Food Trucking in Dallas

Austin has always been cool. To me at least. Austin has a lot going for it - nature, outdoorsy activities, unique shopping, and FOOD. In the past 10 years, Austin has been collecting and growing it's food truck scene, as have other large, 'cool' cities in the United States. Dallas is just now catching up. Within the last 6 months Dallas has adopted an ordinance allowing for mobile food units, aka Food Trucks. Go Dallas! It's about time.

Originally I heard about this news on Twitter. I came across a food truck reporting twitter feed, and the rest was history. Original Source: @BigDFoodTrucks
D Magazine is trying to catch up. End of story.

First Round
Il Cane Rosso "Food Truck" - Wood-oven grilled pizzas
I'm not sure who first tweeted about this "food truck," but it is definitely a "Portable Oven." It even says that on the Il Cane Rosso's Web site. So, that's was a letdown when we arrive on a weeknight to the Sigel's parking lot on Greenville. They were parked outside under the awning of the liquor and spirits store. We were told by the oven workers to go inside for a quick wine tasting, then peruse their menu before ordering. Once inside, the wine tasting folk told us they only had 4 dough balls left, and could only make that many more pizzas. With no wine in hand, we rushed back to the cash register to order a pizza quickly. Once we ordered, we started making conversation with the Pizza Maker and Manager. I said I was thrilled to come try the pizza and didn't know it existed before hearing about them on Twitter. The pizza maker asked if we wanted the dough recipe. We said sure. He said, "It's water, flour, salt and yeast," or something to that effect. I replied that's how pizza doughs are usually made, but I'd need the proportions in order to make it correctly. He said "yeah right" and went on making our pizza. Attitude much?
We went back inside to get away from Tacky the Pizza Maker, and looked over the selection of pear and raspberry liqueurs. I looked up after a while and the Oven Manager was holding up my pizza and shaking it towards us. No one came in to let us know it was ready. So after being told to go in, quickly pay, harassed about dough, etc., I was finished with Il Cane Rosso. Maybe I insulted them by saying I'd never heard of them, but that was no cause for rudeness. Plus, the pizza was overpriced and nothing fantastic.
Result:
Customer Service: 2
Taste of Pizza: 6
Price: 3

Stay tuned for the next Food Truck I try!

Monday, March 15th

Yes, I got my hair cut.
No, I don't really like it.
Thus, there will be no pictures until it grows out a bit.
I will likely remain a hermit as well. Like I have the time to do otherwise...

Yesterday was Michael's Uncle's wedding in Sherman, as well as celebrating my Mom's birthday. The wedding was a small, nice gathering at my mother-in-law's house. The weather was perfect. Martie made 2 hams, a brisket, potato salad and baked beans (very picnicy.) She also made both the Groom's cake and the Bride's (6-layer) cake. Each layer was a different cake. Beautiful. Anyway, about 35 people were there, and it was a very nice wedding. Low key.

Later we went to my mom's to visit and so I could make Parmesan mashed potatoes and a caramelized onion loaf before heading over to Granny's house. Granny made my mom Chicken Spaghetti (I'm sure your family has a version of this as well) and a cinnamon-spice-iced cake. Very yummy. The quote from the evening, stated by my Husband: "Anything for dessert that comes in a casserole dish can't be bad." He was right for once.

Tomorrow I am finally going to see the optometrist. I tried ordering contacts, and that was a complete waste of time. Just go to the doctor, and save all the extra time! Let's hope my vision hasn't gotten worse. :) I'm SO ready to be wearing contacts again. It's been weeks!

We (meaning my Mom, Dad, Granny, Michael and myself) are going to Austin the first week in April to see Jamie and Qas. We're in the planning stages, but I'd still love suggestions (food, activity, etc.). Send away!

Remember to pack your umbrellas for tomorrow! It's going to rain most of the morning, from what I hear.

Camping in Austin Recap

(Don't I sound like I'm giving the SVP report of a project?)
We had a wonderful weekend in Austin again. Yet again I have failed you, and only have one picture from the whole weekend. I know, for shame. Maybe someday I'll get a camera, and fix all of this. Anyway, on to the wordy descriptions, which will hopefully paint some picture of our activities. This time we left later on Friday, and didn't arrive until close to 10pm. We ate dinner at Rudy's in Waco. A decent meal, but still very commercial.

