Buuurrrrppppppppp

I didn't update on Saturday because I was entirely too full of food to even think, let alone type and think at the same time.

Allow me to explain, the city in which we live has a large number of gypsy trailers that serve wonderful food.  Cupcakes, chicken and waffles, tacos, coffee, thai, bbq, sushi, crepes, sno-cones, pizza, po'boys, kettle corn, you can get anything you want from a shiny Airstream equipped with a kitchen.  If you're looking to get the most out of the city of Austin, go down to South Congress and get a Mighty Cone crunchy chicken wrap (a nice strip of fried chicken in a sweet/hot thai peanut sauce with a cole slaw like salad inside a tortilla, served in a paper cone) before heading over to Hey Cupcake!  for a red velvet cupcake while keeping an eye out for Leslie.

Who is Leslie?  This is Leslie:

Our cross-dressing, claims to be homeless, unofficial mayor.  Scott's been living here so long he doesn't even notice when Leslie walks by anymore, even when he doesn't have a cupcake he misses Leslie.  I like to hang out on SoCo during high tourist season and say hello to Leslie, making the out-of-town visitors cringe.

Saturday, we got many of things we love about our town at the Gypsy Picnic Trailer Food Festival, put on by Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School of Austin.

We had trailer food, great weather and live music all with the Austin skyline looking over us.

There were thirty trailers, all with their various decorations selling smaller servings of their wares.  Moroccan burgers at The Flying Carpet, sausage sandwiches at Man Bites Dog, cake on a stick at Holy Cacao and doughnuts from Gourdough's-- Big, Fat Doughnuts.

That last place?  They offer something called The Flying Pig, a doughnut topped with maple syrup and bacon.  Yes, bacon, because bacon makes everything better.

When Scott walked up with it, I was first repulsed and then I wanted nothing more than a bite of the thing.  And it was really, really delicious, like, nearly sexual delicious, totally unable to describe delicious, I'll remember that for years delicious.  Like pancakes with bacon, but much lighter.  I can't describe it exactly, you'll have to have one for yourself.

As we were wandering around sampling all this great stuff and listening to the live music that is ubiquitous in Austin, we ran into a bunch of people we knew including a teacher from Zoe's school.    It was nice to see people and exchange notes on what was good, what we'd liked, how loud the current band was and other niceties.

But, it was all about the food.  All of it was good, really, really good, much better than what you'd expect from a mobile kitchen.  My favorite was the frozen hot chocolate, drinking chocolate blended with ice cream and ice with whipped cream on the top.  I did share it out with the family, but I guzzled most of it myself.  The best part was when it got melty and I could slurp up the wonderfully rich and sweet chocolate mixed with the melted ice cream, velvety and smooth, the kind of taste that makes you close your eyes.

My friend Kevin said that the full you experience after eating high quality food is very different from the full you experience after eating at Denny's.  Well, I was the former kind of full, sated and happy, a little drowsy but not feeling like a bloated tick.

The kind of full where you think to yourself "You know, I have a bunch of stuff to do.  But, I think the most important thing right now is to take a nap."

And just so you can have a different picture than the one above, here is the Flying Pig in all it's glory:

Amanda's beauty tip of the day:  If you've eaten a lot of salt, be sure to up your water intake to prevent your face from getting too bloated.