The Austin Food Cart Adventure

In preparation for my upcoming move to Austin, I spent the last 4 days there on a mission to find a place to live. Fortunately, by the end of day 2, I found a great apartment, only ~3 miles from campus, and right next to a bus stop for the campus shuttle. So, I ended up having 2 days of spare time, and I mostly spent them driving around Austin and getting acquainted with the area.

One challenge of traveling is always finding food - I was staying in a bare-bones Motel 6 where I didn't even have a mini-fridge, so I had to find places to eat lunch and dinner every day. Because Austin is well-known for its excellent food - the options range from heart attack-inducing barbecues to farm-fresh vegan cuisine - choosing a place to eat can be a bit overwhelming. So, I decided to pick a theme so that I could narrow down my food choices: everything I ate came from a food cart or trailer. Although this might sound like a recipe for greasy, inedible food, there are actually some really excellent food carts in Austin. They tend to be run by young people who really enjoy making food, but don't have the money or the inclination to invest in a brick-and-mortar restaurant. This generally means that the food is excellent, the prices are cheap, and that their hours are a bit odd, but for a student on a budget, this is perfect. You can get an idea of the remarkable quantity and variety of these food carts at http://austinfoodcarts.com/. Here's my quick summary of each place I visited and what I ate there.  I'll put more details about each place in the picasa album:

Dinner #1: Counter Culture.
Their Specialty: Vegan food
What I ate: The jackfruit bbq sandwich, with a side of quinoa (total: $8) 

Lunch #1: La Boite Cafe 
Their Specialty: Coffee and pastries
What I ate: a sandwich with pesto, farm-fresh goat cheese and roasted red peppers; an almond croissant; the lavender lemonade (total: $11)

Dinner #2: Odd Duck Farm Fresh to Trailer.
Their specialty: Farm fresh food
What I ate: The grilled peach and heirloom tomato salad; the grilled zuchinni bread (total $7)

Lunch #2: Izzoz Tacos
Their specialty: Tacos
What I ate: 2 fried avocado tacos (total: $6)

Dinner #3: G'Raj Mahal
Their specialty: Indian food
What I ate: Makhani Biryani with vegetables (total: $9)