East Side King at Liberty Bar - Austin, TX

Tuesday, February 5th, 2012

After a beautiful, perfect 80 degree day in Austin, Mitch and I decided it was a great night to enjoy a food truck dinner outside.  There are so many trucks to choose from in Austin, but we knew right away where we wanted to go.

We had heard of a place called 'East Side King' which has 4 different trucks in the city.  They were just recently featured on 'Unique Eats' on the Cooking Channel a few weeks ago, plus we had heard so many great things about the food in general.  Also, the chef/owner, Paul Qui, was the winner of Top Chef Season 9 and is a James Beard award winner.

Best of Austin - Best Food Trailer

Of the four locations, we decided on the truck located on the back patio of the Liberty Bar.  Each of the  truck's menus are slightly different from one another and we agreed that the food truck menu at Liberty Bar would be to both our likings.

All the East Side King trucks have hand-painted graphics.

Liberty Bar

The menu was great - short and sweet and everything sounded amazing.  We started ordering and listing things off that we wanted and, before we knew it, we managed to order almost $30 worth of food (this is a lot at a food truck!).

We ordered some beers at the bar and waited to have our food brought out.

What we got:

Tongue Buns (2) - Roasted beef tongue in steamed buns, home-made peanut butter curry, basil, cilantro, mint, onion, jalapeño.

Curry Buns (2) - Peanut butter home-made curry in deep-fried steam buns, basil, cilantro, mint, onion, jalapeño.

Veggie Meshi - Fried Brussels sprout salad and Liberty Rice.

Beet Home Fries - Deep-fried roasted beets, kewpie mayo, schichimi togarashi, green onion.

Yaki Imo - Roasted Japanese sweet potato, butter, ginger, garlic, soy sauce.

Beef Tongue Buns

Curry Buns

Veggie Meshi

Beet Home Fries

Yaki Imo

Everything was SO GOOD!  

Mitch was very excited about the Tongue Buns - they were roasted perfectly and Mitch said "the consistency reminded me of pork belly but....pork belly made of beef! :)".  Plus you could put anything in a steam bun and Mitch would eat it and be happy. 

The Curry Steam Buns were crispy and sweet with just the perfect amount of jalapeño kick.  The Veggie Meshi was fresh and hot - it was an awesome combination of spicy and delicious, and the Brussels Sprouts were cooked perfectly.  The Beet Home Fries were to die for - crispy fried and served with an amazing Kewpie mayo.  Beets are my favorite food and these will be worth going back for!  The Yaki Imo was sweet and savory at the same time - a perfect comfort food.  

We are so excited to try out the other East Side King trucks, although this particular truck definitely won us over and we can't wait to go back!

Nom.  Beets. Brussels Sprouts.

XOXO

Mitch and Laurel

Tacos and Donuts - An Typical Austin Food Truck Dinner

Sunday, January 20th, 2013

It's been a while since we ate at a food truck, so, because it was so beautiful out in Austin today (70 and sunny!), we decided to eat outside at a food truck for dinner.


I checked out www.bestaustinfoodtrucks.com to find a food truck near our house in South Austin.

www.BestAustinFoodTrucks.com

'Like' them on Facebook!

Mitch was in the mood for tacos (Mitch is always in the mood for tacos), so I found a place on the website called 'Mellizoz Tacos' that was open 7 days a week (many food trucks aren't), had great reviews, and was only about a mile from our house.

'Mellizoz Tacos' truck and eating area.

Mitch with Tony (owner) and Rick.  Awesome guys that were very nice and were very happy to give us Food Truck ownership advice!

The menu looked amazing and there were so many items we wanted to try.....

What we got:

Fried Avocado Taco - Tempura battered avocado with arugula, tomato, cotija cheese, and chipotle sherry vinaigrette

Padre Taco - Braised carnita pork, avocado, pineapple, and salsa fresca

Queso with Chips

Tempura Shrimp Torta - Fried shrimp, slaw, pickled red onion, and cilantro lime aioli served with garlic french fries

Total (with tip): $20

Fried Avocado Taco

Padre Taco

Queso with Chips

FYI - The only reason the cheese started to get the cooled off 'film' on the top is because we were talking to the owner for quite some time before we finally sat down to try it, not because it was served that way!

Tempura Shrimp Torta with Garlic Fries

Everything was so delicious!  The queso was served immediately, but the tacos and torta were prepared  and then brought out to us.  The Avocado Taco was fresh and tangy, and the fried avocado melted in my mouth!  The Padre Taco was braised to perfection and was slathered in freshly sliced avocado.  The queso was one of the best one's we've tried in Austin (queso is everywhere around here) - it was so spicy and yummy.  We finished our meal by splitting the shrimp torta and fries - the bilillos bread that it was served on was amazing and fresh, and the chipotle lime aioli was the perfect accompaniment.  All in all, a perfect fish sandwich that I can't wait to eat again!  To top it all off, the torta was served with delicious, crispy fries that were tossed with chopped garlic.

Although we were quite full by this time, for the sake of the blog (and not the delicious scent of donuts), we walked to the food truck next door call 'Gourdough's,' a gourmet donut truck, to get something for dessert.

"Gourdough's' - an awesome airstream converted into a donut truck!

The amazing donut menu.

Waiting in line to order.

After deliberating over the menu for several minutes (we were so full we almost considered not even getting one and coming back another time), we finally decided on something very simple, a chocolate and raspberry donut. 

What we got:

Razzle Dazzle

Total (with tip): $5.50

The Razzle Dazzle Donut

Although we were not able to finish it, the donut was wonderful.  It was a fresh made, warm donut that melted in your mouth, topped with chocolate icing, raspberry sauce, and chocolate chips.  It was so rich and smelled awesome.  We can't wait to go back and try some of the other donuts!

Full and happy.  Just one of the many food truck parks in Austin!

  

What a great night to sit outside and enjoy some awesome food truck food!  

XOXO 

Mitch and Laurel

Road Trip Map

We wish we could do it all over again!!!  Let the next trip planning begin!