With my German friend in town, I of course did what I could to show her the funner side of culinary Austin. She’s already experienced Tex-Mex and BBQ on previous visits, so we delved a little deeper into the regional repertoire.
Our first stop was the mall food court and the counter that only serves potato-centric food.
Is there anything that better represents the American zeal for speculative franchises than this high-concept eatery? I mean, they got me to pay seven bucks for a potato deep-fried in quarters. The German went with a more conservative choice, a BLT with fresh-fried bacon.
At Pepe’s Fruitcup (I have yet to actually order a fruitcup from them), we got a pair of tortas. For me, it was the Hawallan torta, which contains jamon, tocino (remember that word?), pineapple, and deliciously slimy wedges of avocado.
For the German was a more conservative torta that was essentially just a ham sandwich.
The peak of our food experience came at Coco’s Cafe (@Guadalupe&MLK).
The German had never heard of bubble tea, which frankly I find appalling. If you have not had bubble tea, AKA tapioca pearl tea, you need to run out and get it now. But I’m going to assume that you’re so cool that I don’t need to go over it now.
For an appetizer we had the rice ball.
The outside is a gummy rice dough, kept sticky and moist with a warm sweet and sour broth. Inside is pork, beans, and diced mushrooms. The rice ball had an aftertaste flavor, from what I can only presume was fish sauce, that tasted remarkably like unwashed genitals and rotting kitchen garbage. The more of the fishball I ate, the more aware of the taste I became.
Although there is a great deal of the Coco’s menu that I haven’t yet experienced, I ordered what I always order, what has to be my single favorite food in the world. Baconpork.
The cubes of uncured pork-stomach are delicately stewed, to the point of chopstick-cutting delicacy. Every strand of meat, every wad of boiled skin, and every blob of fat dissolves in my mouth like pig-flavored butter.
On days that I forget to eat breakfast and lunch, I start to fantasize about the baconpork plate, about the rich, fatty goodness.
I mean it has to be pretty good if I order it repeatedly when the menu also offers eel-steak (which is good, but not baconpork good).
