From Lafayette to New Orleans on US 90

On our way from Austin to New Orleans, we stopped for the night in Lafayette, Louisiana. Deciding that a crawfish dinner was in order, we headed over to Don's Seafood Hut.

We started with a bowl of seafood gumbo.



Not the prettiest to look at, but boy was it tasty - really intense seafood flavor. Unlike most gumbos we've had, the base was relatively unthickened. It reminded us of a bisque without the addition of cream.

Although it is fairly late in the season, there are still plenty of crawfish to be had. Don's offered 5lbs for $10 - just a wee bit cheaper than they go for in San Diego... They came out in the traditional bucket.



We ordered them medium spicy, which ended up being fairly mild. That was fine, though, since it was the taste of the crawfish we were after. Our clearly out-of-towner crawfish eating skills quickly had friendly locals at a nearby table giving us crawfish extraction advice. Five pounds of crawfish later, we were happy, messy and completely satisfied.



The next morning we hit the road for New Orleans. We decided to take the more scenic US 90 instead of I-10 and do some stops along the way.

Our first stop was Avery Island, where Tabasco pepper sauce is made.



The Tabasco factory tour is definitely not worth going out of your way for. If you do go, skip the video (it's basically just an extended Tabasco commercial) and go straight to the more interesting view out over the production floor.

Also on Avery Island, and more worthy of a visit, are the Jungle Gardens, a 250-acre park created by Ned McIlhenny (son of Tabasco inventor Edmund McIlhenny). It houses an egret sanctuary. And alligators. And alligators eating egrets. If you are made uncomfortable by the reality of the food chain in the animal kingdom, avert your eyes...



We stopped in at the Southdown Plantation House museum in Houma, and had a great personal guided tour. The house itself is quite interesting to walk through, and our guide had a lot of insight into local history.



We had been planning on having lunch at the Yellow Bowl in Jeanerette (they were apparently one of the first restaurants to serve crawfish etouffe), but it unfortunately wasn't open on Tuesdays. We ended up at Spahr's, in Des Allemands instead.



The place has a really nice setting right on a bayou, and a family-friendly atmosphere inside. Unfortunately, I hate family-friendly - it felt like eating in a Denny's.

The food was pretty lackluster as well. The mini-crabcakes were the best thing we had, but were overly gummy.



The fried crab claws had no flavor at all (unless you count "fried" as a flavor...)



We also had the house specialty - "catfish chips", which are small pieces of fried catfish. The "chip" idea is that the meat comes just from the belly, but I couldn't really tell - it just tasted like mediocre catfish.

Despite our Spahr's experience, we really enjoyed driving through this section of Louisiana. Definitely more interesting than just barreling down the I-10.

Don's Seafood Hut
4309 Johnston St
Lafayette, LA
(337) 981-1141

Spahr's Sea Food Restaurant
3682 Highway 90 E
Des Allemands, LA
(985) 758-1602

The Austin Motel, and Bats at the Congress Avenue Bridge

While in Austin, we stayed at the Austin Motel, a lovingly restored gem on South Congress Avenue. It has a great location, is reasonably priced, and really made our visit pleasant.

The pool is a little oasis just off of the busy street below. Steps away and you are out in the heart of SoCo.



Just North from the motel is the South Congress Bridge, most notable for the being home to the world's largest urban bat colony.



Every evening, around sunset, around a million bats emerge from the bridge to go out hunting for the night.



The picture above doesn't even begin to do the scene justice. The bats started coming out slowly, and then in greater numbers until there was a steady black steam pouring out from under the bridge. Truly a unique sight to see.

Beer In Austin - Beer Alley, Saint Arnold Elissa IPA and The Ginger Man

This trip is decidedly less beer-focused than our last road trip, and Texas really isn't known for its beer (Shiner Bock? No thanks...), but we did manage a bit of malt and hops on our visit to Austin. Above is "Beer Alley" at the massive central Whole Foods location. It is a big, refrigerated walk in with a very good selection.



We picked up one local beer - Saint Arnold Elissa IPA, which was pretty tasty.



We also stopped in at a great beer bar in the warehouse district called The Ginger Man. Very comfortable place with a bunch of craft-focused taps.



