How does this answer the question?

Is there a questionnaire for each person or for each table?

Just found out that Bud's Po' Boys, the trailer behind the farmer's market on Burnet is in the process of moving to the farmer's market near the former Mueller Airport.

A damned fine list. Just a few notes:

If you have no car and are staying downtown/SoCo, scratch Stiles Switch off your list. That is up north (more than 50 blocks from downtown) and would be accessible only by cab or rental car. Maybe by bus, now that I think about it...

By Blacks, do you mean Blacks BBQ, or J. Blacks? Blacks BBQ is in Lockhart Texas, about 45 minutes outside Austin. Again, taxi or rental car required, and the taxi fare would be HUGE.

Perla's is awesome for seafood and people watching

My favorite is Kolache Shoppe on Burnet. They recently changed their name to Kolache Creations.

That's right in my neighborhood. Looking forward to the East Side Pies. I ordered from Pizza Peddler once or twice... Was unimpressed. But, I'm curious. What made it creepy?

Wake up ya fool! You're snoring!

I am thrilled about this. Gonna check 'em out. Went to college in Greenville NC, and have always missed good ol' pulled pork. And Parkers! Yes! That stuff was amazing...

I went there for lunch on Thursday. I am by no means an expert on Indian food, but it was quite good. The samosa's were incredible. They came with "mint-tamarind-yogurt chutney" and I prefer plain ol' raita, usually, but I still thought they were as good as the other places around Burnet/Anderson.I had the chicken tikka masala, medium heat. Not the most adventurous choice, but a good place to start. To me, there was no heat whatsoever. Maybe they gave me the mild, I don't know. Oh... yeah, you can choose your level of heat. But it was tomato-ey. Could've had more chicken, but I didn't feel cheated. Got the Rasmalai for dessert. They were a little small, but quite good. All this, with a root beer, cost just over 17 bucks. So, not dirt cheap. They have a lot of choices on the menu, including vegetarian options. Indian sodas, as well as coke and the like. My choices were a little pedestrian, but I would have no trouble suggesting this to people jonesing for a little Indian, or to take home.

Thanks for the report. I am verrrry excited this place opened up. I read ages ago that they were gonna open up there, and then nothing until I saw a mention that they had opened up yesterday. Are they on the Which Wich side of the mall, or the Dos Batos side of the mall?

This is my neighborhood as well. If their samosas are good, I might be there more than once a week.

Everything about that reboot of Northcross mall, except for the Walmart, has been above average.

If you can make it to north of Austin, I HIGHLY recommend The Noble Pig for sammiches. Great great food. They make own bread and condiments and cure their own meat, and grind their own sausages. The duck pastrami is awesome.

http://www.noblepigaustin.com/about/

I tried them today for lunch as well. The customer service WAS very nice. They seem committed to good customer service. The guy explained the different sausages to me without me asking, and seemed both genuinely happy to be there, and to have me as a customer. Got the brisket, some sausages and a Diablo sammich, which is brisket and sausage. Sides: mac and cheese and potato salad. Had just a bit of the brisket, and it seems quite nice. The sausage in the sandwich was the jalapeno, and seemed really good. Haven't had the other links yet. The potato salad was pretty good and the mac and cheese was terrific.

My palate isn't sophisticated enough to say it's better or worse than Franklins or the Lockhart joints, but there is definitely no comparable place in North Austin. Better by far than Rudy's, which is a low bar, but still. Easily the best in the area. It's close to my home. It will be my go-to BBQ joint for when I get a jones for Q.

Definitely worth a trip there. Especially if you live in the Allandale/Burnet Road/North Lamar vicinity.

Edited to add: Thereman, did you see that yellow stuff in the saran wrap by the register? Do you know what that was? Too embarrassed to ask...

Here's a much better description of the chicken cone: Hudson's on the Bend owner Jeff Blank, who has been curating the ACL Fest food court since the festival began nine years ago, originally created the Hot & Crunchy Chicken Cone using the breading from his restaurant's Hot `n' Crunchy Trout recipe. The fried chicken is topped with mango-jalapeno slaw and ancho sauce, wrapped in a tortilla and placed in a paper cup. The popularity of the chicken cone led to shrimp and avocado iterations and a trailer eatery on South Congress Avenue.

This was taken from the following article about ACL festival food:
http://www.austin360.com/food-drink/f...

