Food from Austin Texas
A Weekend of Fun and Good Food in Austin Texas, plus BlogHerFood 2013!

Back when I was a relatively new digital camera user, I used to do a blog feature called Friday Night Photos.   I was taking lots of photos then partly to learn to use my new camera, and it was fun sharing some of them on the blog.  Then I guess it started to feel like work, because I quit doing the photos and started Phase One Fridays, a feature that might be more useful to most of my readers.  But fast forward a few years and now I’m the proud owner of a brand new iPhone5, which takes amazing pictures.  I’m having so much fun snapping photos with my phone that I decided to share them on the blog once in a while.  This first batch is from my visit to Austin, Texas last weekend, where I was attending BlogHerFood 2013 and hanging out with a few of my favorite blogging friends.

I went to Austin a day early so I could spend a day with my blogging BFF Lydia and her husband Ted, and we had a great time visiting the LBJ Presidential Library (a must see) and eating lunch at Hillside Farmacy (where apparently I didn’t take any photos, but the lunch was great.)  On the walk back to the hotel we passed this famous Austin eatery, where the “sold out” sign was on the door.

 

That night we couldn’t get into Uchi, so we switched gears completely and ended up at Curra’s Grill, where the Mexican food was wonderful.  I can’t remember what this was, but the black refried beans looked good.

This was my plate of cheese enchiladas with Verde sauce, Mexican rice, and refried pinto beans.  Two thumbs up.

Ted had one of the mole dishes, served with refried pintos and Mexican rice.  Our only regret about this restaurant was that none of us had the avocado margaritas!

Curra’s Grill
612 East Oltorf Street
Austin, Texas 78704
(512) 444-0012

Friday night I went to La Condesa with Ted, Lydia, Donna, Sandy, and Stephanie.  We shared two of the Guacamole Tasting samplers, and I especially loved the guacamole with crab.  (How could that not be good?)

The Mexican-Style Street corn was amazing.  DO NOT MISS THIS if you ever eat here, whether it’s on your diet or not!

La Condesa
400A West 2nd Street
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 499-0300

Saturday most of the conference attendees went on a food truck excursion.  That sounded pretty hot to us, and Stephanie had a car, so we drove out to Driftwood and went to The Salt Lick for lunch.  Here’s the big open barbecue you see when you first walk in the door.  The Salt Lick is really a destination more than just a restaurant, and there was a huge crowd there for lunch on Saturday afternoon.

This is definitely a down-home place with melamine plates, and a standard barbecue menu.  This was brisket with potato salad and beans.

There’s also sausage (very good!) if you’d like that with your brisket, potato salad, and beans.

This was my plate with a smaller portion or brisket, coleslaw, and beans.  I skipped the potato salad, because by now I had definitely been overdoing it on the diet splurges.

And if you can possibly manage to save room for it, the peach cobbler was excellent.

The Salt Lick
18300 FM 1826
Driftwood, TX 78619
(512) 858-4959

Saturday night we wandered out of our hotel for a final dinner and ended up at El Sol Y la Luna where the food was excellent (if only we had been a little hungrier!)  This was a plate of Tacquitos, reportedly very good.

If I went back I would definitely try these Fish Tacos that both Ted and Lydia ordered.

El Sol Y la Luna
600 E 6th St
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 444-7770

The final closing party for BlogHerFood 2013 was at another famous barbecue place.  We made a short appearance, but didn’t manage to stay for much of the food, music, or dancing.  Guess we’ll have to try this next time we make it to Austin.

Have you been to Austin and sampled the food and local culture?   If so, please leave a comment and let us know about places where you had some good food there!

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