Tacos: Torchy's vs. El Camion

Our friend Carson took us to the "trailer park" location of Torchy's in Austin, where we feasted at midday on a variety of tacos -- green chile pork, migas, fried avocado, and chorizo -- as well as unbelievable queso with homemade chips. I remember my mom making chorizo and eggs when I was little -- especially the way the spice sears your nose hairs -- and Torchy's revived this pork nostalgia from my childhood.

Jay thought the green chile pork taco was tasty. It had mounds of carnitas and resembled more of a huge pork sandwich than the street taco he was expecting. The fried avocado was also a bit heavy and didn't quite reach the stratosphere in terms of flavor. Torchy's queso with spicy peppers was as awesome as our Texan host and fellow food blogger Veronica said it would be, and the warm Austin sun shining down only enhanced our taco pleasure.

We couldn't help but compare Torchy's with our favorite taco truck back home in Seattle, El Camion. We have only visited the Ballard location, but it has become one of our regular places for a cheap and  delicious lunch. Once you eat at the truck, your Seattle taco search will be over. This is Jay's favorite place to have a nosh and, even when we try to eat somewhere else, we somehow always end up back in the El Camion parking lot. The food is much lighter here than the gut bombs at Torchy's, and you don't need to be near el baño and a bed after eating.

For $10, two people can enjoy two tacos each (from a selection of nearly a dozen varieties), including our favorites: carnitas and fish. El Camion's tortillas are small but doubled up to contain meat, tomatoes, onions, and cilantro. The un-breaded white fish tacos include a creamy sauce and red cabbage. Once you have had their tacos, you may find yourself craving them several times a week! The best part of the El Camion experience may be the black beans and Spanish rice, which must be made with either lard or some serious butter -- insanely satisfying!

El Camion's quality and flavor are pretty consistent, and since they have a tent next to their truck (with heaters, picnic benches, and foosball table), it's accessible year-round. In the past, I've ventured from our standard order and tried the carne asada (steak) taco and tamale -- neither as exciting as expected -- and the divine gut bomb that is the mulita, a glorified meat quesadilla. The folks that run the truck are talented and hospitable -- for example, during winter, they offer free samples of warm horchata (cinnamon rice milk) while you wait... which reminds me, this kid is awesome.

El Camion is perhaps the best food truck in Seattle and -- arguably -- boasts the best tacos in the nation. Take that, Torchy!

BBQ Crazy: Austin

On a recent trip to Austin, we needed to get a taste of some Southern BBQ. We decided to give the super hyped Franklin Barbecue a try. Our Austin friend and tour guide Mr. Carson Dickey of the famed Hershey Wilson band is a great BBQ man himself and even worked for a while at Ruby's, another contender in our choice for a brisket and rib fix. We decided to drive past Franklin around 10:30 am to see if the line was too much to handle. I thought it was obnoxious and was ready to try another lesser known Texan BBQ.

Carson insisted that the line would move fast and that he has seen it three times as long! We gave in and stood in that annoying line of people waiting to try what has been touted as the best BBQ in America. The doors opened at 11:00, and by then there were about 50 more people in line behind us! We finally made our way to the man behind the BBQ, greeting his customers with a warm welcome and pounds of fresh chopped brisket and ribs. Once you get to the front counter, you tend to order too much food -- better to have leftovers than to get back in line for another hour and a half! 

Regan, Carson, and I shared a pound of brisket, a pound of pork ribs, a half-pound of pulled pork, one sausage, and a side of slaw -- and couldn't finish it all. The brisket and pulled pork were mighty tasty and did garner a WOW on first bite. I didn't even try the sauce. I just wanted to enjoy the natural juices of the smoky meat. The ribs were decent but underwhelming. They had some generic pepper rub all over them. The sausage was ordinary, and the slaw was nothing fantastic. (Carson made some dynamite slaw the night before that left me wishing I could've tasted his brisket before leaving Texas.) All in all, I'm glad we tried Franklin, and the wait was somewhat painless in the beautiful Austin sun. I don't understand the hype, but you can expect some good brisket at the end of that line -- nothing more, nothing less.