If you're talking about Salt Lick at the festival itself, I wouldn't bother. The meat is dry and blah.

A sort-of tradition at the festival is the chicken cone from Hudson's. A piece of chicken baked (I think) in a cornflake crust drizzled in sauce in a tortilla. The tortilla is in one of those wrappers that holds snowcones, or did, back in the day. At the bottom is some nice cole slaw. Prettty good for festival fare.

As for general festival fare, seek out the unusual stuff. The food court is run by a chef of some reknown here in Austin, and he has set out to provide very interesting and diverse choices for the festival. Unique choices but he (and the restaurants) have remembered the importance of portability and ease of assembly.

You're right. It's still open. Its hours have changed so that it closes at 2 pm, now. I hadn't realized I was driving by after 2 all the time.
Decent doughnuts.

Shipley's Do Nuts on Anderson appears to have closed already. They only opened a few months ago, in the old Popeye's location.

So I've never lived near a Trader Joe's. I've been in Austin for 13 years, and before that, they hadn't yet opened up in my hometown. But my family likes them a lot, and they seem to be popular. Why is that? What makes them special?

A franchise joint called "Wild About Harry's" opened up on Burnet behind Panda Express and Sonic. It's in the same little strip as McAllister's deli and is right next to the Army recruiting station. The sign out front is a little small. It is a family-friendly joint selling primarily hot dogs and frozen custard. They have other things like italian beef sammiches and the like. I went there on Friday night. Talked with the franchisee. They had a soft opening in early December and are only now looking into getting the word out. They staff was friendly, the food was decent. The place was clean. Slow steady trickle of customer while I waited for my to go order.

If you have a hot dog jones and you are near Burnet and Anderson, it is definitely worth checking out. Or, if you have a couple 3 year olds...

scroll down a ways on this (http://www.austin360.com/blogs/conten...) page for a list of places open on T'sgiving. I'm going to Mirabelle, meselfs

I don't have any information about the biergarten other than it would be welcome. What I WOULD like to comment on, is that I know the woman who produces the layout and she will be thrilled to find out that someone actually reads the newsletter.

that's a tough call. I live just off Anderson lane right near that ex-Popeye's and have wanted something to go in there. But Mexican? There are several Mexican restaurants near that location, including the much loved Enchiladas y mas. I haven't seen long lines around the Fogata trailer to make me think that she would stand out there. I haven't eaten the food, so I don't know if it is anything special, but I gotta think that a fifth Mexican joint within a square mile is not a wise move.

I have been to Big Top Candy Shop several times because of they stock some rare, unusual candy brands. I've also had their egg creams.

I've been forced to look elsewhere for my rare, unusual candy, because the prices are a little high. I don't recall any price examples, though. I've only had a few egg creams in my life, so I don't know how authentic they are, but they taste damned good.

If you find yourself on South Congress, it is definitely worth stopping by. It's a fun joint and a nice change from the tchotchkes every place else sells.

this is in my neighborhood. I ate there on Sunday. Or, rather, I got some food to take home. It is, indeed, standard American Chinese food. The menu is not terribly large, unfortunately. My order was pretty standard: hot and sour soup, crab rangoon, sesame shrimp. It was a perfectly decent meal. The shrimp was large, which is nice, and the soup and rangoon were perfectly fine. It was fairly unremarkable. I'd eat there again. The only notable thing about the meal was that the fortune cookie was stale.

So I finally had the time, finances, and inclination to do a minor run on some trailer food. Here's a few takes on some places you guys might've tried already:

Last night I finally hit kebabalicious. I had been searching for freitkot, and found them both together, right on 7th street. I ordered a little sumthin sumthin from both.

Long story short: Both were delicious.

Long story long: I ordered the regular sized beef/lamb kebab, spicy, with feta cheese. Wow. Perhaps it was my slightly altered states, or perhaps my foodie inexperience, but this took its place as one of the finer kebabs I have ever eaten in my life. All the flavors came together brilliantly. I was a picky eater as a child. I didn't like my flavors mixed. So, as you can presume, I didn't really start eating things like kebabs until I got over that issue. To that end, my mark of a good sammich of this type is how well the flavors combine and make a new flavor. And folks, the flavors melded together so well. I didn't realize there were radishes in the kebab until after I was finished and noticed a radish slice had fallen out. I wish I could give more details about the ingredients, but things went together so well that I didn't really take notice of a particular aspect of the sandwich. The meat wasn't dominate, but was noticeable. The feta added a certain "feta-ness" to the overall experience.

