Trailer Treats
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Best of 2011 / By Tiffany Harelik Photos by Elisa Ferrari, ferrariphotography.org
Austin’s trailer-food culture was born in 2006 with the founding fathers of Torchy’s Tacos, The Mighty Cone, Hey Cupcake! and Flip Happy Crepes all conspiring to serve gourmet street food out of creative, miniature kitchens-on-wheels. Since then, the health department has issued more than 2,000 permits to entrepreneurs following suit and attempting to make their mark on trailer-food history. Austin easily has more than 100 vendors grouped in clumps of two to six trailers per park, concentrated in downtown, South Austin, East Austin and the campus area. This year, Austin saw continued growth in and enthusiasm for the trailer-food community. Here are some highlights from 2011.
Best Waist Expander
Gourdough’s: The Boss hogg offers potato salad, pulled pork and barbecue sauce atop a freshly fried doughnut served out of a vintage Airstream trailer. This one is something the dukes would be proud of.
Best Unique Menu
- Wurst Tex: As a former rattlesnake roundup Queen, my taste buds are biased. The Predator and Prey is one of the sausages on the Wurst Tex menu that contains rattlesnake, rabbit and pork with jalapenos. Two fun sausage options for vegetarians are the 04 delight (a combination of smoked apples, sage and potatoes) and the Veggiano, which contains eggplant, fennel and garlic.
Best Things in sliced Bread
- Municipal Taste: The Velvet elvis includes sliced bananas served on grilled sourdough with bacon, peanut butter and habanero jelly. oMG! ’nuff said.
- Luke’s Inside Out: The shrimp features grilled rosemary chipotle shrimp with blue cheese, apple and honey on griddled sourdough. Another OMG-er. Plus, you can take it into the Gibson Bar, Luke’s next-door neighbor, and grab a beer in the air conditioning.
Best Lookin’ Trailer
- The local Yolk : Don’t get me started on the cute factor. it’s an aqua-blue Airstream with a menu concept based on egg sandwiches. Try the Florence, which has pesto, mozzarella and tomato with a fried egg.
- Torchy’s Tacos. Easy. starting from humble beginnings with one cook and a trailer, chef Mike rypka has conquered the Lone star state with his taco revolution. Torchy’s still has a trailer at the south austin Trailer Park and Eatery on south First street, along with seven other brick-and-mortar establishments in austin, one in Dallas and one in houston. That makes for a total of 10 locations where taco junkies can feed their hunger pangs. My favorite? The scarecrow was the taco of the month in october: pumpkin seed-breaded chicken tenders and roasted poblano peppers, escabeche carrots, queso fresco, cilantro and creamy chipotle ranch served on a flour tortilla.
Best Trailer Park:
- South Congress Trailer Park: After all, this is the most notable spot on the trailer-park map and we are angst-ridden wondering if or when it will relocate due to new developments. Walking from iconic Hey cupcake! down to the famous Mighty Cone trailer with a view of the capitol makes for a nostalgic must-have trailer experience.
Best Eco-Conscious Trailer:
- Sun Farm Kitchen: This trailer gets five stars in my trailer-trash review for all the ways they are taking care of business the green way. To keep the food locally sourced, many menu items are purchased from hope Farmers Market, the austin Farmers Market, Johnson’s Backyard garden and greenling. They pick up extra items at Wheatsville, where local produce is available. My menu suggestion? The Wow! salad has mixed greens and baby spinach, cubes of avocado, peaches, sliced olives, shredded carrot and beets topped with sprouts.
Best Nod To Culture:
- Gypsy Picnic Trailer Food Festival created by Trailer Food Diaries and c3 Presents in 2010, the second-annual gypsy Picnic was held oct. 22. close to 40 trailer-food vendors gathered at auditorium shores and festival-goers enjoyed a wide range of live music and special events.
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