I tried the Liberation IPA from local brewery Live Oak, but I wasn't really into it. They had Saint Arnold Elissa IPA on cask, though, and it was fantastic - one of the best cask pours I've had in a while.



Sorry about the flash (it was dark) and the coaster, but just look at that nice suspension! The Ginger Man is an oasis in downtown Austin - definitely worth a visit.

Rosita's Al Pastor, Torchy's Tacos and Migas at Habañero Mexican Cafe

Questing a bit farther afield in Austin from our SoCo home base, we ventured east to Rosita's Al Pastor. Less than inviting from the outside, but somewhat more so on the inside, Rosita's is a sit-down, order from your table place. A brief language negotiation with our friendly waitress revealed that our broken Spanish was somewhat better than her broken English, so Spanish it was. We did notice, though, that they will bring the owner (who speaks English) to a table if there is a communication problem.

We ordered Tacos Al Pastor and Enchiladas Al Pastor. The tacos were very pretty, with a nice red tinge and the requisite dusting of onion and cilantro.



Unfortunately, the taste was a let-down. The texture was good, if a bit on the crispy side, but the meat had very little flavor.

The enchiladas were more successful - mainly because of the tasty red sauce (they normally come with green, but it wasn't available).



The rice and beans did little to win us over - again, not much flavor. The table salsa was very pleasant, however.

A very different expedition had us at Torchy's Tacos for a post-bat-watching dinner (more to come on that in future post).

Torchy's operates out of a trailer on South 1st, and caters to a decidedly more hipster crowd than Rosita's. They definitely get points for charm, with their brightly lit window surrounded by small tables and mellow music wafting through the warm evening air.



We started out with Chips and Green Chile Queso. What can I say about freshly made nachos by candlelight?



To accompany our cheesy goodness, we had a Green Chile Taco, and a Democrat (beef barbacoa). Both had pretty good flavor, but the meat lacked texture. Completely edible (and eaten), but nothing very special. The barbacoa taco is pictured below.



I wouldn't get take-out from here, but I really enjoyed the meal on premises. If I lived nearby, I might be a regular.

But what about breakfast? One morning we ventured a bit farther South to Habanero. We liked the place immediately. Inviting from the outside, and a bright friendly feel inside.



We had a couple of breakfast tacos - Egg and Potato and Egg and Chorizo. Both were ok (especially with the addition of their very good table salsa), but the focus of the meal was the Migas. Migas were a new dish to us - they seem to be very similar to a chilaquiles, but more uniform in texture (i.e. fewer whole pieces of tortilla). We had the Chori-Migas:



Very good. Scrambled eggs cooked with chorizo, pieces of tortilla, onions, peppers, and cheese. The refried beans were also top notch. And it came with fries! The best part, though, was rolling your own Miga Tacos. Tortillas come on the side, and you scoop a bit of everything into a tortilla, add some salsa, and dig in. Bliss.

Kreuz Market and Smitty's Market in Lockhart, Texas

We're in Texas, so you *knew* there was going to be a barbecue post, right? Well this is it.

We did a lunch run out to Lockhart Texas, a small town about 40 minutes South of Austin which is one of the hubs of Central Texas barbecue.

First up was Kreuz Market. The aroma in the parking lot hit us as soon as we got of the car - lovely, savory, smoky goodness.



The meat (other than the sausages) is sold by the pound. You don't need to order a full pound, though, so you can try a variety. Since there were only two of us and we were going to eat lunch at two BBQ joints in one day, we tried to keep our portions reasonable and didn't get to try it all.



We ordered a quarter pound of brisket, a hot sausage and a pork chop (no sides - we only had stomach room for the main event). They toss it on butcher paper with some slices of white bread and plastic knives (see the "no forks" rule in the picture above).



The sausage was very good, and the pork chop had a great smoky flavor. It's hard to see in the photo, but the pork chop had a nice pink tinge to it above the smoke ring.



The standout, though, was the brisket. Fantastic! I've never tasted brisket even close to that good. Amazing meaty taste, and the fat melted in your mouth (check the picture at the top of the post for a close-up of the fat on the Kreuz brisket).