A note about the spiciness. After the first jolt of spice I thought it might be overly spicy. Yes, I know I ordered the spicy version, but, to me, spiciness is almost an art form. I ain't interested in causing myself pain, but I do want to feel some heat. Two hours after I had finished my kebab, lying in bed, I could still feel a pleasant warmth in my mouth from the spices. That made me smile. To me, that is exactly what I want from a spicy dish. Just warmth. And for a few hours after? Bonus.

While waiting for my kebab, I checked out freitkot as well. Another excellent choice made by me, I must say. I ordered a regular size with the bacon aioli. It came to me hot and ready for devouring. My intent orginally was to go home and eat my feast, but I had eaten part of the kebab while waiting for my fries, and realized that the aioli would destry the crispiness of the fries by the time I got home. So I sat in my car for a bit eating the fries. And they were terrific.

I am not a french fry man. I'm usually done with my fries after one or two mouthfuls. I do not care for McDonald's fries, and almost always order something else if I have the option at a restaurant. I am not a conniesieur (or however you spell that word :) ). But those first fries I ate reminded my of something I read years and years ago about what a proper french fry was.
In college I read a lot of Lewis Grizzard, who wrote a humor column for southern newspapers. He died in the early 90s or late 80s. Anywho, in one of his books of his columns, he was deriding the modern french fry. He explained that a fry was supposed to be crisp on the outside and fluffy and soft on the inside. And not a thin stick of potato, as found in McDonalds. And above all, they should taste like potatoes.

The fries at freitkot did this, and wonderfully so. An outside that was browned perfectly and crisp, with a fluffy inside.

The bacon aioli seemed decent enough. I was neither impressed or turned off by it. Since I am not a "fry guy" I have rarely ventured beyond the world of ketchup on my 'taters. I didn't notice a particularly strong note of bacon, which would have been nice.

I'm glad I ate a good portion before going home. The time it took to get home was enough time to start to soften the chips doused in the aioli. Before I could finish them, the remaining fries and aioli had turned into a grease bomb I was simply not willing to put into my belly.

But as walking around food, or the end to a cheap date, the fries were great.

Both of these places are worthy of further investigation by you guys. I am curious to see what others think.

This afternoon I decided to hit a few more places, this time on the hipster portion of South Congress avenue. My first stop was Crepes Mille. My crepe experience is largely tied to a banana crepe in Delaware about 12 years ago and Flip Happy Crepes. I love Flip Happy crepes, so I was curious about expanding my horizons. I had some other eating plans so I wimped out and only ordered a lemon sugar crepe. This is not a large enough sample size to make a fair judgement on any trailer. It was certainly a tasty crepe. Not overly lemony and not sickeningly sweet with sugar. The crepes had a very slight eggy taste, which I considered a positive.

A couple other notes about Crepes Mille: They have a larger selection of crepes than Flip Happy. I am a sincere and devoted carnivore so I have never noticed the Flip Happy Vegetarian options. But since my best friend IS a vegetarian, I try and take notice of these things when I can, so we can eat at the same joints. Crepes Mille had quite a few vegetarian options. The other important thing to note about Crepes Mille was the lack of a line. There was none. I looked at the menu, ordered, paid and was eating my crepe in the time it takes me to move 3 feet at Flip Happy Crepes. Look, folks, I love Flip Happy Crepes to death. But that line is just re-damned-diculous. My suggestion to you is that if you have a jones for Flip Happy, by all means go there. But if it is just a crepe you desire, hit up Crepes Mille.

On the way to the BBQ place near the Hudson's Cone and the Cupcake trailer, I was hit by an irresistable urge to eat pizza. I really like Home Slice. So I betrayed my original mission and had a slice and a beer at Home Slice. Good eatin' in my book.

So I skipped the BBQ joint. There were a lot of people eating there as I walked by, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themself. I got a good whiff of smokey meat (and not just smoke) which almost guarantees I will be back.

