Melted Food Truck

Recently, the management of our office complex has been arranging for various food trucks to visit us at lunch time. Our office has very few food options nearby, so this development is quite exciting. I love trying new food trucks but I hate eating outside when the temperature is in the 90s, so being able to take the food back to my delightfully climate-controlled office is pretty happy-making.

One of my favorites of the parade of trucks that has come by is the Melted Grilled Cheese Truck. Their menu piqued my interest immediately - almost every single one of their offerings sounded like something I wanted to eat. After much internal debate, I settled on a Farmer's Market BLT ($10). There were a bunch of us ordering from our office, so we also got a couple sides of tater tots ($2) and a side of Asian crunch salad ($3).

The Asian salad was pretty well portioned for $3, but it could have used a little more oomph, maybe a bit of salt or acid to zing it up a bit. This would be an easy fix, though, and it was nice to have something relatively healthy to help justify the tater tots.

While I'd be hard pressed to recall a tater tot I didn't like, these tots were excellent specimens - nice potato flavor with a satisfyingly crunchy exterior.

The Farmer's Market BLT was excellent. The flavors and textures played perfectly off one another. Tangy goat cheese, juicy fried green tomatoes, crispy bacon, spicy arugula, garlic aioli - the ingredients are a virtual greatest hits of "things I like on sandwiches." And the locally-made sourdough bread was just the right texture - awesomely buttery-toasty, but soft enough to avoid feeling like I was scratching up the roof of my mouth. Full disclosure: approximately ten napkins were harmed during the "research" for this blog post.

Best of all, 100% (yes, you read that correctly) of the truck's profits are donated to the International Justice Mission, an organization that works to protect people in developing countries from violence.

In a saturated food truck market, it can be overwhelming to figure out which to try. My vote is that you put Melted at the top of your list. Delicious food and a charitable cause make this truck a standout from my perspective.

Melted Food Truck
Mobile locations - check here to find out where they'll be
(512) 710-MELT

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Banh MANIA! ~ Discovering the Best Banh Mi in Austin ~

Many, MANY years ago, I had a conversation with fellow food blogger Peter about putting together a banh mi taste-off. Fast forward a few years, and an Instagram post by another fellow food blogger, Dave, gelled the guest list and we were off to the races! We had seven families participating, so we collectively chose seven restaurants to try and to standardize things, we ordered both combination and grilled pork banh mi from each spot (except for Lulu B's, which doesn't offer a combination sandwich - there, we instead got lemongrass chicken). On the appointed date, we converged in one spot with 33 sandwiches, a bag of mini cream puffs, a massive tin of Julie's love letter cookies, a couple of amazing homemade bagels, the ingredients for Vietnamese coffee, and a diverse set of palates for a real life Banh Mi Throwdown.

The restaurants:
• Tam Deli
• Thanh Nhi
• Ng BMT
• Saigon Le Vendeur
• Baguette House
• Lily's
• Lulu B's

The tasters:
Kristin & Chris
Peter & MJ
Linda & Mitch
Suzanna
David & Laura
Jimmy & Amber
...and me!

Preparing for the inevitable photo shoot

The lineup

From left to right: Lulu B's, Saigon Le Vendeur, Baguette House

(combo on the bottom, grilled pork on top)

From left to right: Thanh Nhi, Ng BMT, Lily's

(combo on the bottom, grilled pork on top)

Trying to choose favorites - particularly based on 1/6th of a sandwich whose ingredients weren't likely spread evenly throughout - was pretty difficult. There was much tasting and re-tasting before we finally sat down and compared notes. Here were my favorites & the group winners:

Combination Sandwich - My Favorite: Saigon Le Vendeur

This sandwich was fantastic. I had eaten SLV's combination sandwich before and remembered it being pretty good, but this time they really wowed me. This one had LOTS of pâté, which I love, and it was bursting with pickled veggies that still tasted super fresh and crunchy.

Two restaurants tied for my second place favorite: Tam and Lily's.

Combination Sandwich - Group Favorite: Baguette House

I was a little surprised that this one was the popular favorite; I had only given it a 7/10 (and my lowest-rated combination sandwich was a 6/10). I thought the meat tasted too...lunch meat-y and there wasn't nearly enough pâté (which may very well be the reason it was the crowd favorite - turns out pâté is sort of polarizing). I did, however, like their crusty bread and they had a higher meat-to-bread ratio than some of the others, which I appreciated.

Grilled Pork Sandwich - My Favorite: Saigon Le Vendeur

and

Grilled Pork Sandwich - Group Favorite: Saigon Le Vendeur

Again, Saigon Le Vendeur impressed me with their grilled pork sandwich - and this time, the group average agreed. The seasoning on the pork was outstanding and the meat itself was super tender. The uber fresh tasting pickled veggies helped elevate the sandwich to winning status. Tied for second place on my list were Lulu B's and Ng BMT.

In case you're a data nerd, here are the group average ratings for each sandwich:

Combination:
• Baguette House - 7.6
• Tam Deli - 6.83
• Ng BMT - 6.55
• Saigon Le Vendeur - 6.45
• Lily's - 6.25
• Thanh Nhi - 5.88
(Lulu B's scored lowest with a 5.5, but it was their lemongrass chicken, so not an apples-to-apples comparison.)

Grilled Pork:
• Saigon Le Vendeur - 7.4
• Tam Deli - 6.8
• Lulu B's - 6.6
• Ng BMT - 6.55
• TIE - Thanh Nhi & Lily's - 5.6
• Baguette House - 5.0

Banh Mania made Violet happy, too!

This was a really fun afternoon and I loved the opportunity to bahn-d with blogger friends. The side-by-side comparisons really highlighted the differences amongst the various options. The good news is that there wasn't a single sandwich here that I wouldn't eat again. We're lucky to live in a city with such a bahn-anza of Vietnamese sandwich options.

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The Day I Became a Sandwich Lover: Lucky's Puccias

Have you ever had the experience of eating something so amazing that you immediately regretted all those previous meals that didn't involve said item?

That happened to me last week during my first visit to Lucky's Puccias.

Nestled on the patio of the Tiniest Bar in Texas, Lucky's offers up wood-fired Italian sandwiches. Now, sandwiches aren't usually my first choice when it comes to selecting a meal; I love bread, but for some reason, I don't usually want it taking up so much space in the main course compartment of my plate. But the wood-fired goodness that is Lucky's puccia bread is more like soft, airy, fragrant pizza dough. Nestle some paper-thin prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, juicy tomato, peppery arugula, basil oil (!!!), and chipotle mayo up in there, and you've got yourself a serious treat.


The Lucky's Puccia, $9.25

They don't bake the bread till you order it, so it comes out hot and fresh and warms up the ribbons of prosciutto so that they very nearly melt in your mouth. Seriously, I'm getting all verklempt over here just thinking about this thing.

Which is why I'm adding this more or less redundant post to the chorus of bloggers and Yelpers and other food writers who have already covered this place - in case there is a single poor soul out there who hasn't been, perhaps I might help light their path to the mecca that is Lucky's Puccias.

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