Taco and a Cupcake - can it get any better?

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We landed in Austin just in time for dinner. So off in search of the South Austin Trailer Park and Eatery which was reported to have amazing tacos by a local owner who has three locations all called Torchys. I don know if it was fate but we somehow in trying to get to the Trailer Park location ended up at one of their other locations and it was the perfect place for us to stop. Not just because the tacos were awesome (more on that later) but because the staff got excited over having Austin virgins in their midsts, after we placed out order they got together and wrote us out a list ( complete with drawn in hearts) of things we must do during out stay. They even invited us to stop back before flying out to tell them about what we did and what we liked. http://torchystacos.com/menu.htm

I found this refreshing and so welcoming especially consideirng that Austin is not a typical toursit destination so to be welcomed with open arms and to discover locals so enthusiastic about their home town was cool.

Torchys Tacos offers ten different types with crazy names such as Trailer Park ( which you can get "trash"style which means add queso), The Republican, Dirty Sanches, Bush Fire and more. Their signature dish is the green chile queso which was spicey but addicting. The top tacos we tried were the Trailer Park which we did make trashy....it was a fried chicken tender covered in queso, queso blanco, cilantro, onions and tomatoes and it was trashy good! Second was the Baja Shrimp - freid shrimp, pickled cabbage, clinatro, onion, lime and a green chili cream sauce. I took photos and grabbed a menu so that we could reproduce these dishes at home!

After Torchys we headed to Congress Ave which is the main street in Downtown Austin. What was cool and unexpected was we were on the South End and by being so we had a view of the city and of the State Capitol all lit up at the very end of Congress up on a hill. The south end of Congress is known at SoCo. The feel of SoCo is like Duval Street in Duval (less touristy or trashy) or to the West Village in NYC, where Mom and Pop eateries and stores exsist. Our favorite spot was a vacant lot with about 8 wooden or silver bullet trailers serving a variety of dishes from crepes, tacos, sliders, ice cream and my favorite cupcakes! By the time we walked the neighborhood and checked out the funky stores the only place still open was Hey Cupcake (darn) so we picked up three including one that we made whipper snapper where they take the cupcake poke a hole and fill with yummy whip cream. We then stopped by a grastro pub, picked up coffee to go and headed back to the hotel.

If this is any indication of the rest of our trip, I am so glad we chose Austin and San Antonio as our vacation spot. Everyone we have encoutnered so far has just been super friendly and happy to give tips on things to do, even our cupcake proveyor was happy to take a moment even with a long line and tell us the story of how his silver bullet stand came to be. http://www.heycupcake.com/splash.html

Today we are heading to a farmers market, ranked in the top 10 in the United States, then provided we aren too cold ( yes I said cold, we packed only shorts and it is in the 50s right now!) We are heading to a steak park to check out the water falls. In the midst of all that we will hit the Longhorns Bookstore for a UT sweatshirt to keep us warm and be a great souvenier of our trip here.

See you on the flip side of our adventurous day!

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Photos

Our favorite tacos
Baja Shrimp and the Trailer Park

The tale of two meats
pork and beef, for me the pork one.

Yes a sausage Taco
A jalapeno sausage

Comments

[Glenn]

Far out
I know yall are the adventurous type.... but, why Austin ? and please write more. We love hearing about your travells... Glenn, Tam and the Fam.... (see Tiger Cub pics on my facebook page.)