I stopped by the pie queen, that little hut next to the cupcake place. The first thing the woman says to me is that she is out of the buttermilk pies. DAMN! She was out of some other flavor, but I cannot recall what it was. It turns out that Southern Living magazine has featured the pie queen in its July issue, proclaiming her buttermilk pies to be the best in the entire south. Seriously. Not the best in Austin, or Texas. Apparently, there is no better buttermilk pie below the mason-dixon line. I got to chatting with the woman and another customer. She is just a delightful person. Very friendly. I was just another customer, and she treated me like a regular. I know that I was treated like a regular because one or two came by while we chatted. She called them by name as she turned them away. They were after the buttermilk pie, you see, and she had sold out of them ages ago, thanks to a huge increase in business, inspired by Southern Living magazine. I couldn't decide between the lemon ice box and the coconut cream. But she was such a nice woman (and I'm a fairly charming dude, at times) that when I mentioned I couldn't decide, she gave me a coconut cream pie for free! To be fair, though, she had dropped the pie and the whipped cream had smeared on the top of the plastic container it was safely esconced in. It no longer looked pretty, but that ain't nuthin' but a thang.

The pies are in my fridge right now. I'll try and post later about their quality. But if the Southern Living food editor has tried her pies and thinks they are the best in the south, then surely her little pies are worth a shot. But get there before 2 in the afternoon, at least until the next issue of Southern Living comes out.

She mentioned she is looking to open another trailer someplace up north. I selfishly suggested she consider the neighborhood around Burnet and Anderson, so keep your fingers crossed, my Allandale and Crestview neighborinos.

And just between you and me, she volunteered the information that she was unable to confirm or deny that she had been contacted by a television network that broadcasts programs exclusively related to food. She didn't have any information about what this theoretical "food network" might be interested in, but I immediately started wondering if Bobby Flay would put ancho chile's in a buttermilk pie.

One interesting (to me) note was the lack of customers at the Cupcake trailer. It has always had 3 or 4 people in line there. Today, no one. The pie queen had 3 or 4 customers while we talked and I didn't see anyone at the cupcake joint. Maybe it was closed, I don't know, but I wondered if maybe the cupcake bubble in Austin has burst.

Whew. That was a long report. If you are still reading, thank you for sticking with it for so long! I had hoped to hit up Bananarchy on the way home. I thought they were on Barton Springs, but it turns out they are on So. Lamar, near Barton Springs. Ah well, some other time mayhaps.

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Flip Happy Crepes
400 Jessie St, Austin, TX 78704

Chef, did you read that article in Huffington Post too? For those interested in reading more about what scrumptiouschef is talking about... go here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark...

I think I might buy the supplement.I gotta think there isn't a lot of elephant yam for sale in A-town.

To answer Taso:

I bought several meals at Snap Kitchen on Saturday:
Chili and eggs breakfast
Texas hash breakfast
Mocha Maple "cheesecake"
Spaghetti and Turket "bolognese" dinner
Lemon cod dinner
"Devily" eggs snack
A packaged dried pineapple snack.

All sizes were "small". The cod cost a little more than the other meals. Total cost after tax: ~$35.00

Sunday I tried the chili and eggs breakfast. The chili is turkey chili with beans. More beans than turkey. The eggs were a 5:1 blend, which the very helpful Snap Kitchen employee told me was 5 parts egg white and 1 part yolk. It had a few peppers and was mildly spiced. The flavor was quite good, in my opinion. Now, it certainly wasn't restaurant quality, but it made me optimistic about the rest of the food. It was fairly filling too. Grade: B

Sunday night I tried the "cheesecake". It was only "okay". Really, desserts are the hardest thing to make healthy. The flavor was adequate. The texture was grainy. It did not satisfy my sweet tooth. Grade: C

Monday morning was the Texas hash. It had lots of good size chunks of lean red meat. But overall, I was pretty disappointed in this dish. A great deal of beans. If I buy from Snap Kitchen again, I will not buy this. I didn't finish it. I'd give it an F grade, but someone else might think it was okay. Grade: D

Monday lunch: Spaghetti and turkey "bolognese". They use the quotes. like they did with the "cheesecake". I'm not sure what makes a dish bolognese or "bolognese". This was delicious, though. As good as I could make for myself (I am not a particularly skilled chef), lots of tasty turket and the pasta (I think it was whole wheat pasta, not sure) held the sauce well. After the Texas hash fiasco, I was pretty skeptical, but this dish was quite good. Grade: A

Monday snack time: "Devily" eggs. More of those damned quotes around the food description. The intent is deviled eggs. But instead of the yolk mixture, they put jalapeno hummus in the egg white. This was another delicious dish. 4 pieces (two whole eggs) were the snack. It took me about an hour to eat them. Quite filling and very tasty. The hummus quite good. The whole thing is a little dry, but I would definitely buy these again. I'd buy them from a regular store, or consider making them myself in the future. The employee told me they were quite popular. I am not surprised. Grade: A

