Tuesday, February 5, 2013

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