Road to Milwaukee: Day 6

Today marks the halfway point of our 12 day cross-country road trip and what a special day it was. Jonny has been looking forward to trying the famed brisket at Austin’s Franklin BBQ for years now, and we were finally going to make it happen! This morning we grabbed some Tex-Mex breakfast tacos to-go from Torchy’s Tacos and headed to Franklin to wait in their infamous line. Franklin BBQ technically opens at 11am for lunch each day but closes its doors within hours because they run out of food. Especially on weekends, people start getting in line as early as 7am to ensure themselves a meal.

Luckily, we planned out our itinerary so that we would be visiting on a Tuesday, but when we rolled into Franklin around 9:30am there was still already quite a long line! We brought our camping chairs and settled in for a wait in line while others around us drank beer, homemade mimosa, and played cards against humanity. An employee at Franklin’s came down the line a couple times to ask about everyone’s meat orders so that they could estimate when they would run out. It sounded like there would be enough food for us (whew!) and we were given an approximate eating time of 11:40am (though it was closer to 12:30pm).

And wow, was the 2.5 hour wait worth it (though toward the end of the wait I was really starting to feel the heat)! We ordered a half pound of their famous brisket, a half pound of pork ribs, and two sides of potato salad and coleslaw. The meat was incredibly tender and tasty, and we enjoyed every bite.

 

“Franklin’s meat is the Toro sashimi of BBQ” – Jonathan Horng

Next stop in Austin was a visit to the Texas state capitol, a building originally erected in 1888. The self-guided indoor tour was a welcome respite from the heat and humidity, and we got to see old courtrooms and the current Texas house of representatives meeting room.

On our way out of Austin, we visited Holy Cacao for their nationally recognized frozen hot chocolate (essentially a blended beverage made with European hot chocolate, locally-made Austin chocolate ice cream, and ice). It was delicious and definitely the best frozen hot chocolate we’ve ever tasted!

After a two hour drive to Houston, we headed to the Gerald D. Hines Waterwall Park, a huge and beautiful sculpture/fountain in the uptown area. Jonny and I agreed that the waterwall was “the bean” of Houston, a perfect spot for people watching and taking photos!

On our last road trip, we listened to an episode of “The Splendid Table” podcast in which a writer for the Washington Post declared Houston as one of “the 10 best food cities in America” largely because of its culinary diversities. For dinner tonight, we sampled Houston’s signature “Asian-Cajun seafood boil” at LA Crawfish (a sight similar to Boiling Crab). This fusion dish was created by Vietnamese chefs who gave an Asian twist to the traditional Louisiana crawfish boil by adding lemongrass and ginger and serving it with a garlic and butter sauce. There are many of these types of restaurants throughout Houston, and many also serve pho and other Vietnamese dishes as well! We enjoyed 2 lbs of delicious crawfish (so much work to eat though) and some surprisingly spicy garlic noodles and called it a night!

Road to Milwaukee: Day 5

This morning we were warmly welcomed with an amusing Texas-shaped hotel waffle at breakfast!

Our original plan today was to head straight to Austin, but we had a last minute change of heart and decided to take a 30 minute detour and add San Antonio, Texas to the itinerary (cause why not?!).

Whenever we visit a new city, we like to do some research and learn about the area’s local and iconic foods. This process usually reveals some pretty interesting information about the history and culture of the community and almost always rewards us with a delicious meal. In San Antonio, we stopped for lunch at Henry’s Puffy Tacos. “Puffy Tacos” are the “unofficial food mascot of San Antonio” and can be distinguished by their puffy fried shell, a similar, yet more tortilla-like version, of the Indian fry bread we tried in Supai, Arizona earlier this year. The puffy taco originated in the 1970s, and its story included sibling rivalries and legal battles for ownership before it eventually settled into a city-wide icon. Our puffy taco meal today included delicious fillings such as carne guisada, shredded chicken, and spicy chicken fajitas!

After lunch we enjoyed a long (and very hot) stroll on the San Antonio River Walk and made our way to The Alamo. I must admit that my knowledge of the Alamo was pretty much limited to Disney’s “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” (and Jonny’s was even less), so we quickly educated ourselves on the enormously significant landmark in Texan and US history. It was sobering but also inspiring to read about the courage and bravery exemplified by the many American soldiers who lost their lives at the Battle of Alamo in efforts to defend their territory and earn Texas their independence from Mexico.

We reached Austin just in time for dinner and headed to Pluckers Wing Bar, a local Texas chicken wing chain recommended to us by our friend Tiffany. Pluckers was founded by two college students at UT Austin in 1995, and they celebrated their 22nd anniversary just yesterday! We sampled some of their sauces with celery sticks before deciding on a combination of gold rush and lemon pepper, accompanied by a refreshing pint of Shiner blonde lager, a Texas specialty.

Tomorrow we get to explore more of Austin and then we are headed to Houston!