Monday dinner: Lemon cod. Ick. Granted, microwaved fish is never a winner. The fish itself was, at best, okay. Freshness could play a factor here. It was now two days old. It came with mashed potatos, which were pretty good. Most of the dish was kale, though, which I could not bring myself to eat, due to kale-related trauma as a child. As I started typing this paragraph, I was gonna give this dish a grade of "F", but now that I consider the microwaving, it being a couple days old, and the presence of the innocent kale, I should modify that grade to a "C".

I had the dried pineapple snacks for dessert. They were mediocre at best. A little too tart for my tastes. Grade: C

Note that these grades aren't comparisons to what I would expect from a homemade dish, or from a restaurant, but what I would expect from a pre-packaged meal like you might get at HEB or the like.

So, all in all, a moderately positive experience. I will give them another try, I think. I don't see me doing their 21 day challenge where I eat their food for every meal every day for 3 weeks. But I could see me incorporating their meals in my attempt to overhaul my diet. The food heats in about 1 minute, they use mostly fresh ingredients, they recycle, they have interesting food choices, and you can set up an eating plan with a dietician. I could see myself snaggin a turkey meatloaf dish or a "crepe" (there's those annoying quotation marks again) instead of hitting Dan's Hamburgers...

If you live close to Snap Kitchen, and you'd like to incorporate healthier eating into your diet, it is definitely worth checking out.

In comparing Snap Kitchen with My Fit Foods, I definitely noticed that Snap had more interesting food choices. More variety. I think I'm gonna buy some food from both places this weekend and do a test.

Snap Kitchen is the other place whose name I couldn't recall. Thanks for your input.

Saw in the forklore blog at austin360.com that a place called My Fit Foods is opening up near me on North Lamar Blvd. A week or so ago, I saw another place open up just like this. A google search also turned up Tasty Healthy Meals. The My Fit Foods, and the other place who's name I cannot recall had similar modus operandi: You consult with a "nutrition expert" and formulate a plan of foods to eat. And you buy their food.

The menu I looked over had lots of turkey and quinoa, whole wheat. The latest foods understood to be healthy...

Both places preached a 21 day plan, commenting that it takes 21 days to form a habit. They offer "healthy" eating options and weight loss options. The food choices look interesting and certainly 7 or 8 steps above Nutrisystem for dieters and wanna be dieters (like myself).

Given how much I spend on fast food and groceries, the prices are only slightly more than I'm spending right now.

Does anyone on the board have any prior experience with these services? Any comments would be appreciated.

Edited to add a link to My Fit Foods: http://www.myfitfoods.com/

am finishing my torta as I type this. It is quite good. I am far from a gourmand, so I don't feel qualified to judge it. But I AM a picky eater, and I like it. I ordered the corn flan too. I had never tried it before. Both Batos were manning the registers, and one let me try it first, which was pretty nice to do. He said if I didn't like it, he would just throw it out. It is quite good, but I suspect I'll have had enough of it after a few bites.

The torta came with charro beans. I have always wanted to like charro beans. So much more interesting than the other bean choices available with Tex-Mex (imho). Again, I do not have a terribly sophisticated palate, but these were quite good.Despite reading this thread before going, I was surprised to see hot dogs in the charro beans. But, as an inveterate beenie weenie consumer, I am not opposed to the idea.

I checked the place out on Yelp before heading over there. Some poor reviews, mostly complaining about the cost and the limited menu. Food-specific comments were positive, though.

Their processes are not perfected yet. I wasn't offered a bag for my take out, so I had to carr the torta box, a coke, and the flan in a stack. If they get a lot of customers, they'll need a system beyond simply remembering who ordered what. Since it was sparse, the Bato was able to find me easily to bring me my food.

I get the sense that they are looking to bring a casual, gringo-friendly vibe to Mexican (not Tex-Mex) fare. One review on Yelp commented that the pirata was as good as the one he'd had as a kid in Mexico. I'd love to see the menu expanded to Mex favorites I can't get at the Cabana or every Tex-Mex joint in town.

I would say it is worth a visit if you are in that neck of the woods. And it is worth a repeat visit in a few weeks, to see if they've expanded their menu.