"Keep Austin weird" - Austin city slogan
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| UT Austin Emergency Medicine |
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| Creepy clown toys- classic Austin weird |
The first thing you notice about Austin is that there are food
trucks everywhere. Like slot machines in
Vegas or coffee houses in Seattle, food trucks dot every other corner and empty
lot across the city. In some areas, they
even have “food truck parks”, lots with half a dozen or more trucks packed
together. I even saw some brick-and-mortar
restaurants have their own truck out front; the truck serves as the kitchen and
the storefront is just the place to eat.
The food truck craze is so outlandish, with such a crowded market, each
truck tried to outdo each other in its combinations, pushing the culinary
envelope just a little further. At
Gourdough’s, I enjoyed the Flying Pig, a donut with bacon At Llama’s, specializing
in “Peruvian Creole”, the pork belly and sweet potato sandwich was
outstanding. But I drew the line at the
combination of salsa and kimchi: either is great on a taco but I just couldn’t
bring myself to try them both together. 
and maple syrup icing
(they are famous for the Mother Clucker, a donut with a fried chicken strip and
honey butter).
When I arrived in Austin, hungry to enjoy the music and food
the city is famous for, I had a carefully developed list of their best and
brightest culinary delights. However, as
it turns out, their food is intended to be a discovery, its source ephemeral,
defying all planning and schedules. You
eat when you’re hungry, you find food where you are. My long list of food stops pretty much went
up in the mesquite-scented smoke of south Texas.
- · Franklin BBQ- requires at least a 4 hour wait.
- · La Barbeque- closed for private party the first time I showed up then sold out when I came by the next day
- · Llama’s- closed on my first try, then out of pork belly right after me
- · Hog Wild- decided he didn’t feel like working that day and didn’t open
- · East Side King- I have no idea what happened: they never showed up where they said they would be on Google and Facebook.
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| Vietnamese tacos |
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| Pork belly and sweet potato sandwich |
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| Pineapple and al pastor taco |
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| Probably really good, but a little too weird for me |
Austin is the perfect city if you are attending a
convention: you would go downtown to the Sixth St area, stay there, and enjoy
all the live music and truck food you can handle. But to live there and move around by car is
challenging and getting worse every year.
The population growth has far outpaced infrastructure. In fact, no significant development of
infrastructure has occurred in the last 10 years. I-35 through the center of town is constantly
clogged. The traffic on surface streets
is awful. I can’t imagine what happens
during South By Southwest (SXSW) or Austin City Limits (ACL)
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| quintessential Austin rubbish |
I was in town to present at the UT Austin EM residency. I stayed to enjoy the Texas- Iowa State
game. I didn’t have a ticket and assumed
I could pick one up from a ticket scalper on the streets.
I assumed correctly.
On my very first try a gentleman offered up a single 50-yard
line seat, about halfway up the lower deck.
So easy . . .
The UT campus is beautiful and welcoming. The friendliness of the people was on par
with Arkansas or Nebraska. Very
impressive. As I wandered through the
tailgate area, I was offered some grapefruit vodka, then some watermelon vodka,
then some . . . uh . . . vodka vodka. There is also apparently a game day uniform
for the UT coeds: a billowy tan tank top, jean shorts, and cowboy boots,
presumably from Allen’s, an Austin institution.
The one thing I learned about watching a Texas game in
Austin is that the Longhorns are very proud of their traditions and
legacy. Despite suffering through a
current painful rebuilding period, their turnout is strong and they cheer loud. Their pre-game ceremonies are a mash of
game-day traditions. They essentially
layer on new traditions as they develop without replacing old ones. As a result, they lack one iconic focus yet
revel in many. They claim the world’s
biggest bass drum, they fire a cannon at the kickoff and every score, they have
a pen for Bevo the Longhorn, they show off the world’s largest Texas flag, and
they have a stuntman enter the stadium in a jet-pack at the start. Oy vey!
Unfortunately for the Texas faithful, it was a spectacularly
close game, with the ‘Clones matching the Longhorns score for score. Texas finally prevailed with a last second
field goal to win, 48-45, avoiding another embarrassing loss during a forgettable
season. How bad has it gotten for Texas? The game program printed the results for the
year so far and decided to “invent” a win over Baylor, reversing the actual
score.
By the way, Austin, USC is coming to play there in 2018. I’ll be back
Fight on,
Hans
