Can't rely on a Gypsy-- Izzo's Tacos & Holy Cacao, another story

I went to the Gypsy Picnic Trailer Food Festival thinking “This is it. The perfect end to my required blog stream about food-trailers: a trailer food festival!”

Too bad it sucked. And when I say sucked, I mean it crushed my little foodie heart to walk into the grounds to see 2009 ACL-like-dust, disgruntled people and lines. Oh, the lines.

Okay, maybe I’m being a little harsh. I think I built up my excitement for the festival and it turned out to be very disappointing. Apparently the Gypsy Trailer Festival organizers did not expect the kind of turn out that occurred. The festival was supposed to be a combination of merchandise shopping, listening to music and of course snacking on your favorite trailer foods. Instead, it was a festival of lines. Every trailer had a line at least 100 people long. There was a line to buy your food, then a line to wait for your food to be made, and finally, a line of the people eating their food.

On top of the lines, half of the trailers were completely sold out by the time I got there (2:30 p.m.), and the festival was supposed to go on until 8 p.m. After about 20 minutes I left with no food and lots of disappointment.

I decided to head down South First and see if I could find a trailer that wasn’t at the festival that I could snag something from. To my surprise, when I pulled in the Trailer Park & Eatery, Torchy’s was open and Holy Cacao had an ice chest full of cake balls.

I begrudgingly passed up Torchy’s and decided to try the recently awarding-winning Holy Cacao. I asked the server for their best flavor, she recommended the red velvet cake. I’m not a huge fan of red velvet, so she recommended her favorite, chocolate. Now you’re talkin’.

The website lists the chocolate cake ball as “Holly’s Favorite Cake Ball: All chocolate, all the time: Chocolate cake dipped in chocolate and dusted with cocoa powder.” It was delicious! The perfect balance of fudgy brownie and bitter sweet chocolate.

After enjoying my chocolate treat, I went further down the street to a lot with no official name, but holds around three trailers. I found Izzo’s Tacos parked here and decided to give them a try. Again I asked the server for the best item on the menu and he recommended The Padre…which they were all out of. They were out of beef, chicken, and carnitas because of the Gypsy Picnic. I asked him if the vendors didn’t think that a lot of people were going to come. He said that they thought there would be a lot of people and had quadrupled their normal daily preparatory meals, but ran out in three hours. Again, I don't think the Gypsy Picnic organizers realized how successful the festival was going to be.

After this process of elimination, I opted for the Escobar, made of carne guisada (cubed pork), pico de gallo, and cilantro, and the Portabella Shroom, made with a generous portion of portabella mushrooms, caramelized onions, lettuce, tomato, and chipotle aioli. The aioli was delicious, but I really enjoyed their salsa which was just chunky enough and really spicy. Overall, Izzo’s Tacos was good, but left a little something to be desired and didn't live up to Torchy’s.

If you went to Gypsy Picnic- please leave comments below about your likes or dislikes at the festival.
To read a few reviews about Gypsy Picnic you can visit Yelp or Mike Sutter's Statesman blog.
Also if you have a favorite Holy Cacao cake ball or Izzo’s Tacos dish share it with me because I definitely will be going back to Holy Cacao at least.

Note: Please excuse the poor quality of the pictures. My camera died, so I had to revert to my phone.

Damn Worth Getting Lost For - Torchy's Tacos

This week I visited Torchy’s Tacos in the South Austin Trailer Park & Eatery off of South First. I was going to attempt to venture outside of the more frequented food-trailers, but I woke up Sunday morning and could not get my mind away from Torchy’s "damn good tacos." Bare with me people, I’ll be adventurous next week.

I am a taco fiend. I love the spices, the succulent flavor of the meat, the salsa, the cheese, the variety of toppings…everything! My favorite kind of taco however, is the breakfast taco. I don’t think it gets any better than eggs, beans, cheese and salsa all wrapped up in a homemade corn tortilla. Torchy’s Tacos pulls this off perfectly.

I’ve been to the UT District Torchy’s off Guadalupe several times, but had never been to the trailer park location. I had heard of the South Austin Trailer Park & Eatery and always wanted to check it out, so I wrote down the address and hopped in the car.

The address listed on the website is 1311 S. First St and I live off 43rd, so I thought that I could just drive South on Lamar and I’d eventually hit First Street and take it from there. After passing Sixth Street, I was getting pretty excited for my long overdue breakfast taco but, after driving for another ten blocks I realized that I must have gotten turned around. It turns out that all the numbered streets in Austin run East to West, except First Street magically runs North to South. I guess I’m realizing this late, but for all you Austin newbies out there- you’ve been informed!

I whipped out my priceless TomTom, forced myself to continue driving past Gourdough’s, and eventually found the Trailer Park & Eatery.

The Torchy’s Tacos food-truck shares the trailer park with Holy Cacao and Man Bites Dog, but Torchy’s was the only one open at 10:30 a.m. The trailer park has generous parking (for Austin), umbrella tables, and a covered eating area that boasts Torchy’s Tacos as Austin Chronicle’s choice of Best Taco & Best Taqueria for 2010.

I normally would order my usual egg, bean, cheese and green chilies, but I went out of the norm just for you lovely reader! Also, it gave me an excuse to buy two tacos. I ordered my usual and the taco of the month: The Scarecrow. $3.50 for pumpkin crusted chicken, roasted poblanos, escabeche carrots, cojita cheese and cilantro, served on a corn tortilla with creamy chipotle.

Can I just say that ordering that taco was one of the best random-order-decisions ever? The escabeche (pickled) carrots were the bomb, they were crunchy and packed so much flavor. The pumpkin crusted chicken caused a déjà vu moment, but I realized it reminded me of the breading at The Mighty Cone. I thought the poblanos were a little soggy for my taste, but overall the taco was a great choice. I even enjoyed the chipotle sauce that I normally would substitute with the traditional salsa.

You should visit the South Austin Trailer Park & Eatery if you’re trying to get some good, cheap food and stroll slightly off the beaten path.

P.S. Torchy’s Tacos just opened a new location in Dallas! If you’re there for a visit you should stop in and tell me if that location is as good as the real thing.
What’s your favorite Torchy’s Taco? Answer in a comment below and I’ll try and check it out!

**All photos by Rachael Sperling