course the Foo Fighters ‘Hero’ is on a constant loop.

Dustin got his start in the trailer food business after being laid off from different websites he was working on, which was common given the current economy.  He was surfing on craigslist when he stumbled across a trailer park that wanted trailers, so he explored the idea.  After becoming excited about trailers in general both as a consumer in Austin and as a business opportunity, he decided to embark on a unique trailer version of frozen yogurt.  Dustin says, “I love being my own boss and having my own trailer.  I really like customer service – I like interacting on a daily basis with customers and representing my brand as I want it to be represented.”