Texas n' Tacos

A couple weeks ago, I boarded a plane to Texas to visit Elizabeth. It was my first time to the Lone Star state (besides the occasional trip through Dallas to switch planes.)

Getaways always revolve around food. Though who am I kidding? I breathe, sleep and work food 24/7, so a vacation to a new state with new food culture meant some serious exploring and eating.

Elizabeth currently lives in Houston, and we certainly did our share of exploring the food scene for the less than 24 hours we spent in this city. When I arrived, she took me straight to Monica Pope's t'afia. I was impressed with their commitment to "eat where your food lives." I was shocked that when we arrived at 6 pm the place was quiet and we sat right down. Their drink menu offered quite a few unique combinations of flavors including their signature ratafia, a fortified wine infused with seasonal produce. My only criticism is that I would have liked to have seen more featured fresh vegetarian and veggie-filled menu items and limiting the focus on the meats.

The next morning Elizabeth and I headed to the Houston Farmers Market. After a 4 mile jog, fresh citrus, homemade breakfast of eggs, greens and grits and the biggest cinnamon roll from Sinfull Bakery was just what I had in mind.

We then trekked off to Austin, mecca of the food truck movement. When we arrived, our first priority was to get a taco from Torchy's Tacos.

Famed for their unique and delicious tacos, they certainly lived up to their name. After much deliberation, I went with the brush fire taco, a combination of jerk chicken, grilled jalapenos, mango, sour cream, cilantro and... diablo sauce. The sauce lived up to its flaming name, for sure. I made frequent trips to the water cooler during the eating of this taco.

The food truck scene here is amazing. From tacos to cupcakes, Thai to BBQ, this city of cobbled-together mobile food purveyors had it all. Next to many of the "food courts" (i.e. a parking lot in which they all congregate) were art and craft courts too. We found these especially unique items at one from the Plaid Pigeon.

This was the little guy I packed in my carry-on and kidnapped from his balmy habitat to the Northeast (he's not loving the snow...).

We also enjoyed brunch before heading back to Houston at the Bouldin Creek Coffeehouse, the local caffeine dealer. The caffeinated beverages and brunch were delicious.

Other Austin fun:

Moonshine Lemonade at Lustre Pearl

Local graffiti

Austin transportation

Last night I was reminiscing about that delicious Torchy's Taco. So, with what I had in the refrigerator, I tried to recreate the best I could.

 Here's what each taco consisted of:

1 corn tortilla, sprayed with cooking spray an toasted for 5 minutes, until bubbly
1/3 cup leftover BBQ chicken
2 Tbsp mashed avocado with a squirt of lemon juice
1 Tbsp plain yogurt
A liberal dose of sriracha sauce

It was the perfect dose of Texas.

Question of the Day: Have you been to Texas?