Here's a shot of the barbecue pits at Kreuz:



And the woodpile outside that keeps them running:



Ready for more, we drove down the road a few blocks to Smitty's Market.



Smitty's is a smaller, more cosy place than Kreuz.



This time we ordered brisket and sausage.



I thought that the sausage was not as good as Kreuz - less flavor and a more soft texture. As for the the brisket? No contest - it wasn't in the same league as the slices we had at Kruez. Nowhere near the same intense, smoky flavor.

I'm guessing that there are potentially a lot of factors at work here - what piece of meat you get, what part of the piece of meat you get, what kind of day the guy manning the pits is having, etc. At Kreuz, we got slices off of the small end of a piece of meat that had just come out of the pit, so I'd be surprised if that didn't have at least something to do with it. I wish we had the luxury of being able to come back regularly to research more...

Overall, a truly delicious and enjoyable experience.

Kreuz Market
619 N. Colorado St.
Lockhart, TX
(512) 398-2361

Smitty's Market
208 South Commerce
Lockhart, TX
(512) 398-9344

Beers, 'Ritas and Fajitas in SoCo

We arrived in Austin late afternoon, and decided to explore the area around our motel on South Congress. I would describe the atmosphere in the "SoCo" area as Austin family outing meets hipster scene.

Although not technically in SoCo (it is a few streets over on South 1st), Polvo's was an easy choice for happy hour / early dinner. I handled the beers, Sherry took the 'ritas and we shared the fajitas. We had been told to get the Fajitas al Guajillo, so that's what we did.



Tender beef in a rich chile sauce with onions, sun dried red chiles, poblanos, peanuts and raisins. The chile flavor was great, and the nuts added a really interesting twist - it had my brain thinking Sichuan (ie: kung pao). Here it is after we had dug in a bit:



The salsas from the self-serve bar were very good. Sherry really liked the yellow one - it had just a hint of sweetness and a decent, but not overpowering bite. I was more partial to the one at the back that you can hardly see. It was fire-roasted, with lots of little black charred bits - a nice contrast to the other two.



Also in the "Beer and 'Ritas" vein, and even closer to our motel, was Güeros. We didn't try the food in the main restaurant, but we stopped in for a few drinks at their adjoining outdoor spot.



With a relaxed atmosphere, a band playing, and the welcome shade of a couple of large oak trees, it made for a nice setting to while away an hour or so.

Polvo's Mexican Restaurant
2004 S 1st St.
Austin, TX
(512) 441-5446

Güero's Taco Bar
1412 S. Congress Ave.
Austin, TX
(512) 447-7688

Little Diner

I usually do the research for our food travels, but this time Sherry was looking on chowhound and came up with this lunch stop on our way east from Tucson to Austin. Located in a small community south of Interstate 10 just a few exits into Texas and just before El Paso, Little Diner was a perfect stop.



In addition to being a fan of the food traditions from the source, I am also an unapologetic fan of the various regional american incarnations of Mexican food. I love San Diego carne asada burritos and fish tacos, a fantastic green-chile-topped breakfast burrito in Denver, and I'm always up for trying a new local variety. Yellow cheese and all.

But back to Little Diner. First up were their two gorditas, a menu item we don't see in San Diego very often. The chile colorado gordita was fantastic. The meat was perfectly cooked and had a great depth of flavor along with a nice heat.



The other gordita on offer was the "meat" gordita, which ended up being a pretty standard, if tasty, ground beef. We still ate every bite, though, because the real star was the masa pocket itself. Crispy on the outside, but thick enough to have a different texture on the inside. Just great.



We also also tried their "tapatillas", which were basically tostadas. And they were basic, but really good. We got one bean and one avocado. The bean tapatilla was fantastic - great refried beans (which is a critical test, in my opinion, and one that is failed all too often) and the tortilla was perfectly crispy and had clearly been just fried.



To drink, what could we have on our first meal in Texas but tea? It was served unsweetened, but the spoon and prominently placed sugar container suggested modification.



Being staunchly Californian in our approach to iced tea, and knowing that a whole lot of sweet tea awaits us as we travel on, we left ours unadulterated this time.

Little Diner
7209 7th St.
Canutillo, TX
(915) 877-2176