The next morning we woke up to a wonderful breakfast, courtesy of my sister. Then we drove out to McKinney Falls State Park to hike around and check out the camping possibilities. After the 6 mile hike, we decided to check on the camping sites. We were told it was too wet to camp (it had rained all week long), so we called Pedernales Falls State Park to see what their sites were like. They still had a few sites available, so we decided to camp there. Before driving out there, we stopped by Central Market to grab some supplies. We got everything from fresh fruit to chicken thighs. Dinner was going to be amazing!

After we arrived at Pedernales Falls, we set up camp, and started the fire. This was no easy task considering it had rained all week. After the fire got going, we started to cook. Qas had marinated chicken thighs in a spicy yogurt sauce and was kabobing them on the grill. I on the other hand, chose to go the more wilderness/boyscout/Podunk avenue, and opted for Hobo Dinners. Now, what is a Hobo Dinner, you ask? It's a packet of foil, filled with root vegetables and a ground beef patty, to be sealed and thrown in the fire to self baste and cook to perfection. It usually turns out juicy and perfectly cooked. It was not meant to be this time. Either way, we had plenty of food and good times to go around.

The next morning we were woken up by the camp ranger, because we had to entrance ticket. We'd arrived too late (after the office closed) and read we were to register the next morning. Apparently they meant when the sun was coming up. So, we got our stuff together and registered on the way out. On the way back to Austin, we stopped at a roadside place that sold breakfast burritos. What a breakfast! I had a cactus and egg burrito, and a bacon one as well. Very yummy.

We got home, unpacked and hung out for a little while before somehow getting a sugar craving. To ease that craving we went to Quack's Bakery on 43rd. (http://www.quacksaustin.com/) We had about 467 desserts. Really, we had 6 between the four of us. Jamie and Qas got slices of chocolate trifle, blueberry pie, and key lime pie. Michael and I got a slice of cherry pie, a blueberry streusel muffin, and two oatmeal cinnamon cookies with icing in the middle. Talk about feeding a sugar craving!

They had cute owl cookies!



The need to walk was obvious. We chose to hitch it on over to the Round Rock outlet mall to shop and wear off the sugar. We shopped and made the mistake of going into the Le Creuset store...but that's another story!

Now, I am off to work. I still need to work off some of the food from this weekend! :)

The Update to End All Updates

So, here we are. We're at that point at which I said I was going to give an amazing update of my life thus far. Or at least of the last two weeks, or so. Firstly, Happy February.

Last Wednesday night (yes, we're talking January 23rd), Michael picked up my parents from Love Field and I met them for a lovely dinner at Gloria's on Greenville. I had eaten there for my birthday dinner and my mom wanted to go there after the retelling of the fabulous events that occurred there. I had a delicious fruit and grilled shrimp salad over mixed greens, and decided to mimic it later on in the week. Please see several paragraphs down to complete this story.

I will post about the 24th here in a few minutes. :)

Also, I am embarking on something familiar, yet new. I am planning on joining my first actual reading club, D Magazine's "Reading Room." (http://readingroom.dmagazine.com/) They're reading local writer Ben Fountain's Brief Encounters with Che Guevara this quarter. I'm a little behind, seeing as they've had two meetings and I don't have the book yet, but I'll catch up! I've been on Goodreads for a while, and I'm a part of a reading challenge there, but this is more of a challenge because I'm actually accountable! Wish me luck!

Thursday night I was so stressed out, the only thing I could think of to release some of it was to bake. Poof. Banana muffins. Not spoiled by crunchtastic walnuts. Just banana, cinnamon and vanilla. Check out this goodness.


