Weekend Foodtrip: Austin, Part Two

The Setting: A day of thunder.

The Soundtrack: See above.

Steaming up the Oven: Nada...but who knows what the day will bring?

The Scenario: Food-trippin' in Austin, continued....

When the sun rose on day two, Hoosband was still full from dinner.

I, however, shot out of bed with an intense desire--nay, a mission--for more donuts.

Howdy Donuts, though quite good, would not suffice today.

I wanted something different, something...weird--after all, it was Austin.

Again I turned to the net.

Typing "crazy donuts austin tx" into my browser, I came up with several options.

One of them was right on the money.

Gourdough's is a specialty donut shop operating out of a shiny converted Airstream in one of Austin's food-truck shantytowns on South 1st Street. Most of their creations are more like meals (or desserts...which for me are often one in the same) than mere nuts of dough.

Hoosband and I split the Flying Pig, a hefty donut supporting a generous drizzle of melted maple icing and a mountain of crispy, paper-thin bacon;

And the Funky Monkey, which sends cream cheese icing, brown sugar, and chunks of grilled bananas on a first-class flight to Heaven in your mouth.

I was up for a round-two featuring the Sailor Jerry (rum-cake inspired) and the Mother Clucker (with fried chicken and honey butter), but this time the Voice of Reason won out.

It's not an easy job being the VOR, but if Hoosband didn't do it, we would both weigh 400 pounds.

Thus, we loaded ourselves back into the car to do a little sightseeing.

After checking out the state capitol, doing a little shopping at the Whole Foods Market flagship store, and hitting the trails at Zilker one last time, we trekked back to Tacodeli to give their lunch tacos a try.

While the Papadulce (sweet potatoes, grilled corn, caramelized onions, toasted pumpkin seeds) was both beautiful and tasty, if I were told I could never again experience the Mojo Fish Taco (grilled tilapia, garlic sauce, homemade guac, and pico), I would probably cry.

Additional recommendations? El Popeye for breakfast (scrambled organic eggs, perfectly blanched spinach, queso fresco), locally made chocolate-chip cookies for dessert, and the vibrantly spicy, baby-green Salsa Dona on pretty much anything.

Hoosband's picks: anything and everything involving meat on corn tortillas, especially the Akaushi Picadillo (Texas Wagyu, roasted garlic, caramelized onions, tomato, cheese, jalapeno...).

Sufficiently fueled for the road, we set out once again for Dallas, plotting our next trip to Austin the whole way home.

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life.