Texas Cuban - Another Slammin' Food Stand

Austin has seen tons of food stands pop up over the past few years, so it's hard to try all of them. I've seen the black trailer on Lamar called Texas Cuban about as many times as I had seen Moo Moo's, but for some reason I was more resisting of this food stand. Boy, was I missing out! This place is killer. My boyfriend and I went there during my lunch break, and we split the Texas Cuban, which feeds two. It's a panini-pressed Cuban sandwich, made with pork tenderloin, ham, swiss, provolone, and pickles and it is the yummiest sandwich I've had in a while. It wasn't as greasy as the other cuban sandwiches I've tried, and I think it had something to do with how lean the pork was. It was pork tenderloin, and traditional Cuban sandwiches are made with a lesser quality meat, such as pulled pork or pork stomach. It actually tasted like a pretty "light" Cuban sandwich. You can get their cilantro mustard on request, and I would highly recommend it. It was delicious. The sandwich comes with fried plantains, but they also serve other sides like fries, mariquitas (a sweeter fried plantain) and papa rellena (beef picadillo in the center of deep fried mashed potatoes). Their drink selection was small, but good: Dublin Dr. Pepper, Mexican Coke (although I looked at the label, and it was in fact made with high-fructose corn syrup instead of pure cane sugar), Bottled Water, Zico, and Papa Mango Nectar. You can view Texas Cuban's entire menu here. I definitely recommend this place for lunch or an early dinner (the stand is open 11am-7pm Monday-Saturday).

Moo Moo's Moooooved

So, I went to go eat at Moo Moo's again last week, and it took me a couple of drives back and forth on Lamar to realize that their trailer had disappeared. My boyfriend and I were pretty bummed out, and since I only had an hour lunch break, we were also feeling pressured to find another place to eat quick. We turned on Barton Springs Road, and to our surprise we saw the old familiar cow painted trailer parked at Jack & Adams Bicycle shop. Ahhh, sweet. I could still savor those sliders once more. Unfortunately, they were still in the process of moving locations, so they weren't open :( But, at least Moo Moo's just Mooooved and didn't die.

El Greco. Spanish (Greek?) for The Greco.

I never got into Greek food until about 2 years ago. I'm not sure what took so long. Judging by how fast I eat it, neither can my body. I've tried Tino's (both North and South) and the Athenian Grill (on 6th), but El Greco is on a different playing field. It's located on campus near Mangia. In fact, you can park in the same garage that you would for Mangia. (Free! holla!) I've tried the chicken souvlaki, the rack of lambs, and the lamb chops. They are ALL amazing. I can never stray from my staple sides, hummus and greco peas. The little old lady, who I believe is the owner, is there most of the time I go there, and she's really cool. She'll come up to our table and ask how our food is, and then tell us a story. She always tries to tempt me with one of her desserts, homemade by her, and every time I can never find the room. My mission is to get a salad next time I go, so I can finally try one. I'm going out on a limb here, especially since I've only tried 2 other Greek restaurants in Austin (more elsewhere), but in my opinion, this is the best Greek food in the city.

Moo Moo's

Moo Moo's is a little food stand that popped up on Lamar a couple of months ago. When I first drove by, the owners (?) were setting up picnic tables and advertising their grand opening, which was incidentally the next day. The thing that caught my eye was their food stand. It was painted like a cow. And the name and concept were pretty cool too: Moo Moo's Mini Burgers. For the sophisticates, it's sliders. :) S o, a couple weeks later, I decided to give it a try. Their menu has a high-school theme, featuring Junior Varsity and Varsity sliders. As you would expect, JV burgers, such as "The Freshman" and "All-American" have basic toppings, like ketchup, pickles and american cheese, while the Varsity burgers feature toppings for more sophisticated taste buds, like avocado, grilled onions and chipotle mayo. There's also the "Lunch Lady," which is a custom burger with any topping(s) you want. The origins of this burger stem from an incident with a reviewer. Moo Moo's got the reviewer's order wrong twice, and felt so bad about it that they named a burger in her honor. Pretty cool story :) I opted for a "Prom Queen," which comes with avocado, bacon, swiss cheese and chipotle mayo. Tanner got "The Bully," which is THREE patties topped with cheddar cheese, jalapenos, bbq sauce and grilled onions. YUM!! The burgers are a decent size for sliders. The buns were a little sweet, which was unique, but nice. And let me tell you, these are man burgers. I was full after the first one (they serve two with the meal). The meat was so rich, that I swore they used sausage in their patties. I asked the cook, and he told me it was just a 70/30 ground beef mix. The drink selection was good: Mexican coke, Jarrito's Orange Soda, Maine Root Beer, Dublin Dr. Pepper and water. I've also heard their shakes are tasty, but I didn't try one. (Next time!) I wasn't too crazy about their fries, too greasy and limp. But, overall this little food stand was really awesome. Definitely worth hitting up on your lunch break.

Goodbye, Lucy's Cakes

I found out the tragic news about Lucy's Cakes while reading this year's "Austin's Best Of". I haven't been the same since. I'm now kicking myself for not getting my traditional Lucy's birthday cake last year, but alas, I can still drive to San Antonio if I want my fix. I also want to point out that Delish and Hey Cupcake! have NOTHING on Lucy's cupcake. Not that I'm here to start any fights. Here's to Lucy's! You will be sorely missed!

Shoreline Grill

Tanner was sweet and took me out to dinner last night :) and I have to say, I came away pretty impressed. The culprit: Shoreline Grill. It was a little hard to find (it's next to the Four Seasons hotel), and we had to walk 6 blocks, but it was well worth the trip. When we finally got there, the manager suggested a "special" table to the hostess. We ordered the Duck Crepes appetizer (amazing!), and I had a glass of Clayhouse Cabarnet (a little sweet, but very good). The waiter brought out a gift from the chef before our main entrees. It was smoked seabass salad served on a chip. A very nice surprise! Our entrees were the best, though. Tanner had rack of lambs with sweet potato puree and sauteed char, and I had yellowfin tuna seared rare with a lima bean cream sauce served on top of wasabi mashed potatoes. I reeeeeallllly wish we had saved room for dessert. Not only was their dessert menu as big as their dinner menu, but they had a lot of good choices! The arctic berries, flash frozen and then dipped in melted white chocolate topped with pecans almost convinced me, but my tummy was soo full at that point. I definitely recommend this place for a dinner date - romantic or casual. It looks really nice on the outside, but I saw a guy wearing flip flops :) All in all, a VERY good restaurant with excellent service. And, we came away spending less than $100.

There's a New Tea in Town.

I'm a HUGE fan of tea. I've been digging Honest Tea lately (not too sweet, which I like), but today I discovered a NEW tea, Texas Tea. From what I was told, the makers of Texas Tea used to be the distributors of Sweet Leaf (hey! I like 'em already!) They have five flavors all featuring Texas ingredients: Honey Green Tea made with Goodflow honey, Peach Tea made with Fredicksburg peaches, Strawberry white tea made with Poteet, TX strawberries, Sweet Tea made with sugar from Sugar Land, and Mint Unsweetened Tea with mint from Dove, TX. All the teas are made with Texas spring water. I had the Fredricksburg Peach Tea and it was deeeelicious :) Definitely recommend it if you're in the mood for something different than Sweet Leaf.