Sunday night, after rescheduling because of the day from HELL (1/28/2010), our sweet neighbor, Ingrid, came over for dinner. We always plan in advance for our "Neighbor Dinner," and pick a cuisine we haven't made before. We've done Mexican, Italian, and American before, so this time we chose Asian. (Mainly because we wanted to use my new bamboo steamer! Man, I love that thing!) I made spicy pork dumplings (it's becoming a favorite!), a cilantro, peanut and cucumber salad, wilted cabbages, and a dipping sauce. Ingrid brought a yummy wine (what dinner would be complete without wine?!) and fried rice. Buttery fried rice. Mmmm. Anyway, we had a serious feast and a great time. I'm thinking Greek food next time?

To finish my story from earlier, I partially was successful in recreating my grilled shrimp salad from Gloria's Monday night for dinner.

Lastly, we are going to Austin this weekend to visit my sister and Qas. We're also getting to squeeze in a little camping! We're going to McKinney Falls to camp and hike. I'm so excited I might bust! I'll try to take a few pictures, or have someone take some with a real camera, seeing as I don't have one.
That's all I have for now! I'm off to get my car inspected (pesky yearly inspections...) and throw myself on an elliptical. Have a great Tuesday!

Waiting on Photos

We're back from a fabulous time in Austin! I don't have any photos yet, but I will post them as soon as I do.

I'll try to give a small summary of what we did: look and eat. Done.

Friday we got in to Austin just in time for dinner. Qas made us Pakistani home-cookin, which was amazing. That's even an understatement. It was like no other food I've eaten in restaurants, and so much more flavorful. I'm hoping to get the recipes to try them in my kitchen at home. We spent the rest of the night catching up and talking each other's ears off.

Saturday morning we woke up and went to Mozart's for coffee and a biscotti (http://www.mozartscoffee.com), on Lake Austin. That lake has HUGE fish in it! I wish I would have taken a picture of these fish - and not to mention the size of the turtles! It was like an aquarium! Then we took a car tour, with the windows down, of Westlake Hills. Located off of Red Bud Trail, this is one of the nicest areas in the city. It had some great modern homes, adjacent to older split-levels with tons of charm. We lunched at Blue Dahlia in the up-and-coming part of East Austin. We sat on the back patio, that was shaded by overhead reed mats and palms. GREAT weather. I had the fig, honey and ricotta tartine, and Michael had a chicken salad and dried cranberry tartine. Very nice. Later, we traveled over to Pedernales State Park for some hiking and relaxing beside nature. Dinner was at Ranch 616, where the nightly specials is where it's at! I had the mixed grill special, which involved barbecued quail, venison, sausage, smoked poblano mashed potatoes, and mixed vegetables. Michael and Jamie had the same special: filet mignon, pork tenderloin, asparagus, and lobster. Qas had another mixed plate of lobster, crab, duck and amazing sides. It was such a great meal! One of the hosts was a jerk, but every other person on the waitstaff was excellent. Then, in efforts to have a stupidly good time, we went to the bowling alley down the street for a little Buck Sisters versus the Men bowling action. Needless to say, The Buck Sisters were somewhat all bark and no bite, but didn't lose by much. A rematch is in order. Then we got changed and went downtown for some drinks and dancing. Dancing on Qas, Jamie and Michael's parts. I don't dance...well. We ended up seeing a few of my friends from college at the club, and got to have some fun with that.

Sunday we had brunch, home made by Jamie. I contributed a Challah, and she made eggs, sausage, Provencal tomatoes, and chai. Then we made a final tour of The Oasis and Lake Travis. It was misty, but still beautiful. Sometimes I forget those cliffs aren't in the Mediterranean, and are in the middle of Texas. Then we had an early dinner at El Borrego de Oro, and got on the road. We made a quick stop by Amy's Ice Cream (http://www.amysicecreams.com) before heading out of town for good so Michael could savor the flavor of Mexican Vanilla.

It was an excellent and tasty trip!

Weekend in Austin!

Today I am off work, which means my weekend started Wednesday night! I am prepping for this weekend when we go see Jamie and Qas in Austin.
I'm excited to visit Austin and be shown around by two people that actually live there. I've been to Austin before and always did the tour of the Capitol (yawn!) and other usual things. This time I'm going to experience the city with people that know the ins and outs - where the good features are. I'm mostly excited about the weather and the food! I'll post when I return!