Austin Food Confession

So I have a confession. I used to think that people who called themselves "foodies" were a little pretentious. But I think... I might be one. Don't hate me. Also, I might have eaten my weight in upscale donuts during my trip in Austin. Save your judgement.

This was the first restaurant Joel and I went to- and we knew that food in Austin was going to be good. Licha's Cantina was the highest rated Mexican restaurant on yelp that was close to our hotel. We sat on the patio and watched the grackles battle over leftovers (see my description of a grackle in my Austin Journal Day 1) while we waited about 10 minutes to be served. The service might have been a little slow, but once we got greeted, our server was totally worth waiting for. He was more than willing to point out his favorite dishes, and talked about the fact that the Mexican food at Licha's was authentic- specifically from the Mexico City area.

We split the gorditas con chiccarron, which were delicious but a little bland without the cilantro and onion garnish that it was served with. The carnitas and bacon quesadillas were way more flavorful, and I was impressed with the blue corn tortillas that upped the ante a bit.

We loved the atmosphere and the decor at Licha's! It was in the cutest little old house (most of the good places were) and the patio was open and spacious, with little touches that felt authentic, including a porch utterly covered in bell wind chimes.

If you're not familiar with Spanish, gordo translates to "fat" in Spanish. I liked the play on words, and their cleverness certainly extended to their menu. Their donuts are covered in everything from fried chicken and bacon, to yellow cake batter filling and heath bars. Even if you're not a "sweet" person, you could still find something to eat here. I was especially impressed by the fact that they fry all their donuts fresh, and then cover them in their various toppings.

Plus it was in an airstream. What's more hipster than that?

We ate at Gordough's four different times during our vacation cough. I only took pictures during the first time, because I didn't need a record of my shame. Pictured is the "nutty valentine" (on the left), and the "funky monkey" (on the right). The nutty valentine was good- you can't go wrong with nutella and strawberries- but the funky monkey was probably my favorite of the two. It had grilled bananas carmelized in sugar, cream cheese icing, and brown sugar sprinkled on top. The flavor was complex, and both donuts were sweet enough to melt your teeth. On the next visit we had The Puddin', which I preferred over the Funky Monkey, just because it wasn't quite as sweet, but had similar ingredients. All the donuts were big/sweet/rich enough to share with two people (yet for some reason we kept ordering two....)

Austin BBQ gives Kansas City BBQ a run for it's money (and I don't say that lightly- Kansas Citians are damn proud of their BBQ). The brisket here was delicious and tender, and had a bark created from smoking that tasted sweet, like molasses and brown sugar. I learned what "bark" on meat was just because of this trip, because we ate and talked about nothing but BBQ in the loooooong lines that form around Austin's BBQ joints. I had the pitmaster's favorite (pictured), which was full of smoked brisket with egg salad as a sauce on it and house-made pickles. The sides and alcohol were excellent here as well- the macaroni was heavy on the thyme, making it a little more "upscale" than regular mac'n'cheese, and the Striptease was sweet but not overly done. It took a while to be served here too, but I would do it all again for some of that meat in my mouth.

One of the smokers out the back of the building.

Freedman's is in a historical building- the name of the restaurant actually comes from the fact that it was originally built as a store in 1869 by a former slave in a freedman community. The interior had some beautiful architectural elements.

The top rated BBQ place in Austin is Franklin's. People start lining up for it at 8am in the morning, for it's opening at 11am, and it only stays open until it runs out of food or until 3pm every day. This was not Franklin's- this was La Barbeque. The line however, felt enormous as we drove up, and we waited for about an hour and a half, maybe two hours. There were beers though, and we had a nice conversation with a gentleman from Atlanta, who was there with his family.

I didn't think BBQ could get any better than what we had at Freedman's, but oh, I was wrong. From the first taste after waiting in line (they gave us a tiny sample), I knew we had found the ultimate meat candy. I never knew the true meaning of melt into your mouth until I had their meat. It didn't even really need BBQ sauce (although it was good). The beans and the potato salad paled in comparison. Seriously, I might have to write a poem about their meat.

I would go back to Austin just for the food. It's worth a 14 hour drive for sure.

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