Deep in the Heart of Austin, Texas

State capitol, home to the main campus of the University of Texas, named for founder Stephen F. Austin, Austin is the self-proclaimed Live Music capital of the world. Situated south of Dallas and bordering the Texas Hill Country, Austin is the 4th largest city in the state.
We ventured to Austin to attend a bloggers conference put together by Matt Kepnes of Nomadic Matt.
We took advantage of the opportunity to explore Austin’s food culture, which not only takes in the brick and mortar restaurant establishments, but the wild world of food trucks which have a prominent place in the local foodie scene.

We started our exploration of Austin’s culinary offerings the first evening at Lenoir’s ; a night of heavy rain had us crawling along the road in our rental car to spot Lenoir’s street sign. Founded in 2012, Lenoir prides itself on serving local-sourced food from Texas farmers and food artisans.
Husband and wife chef owners Todd Duplechan and Jessica Maher say their cuisine is designed to be healthy while at the same time being good for Austin’s hot weather. They want their menu to allow customers to eat right for the season and for the climate (good for your body and the heat).
The restaurant sits in a simple wooden house, with an exterior wall of faux stacked wood, but artistically decorated inside. Walking in, you find yourself in a small dining room that has a bar-like area overlooking what looks like a homey kitchen abounding in white wooden cabinets, with artistic vintage lanterns above. We sat at the common bar style seating facing the kitchen cabinets, chilled from the rainy evening and the air conditioning vent above our heads, but the service was warm and the food a delight. The wine was good, but a higher level of wine knowledge to give advice would have been helpful from the staff.

Lenoir offers a three-course prix fixe menu. The menu is divided into four categories from which to choose: Field, Sea, Land and Dream. We opted for the first three, passing on the dessert offerings in the Dream portion of the menu. We appreciated the flexibility of having the option of having any of the 3 selections per category to make up our meal.

From the Field menu, we sampled a socarrat rice terrine with a crispy tomatillo and radish salad, topped with a sauce of refried onion and clay peas. Our second Field choice was a roasted Japanese eggplant with a mild Thai massaman curry and caraway hot sauce that mixed well with the slight sweetness of the eggplant. We were struck by the colorful, simple yet elegant presentation, as well as the fresh and organic, simple ingredients from the earth.

Moving on to our fish dishes from the Sea category, we chose a honey-cured snapper with a hibiscus ponzu, Shishido avocados and cucumbers; a beautiful ceviche dish with traditional combinations. We also had a charred summer squash roasted fish served on a broth of peanut milk thom kha, a beautiful presentation of field and sea.

Last were our meat selections from the Land menu. We had a grilled Texas quail with green mole, accompanied by a salad of corn, peaches and tomato. Our second dish was a crispy pork belly served on a crepe with pickles, little bits of watermelon and an Asian nuoc mam fish sauce seasoning.

Food trucks are hot in Austin.  City officials estimate that there are over 1,000 food truck purveyors, offering a wide assortment of cuisine, set up individually in clusters as food truck “food courts” in parking lots.  We set out to sample a selection of some of the best.

Vera Cruz All Natural

A well-known Mexican food eatery in a colorful blue truck, Vera Cruz was founded by two sisters from Mexico, Reyna and Maritza Vazquez.  There they learned to cook in their mother’s kitchen, developing creative recipes but respecting the culture and heritage of their products.  They are passionate about using fresh and organic ingredients, and now have four area locations.  Simple picnic tables provide the dining area after you retrieve your food when your order is called from the truck. 

We enjoyed a grilled tilapia fish taco with a berry smoothie, along with migas, consisting of eggs, pico de gallo, jack cheese with home-made tortillas and chips. 

Valentina’s

Based out of a regular fixed trailer, Valentina’s offers mesquite fired barbecue from an on-site smoke house. It’s a family business, run by Miguel, Modesty and Elias Vidal. The wait was long but the food delicious. While we waited along with many University of Texas football fans in their orange shirts, we perused signs highlighting where Valentina’s sources its meat. A sign with a big heart pronounced this as the perfect marriage of Tex and Mex! We savored the pulled pork plate, with meat so tender.

Other things offered on the menu are natural prime angus beef brisket, fajitas, chicken, breakfast items and tortillas. Take your food out front to the rustic blue picnic tables and grab some extra sheets of paper towels!

The Laab Moo is a very spicy pork with chili powder, mint, lime and cilantro. Cucumber strips for added for dipping. The minced meat has a very spicy sauce to western palate standards. To that we added Moo Ping, succulent pork skewers that were tender, crispy and juicy. A must try for dessert is the mango with sticky rice, mango slices served on coconut sticky rice and drizzled with coconut milk on top.

Austin has its share of unique, quirky establishments to stay, and your choice will be whether you want the convenience of staying downtown or driving to something that appeals outside of the metro area.  We chose the latter, staying at the Hotel Granduca, in the West Lake area. 

Hotel Granduca is a member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World.  The West Lake area property has been open 3 years, while a sister property is in Houston.  The hotel is owned by an Italian family from Milan, and the public areas have a beautiful Tuscan theme in the artwork and architecture. 

One of Austin’s main marketing slogans, Keep Austin Weird, captures the exuberant, welcome all comers style of the city and its lifestyle. Where else would one of the top attractions be the Bat Bridge, where 1.5 million Mexican free-tail bat out from under the Congress Avenue bridge from spring to fall. It’s the largest urban bat colony in the world!

Come find your own quirky favorites in Austin—and save room for the food trucks!