Food Photo(s) Friday - Love Balls Bus
Thank god for food trailers. They've been scurrying to plug up some of the holes in our food scene. Take Love Balls Bus, for instance. They've brought a Japanese street food called takoyaki to East Sixth Street. In case you're not acquainted with takoyaki (I wasn't), they're balls of savory pancake filled with octopus, pickled ginger, and green onions, and fried to order. Before serving, they top the balls with a brown sauce, kewpie mayo, aonori, and bonito flakes, which curl and twirl as if they are alive and look disturbingly like giant flakes of fish food.
Takoyaki - $6 for eight balls.
This was my first foray with takoyaki, and I'll admit that I wasn't quite expecting them to be quite so...glutinous...inside. I liked them, but preferred Love Balls' garlic yaki-onigiri, which was like a big, delicious ball of comfort food to me. Sushi rice is formed into a ball and grilled in garlic soy sauce till it's just a little crunchy on the outside. I could've eaten an army of these, and at $3 for two large balls, that's a possibility. It comes with a slice of nori, so you can just wrap it up and go.
Takoyaki made to order, anyone?
Love Balls Bus
1001 E. 6th Street
Austin, TX 78702
Website
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i first heard about this truck last week from twitter and omg. looks better than i imagined!
ReplyDeleteSounds amazing. I'm now following them on Twitter, bookmarked them on Yelp, and am plotting the next time I get buzzed in East Austin so I can experience this!
ReplyDeleteOh yum! I love how you put more than one photo =) The yaki-onigiri looks amazing. I definitely need to go try this place =)
ReplyDeleteLove balls? Funny!
ReplyDeleteYou have no idea how excited and happy I am that you wrote a post about this place so I can discover it! My mom drools whenever Andrew Z and Anthony B feature Japanese street food on TV. This is now at the top of my to try list!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
ReplyDeleteNice post! Awesome that it's in a short bus :) You might want to check out Luaus, which has the Hawaiian version of onigiri... with Spam. They call it musubi.
ReplyDeletePeter, I've been meaning to try Luau's, too. I saw a Food Network bit on Spam musubi last night, and was positively drooling. I didn't know Luau's had it, so thanks for the heads-up!
ReplyDeleteI've had it, quite good but very salty! I also want to try their loco moco. I blogged about how awesome they were from my Hawaii trip and now we have them here in Austin. http://thetastingbuds.com/2010/01/hawaii-eat-like-a-local-6-great-foods-that-wont-break-the-bank/
ReplyDeletePeter, I love that blog post. The musubi pics you posted showed a pretty high Spam-to-rice ratio; the ones I saw on Food Network the other day had just a tiny chunk of Spam in them, which seemed like it would balance the saltiness out better. Are the ones at Luau's similar to the ones depicted in your Hawaii post?
ReplyDeleteThat loco moco kind of scares me...but I'll try anything once...
The Luau's ones are pretty high on the spam to rice ratio and are quite salty. I liked them, but I would definitely recommend a drink!
ReplyDeleteLoco Moco is tasty! Like something you would invent if those are the last few ingredients in your fridge - it was actually invented by cheap college kids.