Good Friends, Good Food

Eating good food with good friends makes the dining experience infinitely better. This past weekend, a group of beautiful women got to do just that!

After several e-mails back and forth, a house was booked in Austin for a Girls Weekend!! With everyone living in different cities across Texas, we figured Austin would be a fun and neutral city to escape to!

Some of us haven't seen each other in a year so it was nice to hang out with old friends (one since 7th grade) and make some new friends (my sister invited some of her friends from Dallas).

After we checked into our temporary abode, the folks who got to the house early, made a short trek to check out a couple of food trailers on S. Lamar. The house was about a 15 minute walk from where we needed to go, but I figured we could use the exercise since we were about to stuff our faces with calorie-laden donuts.

The place we settled on was Gourdough's . Gourdough's describes itself as "Big.Fat.Donuts" - if it fits! The Gourdough's trailer is actually on an empty lot occupied by two other food trailers - one is a smoothie place and I think the other one is Odd Duck.

We showed up around 12 p.m. and there were a couple of other tables, but it wasn't too busy.

We ordered the following:
(2) Mother Clucker: fried chicken strip with honey butter
(1) Flying Pig: bacon with maple syrup icing
(1) The Puddin': basically banana pudding on a donut
(1) Funky Monkey: grilled bananas and cream cheese icing with brown sugar

There were 5 donuts and 6 bellys - would we be able to finish off these donuts?!?!

The Mother Clucker was like eating chicken 'n' waffles, but without the delicious waffle. The mix of savory and sweet worked harmoniously. The donut batter actually tastes like tube biscuit dough that they threw into the deep fryer. Do you know what I'm talking about? That's how my mom used to make donuts at home!

{Mother Clucker and Funky Monkey}

Huong wanted something oinky so she opted for the Flying Pig to satiate her bacon craving. This dish was good but almost overly sweet for me. Maybe they should put bacon bits in the actual donut batter?

{Flying Pig at the top of the pic}

My sister loves banana pudding so it was a no-brainer to order The Puddin'. This one was actually delicious. The mix of pudding, bananas, and dough was perfect. Not too sweet and the fruit cuts through the fat.

{Linda stuffing her face with puddin'}

The Funky Monkey was my favorite of the day. I liked how the caramelized bananas gave a depth of flavor to the cloying sweetness of the icing and sugar.

The original six girls couldn't finish the five donuts, but when two other friends showed up, the donuts were gone!

To make the sugar coma go down a little easier, we got some cold drinks from the Smoothie place on the other corner of the lot. The girl inside the trailer had just started a few days before, so there was a slight delay in our drinks. My iced coffee was fine but some of the other ladies said their fruit smoothies were too sweet.

{waiting for our cool drinks on a hot day}

All of that sugar got us through a day of swimming and kayaking!

That night, we went trolling 6th street for some cheap drinks and a shakin' dance floor. There weren't that many cheap drinks, but we did get to shake our booties at a few places!

After a night of dancing and walking, on our way back to our cars, we came across Chi'Lantro. I actually had Chi'Lantro on my list but I honestly forgot that it was at a corner that we were going to walk pass.

{I see the light across the street! photog: Frida}

Chi'Lantro is basically a fusion of Korean BBQ and Tacos! Yummy Korean beef in a corn taco? Give me two please!

All of us ordered at least one type of taco and we also got one order of the kim chi fries! Yes, you read that right.

{that guy in the background is eyeing that taco!}

The beef in my taco was good but I actually thought the corn tortilla overpowered the beef. The taco was not lacking in juices though. P.S. get extra napkins!

{doing what I do best - photog: frida}

The kim chi fries were cheese fries adorned with bits of kim chi. I could've used more kim chi on those fries, but I am also a kim chi fiend, so I might not be the right person to judge this.

{how many girls does it take to eat a plate of kim chi fries? - photog: elena}

{digging into some kim chi fries!}

We arrived at the food truck just at the right time: 1:45 a.m. By the time we were noshing on our goods, the 2 a.m. crowd was starting to extend the line to the street.

Even though I only put a small dent in the Austin food trucks, I'm glad I was able to share these places with some great friends!

Thanks for a Fabulous Weekend!!