Sorry for the absence, all! I went out of town this weekend and I haven’t quite learned how to incorporate the food blog into travel yet. Like I said at first, this is a learning experience.
Sadly, I didn’t take any pictures of the food while we were there (again, still learning), but I definitely had some interesting eats that are worth discussing.
I spent this weekend in Austin, Texas for a bachelorette party, and I must say that I’m thrilled to go back for the wedding this weekend. Austin was fantastic; a really interesting city with some very different areas that cater to different personalities.
This is downtown. Look at all that green.
It was an absolutely beautiful city, although it did have some not-so-beautiful parts.
6th Street is sort of like Austin’s Bourbon Street, and while it was absolutely filthy, I highly recommend it for bachelorette parties because we didn’t pay for a drink all night. We went to Nashville for my bachelorette party and bars never offered to buy us drinks; in Austin, bouncers practically begged you to come in and kept a full drink in everyone’s hands as long as you were there. Definitely a fun and cheap way to celebrate!
Our first meal was at this terrible “upscale Mexican” restaurant called Copa. I sort of want to become an Austin food critic just so I can try to get this place shut this place down. It was terrible. Some of the girls thought their food was fine. Mine was inedible. I started with a strawberry basil drink…how can you go wrong with muddled strawberries and basil? I have no idea, but, between the 7 of us, it was about 1/3 of the way down when we left dinner, and we worked hard for that. I’d love to tell you what else I ordered so you’d know what not to get, but the menu online is not the same as the menu in the restaurant. The menu online looks good; too bad they didn’t have that. Suffice it to say that I had fried plantains that tasted like overcooked flour and some sort of beef something that tasted like the chicken tenders from Burger King, only I’d choose Burger King any day. And yes, I did say the beef tasted like chicken. Wow.
Moving along to the areas of Austin that I absolutely LOVED and would recommend any day. South Congress.
First, there was dinner on Saturday night at Enoteca Vespaio. It was definitely an Americanized version of Italian, but the spaghetti carbonara, despite being a little creamy, was the closest to authentic that I’ve found in the U.S. The food was excellent, herbs fresh and beautiful, just an overall great experience.
And across the street…
Look at these food trailers.
A food trailer park. Seriously. This is like heaven to me. We were so full from dinner that we only got to try Hey, Cupcake, but I hope to return to Austin enough to someday try every one of these places. Austin is known for their food trucks, which are starting to grow up everywhere, and it’s really fantastic.
Then we slept. Thank God. Then we had breakfast at Le Cafe Crêpe. Seriously. Thank God. I will find my way back to this place this weekend (which won’t be hard since I was so in love that I learned EXACTLY where it was in a city I don’t even know.) Go there. Don’t get just one crêpe; get two. I’d go for both a sweet crepe and a savory one. Personally, I’d say to get the Italian crepe (proscuito, basil, mozzarella, and tomato – all very fresh) and Chloe’s Crêpe (nutella with strawberries and/or bananas). I only recommend these two crêpes because they’re the only ones I tried. They all got rave reviews. Amazing.
And just when I thought my trip was over, I discovered that the airport had Salt Lick BBQ, regularly touted as being the best BBQ in Austin. So of course I tried it on the way home…in a taco. Interesting, but fantastic. It was only a minimal taste, though, just one small taco, so I’ll get more Salt Lick, take some pictures, and give you some better information after my trip back in only a few short days. I can’t wait. For Whitney’s wedding as much as the food. Really.
