Taco Journalism is bringing you the real deal breakfast tacos to the downtown area! We know the breakfast taco options downtown are limited so we are partnering with our friends Tacodeli, Joe's Bakery and Mi Madre's to make sure you get your fix before you leave town!
We will also have fresh coffee by Thunderbird Coffee and freebies by Cafe Bustelo!
Come hungry my friends!
The Taco Journalists
More info on Facebook
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Here's a quick listing of taco places in around a lot of the SXSW venues. Be warned: some of these taco places are aggresively mediocre, but are included because of their proximity to festival sites. Read the blurb before going.
Austin is definitely known for it's breakfast tacos, from a straight up bean and cheese to potato and eggs to a classic migas taco. And now the world may know a little more about why we love our breakfast tacos! A couple of months ago, I had the tough job of representing the Taco Journalism Mafia in an interview with John T. Edge who writes the United Tastes column in the New York Times. Yeah, the NYT! The story tried to crack the Texan/Mexicanism of the breakfast taco. Did he succeed? You be the judge. Check out the story and our little quote...IN THE NEW YORK TIMES!!! YES, I'M YELLING WITH EXCITEMENT!!!
Tacos in the Morning? That's the Routine in
So in honor of the story and breakfast tacos everywhere, I give you the TJ Breakfast Taco list...
Top Breakfast tacos in the ATX
Tacodeli – The Vaquero: Eggs, grilled corn, roasted poblano 
&
Porfirio’s Tacos – Bean and Egg taco
Joe’s Bakery – Bean, Egg and Bacon (bacon is lightly battered and deep fried)
Mi Madre’s – Machacado taco
Luviano’s – Barbacoa taco
La Mexicana Bakery – Chorizo and egg taco
Did I miss any? Tell us about it!
Stay hungry my friends!
Mando
Taco Journalist
I have been taking South 1st to work every day for the last two years, and about six months ago I noticed a new taco truck establishment on the northbound side of the street. It’s hard to miss, painted bright yellow, sitting in the parking lot of Creditland Cars, advertising “pambasos” as their feature menu item. Pambasos! Hit the brakes! Now I’ve seen some interesting taco truck items, such as discada or capechano tacos, or non-taco items such as sincronizadas or grilled corn niblets in a cup doused in mayonnaise. But pambasos! They haunted me for six months until finally one night we decided to try them once and for all.
Although I was there on an undercover mission for Taco Journalism, I couldn’t help trying the non-taco items, if only because I’ve never seen them anywhere else in Austin. That’s because Antojitos Mexicanos serves up Mexico City style fare – and that’s a rarity in Austin, which is overrun by Jalisco style Mexican cuisine. The taco selection isn’t very expansive at Antojitos and includes easily recognizable items such pastor, picadillo, tripa, and chicharron, but it also offers a few more unique tacos such as tinga and rajas con chorizo. I’ll have to try them next time. But for now, I introduce to you the pambaso and the huarache.
The pambaso begins with a large bread roll lightly fried in chile colorado sauce. There are a variety of fillings, but I wanted my first pambaso in the most traditional way possible, so the staff suggested a filling of picadillo (ground beef with small cubed potatoes). Before the filling goes in the sandwich, they add a thin layer of refried beans as the glue. It is then topped with shredded lettuce, sour cream, queso fresco, and salsa verde. It was not quite as savory as I’d imagined, but it was super filling for the price and unlike any other sandwich I’ve had in Austin. Originality goes a long way with Undercover Mexican Girl.
We also tried the huarache, the preparation of which we witnessed starting from the ball of dough used to make the flour tortilla. After the ball is formed, it is punched in on one side, and refried beans are mashed into the center. Then the tortilla is flattened out using a traditional wooden press. After the tortilla is flattened into an oblong shape – into the shape of huarache (sandal) – it is cooked on the skillet and then lightly fried. Then it is topped with salsa verde, onions, and queso fresco. So, basically, it’s an open-faced quesadilla, with a thin layer of beans cooked inside the tortilla itself. And if all shoes tasted like this huarache, then give me a cowboy boot.
It was cold that night, and when they offered hot chocolate, I first had to know – was it real hot chocolate? Because I will drink the powdered stuff if forced to, but cocoa processed with alkali is not a UMG-approved hot beverage. Not only did they have real hot chocolate – it was Abuelita hot chocolate. I will eat that chocolate right out of the box, going to all lengths to saw off a perfect triangle wedge off the disc. To top it off, it was made with honest to goodness milk.
All in all, our bill rang up to about $10 (one pambaso, one huarache, and two hot chocolates).
When you’re getting a late-night antojito – a craving – head south of Ben White to Antojitos Mexicanos. And I admit, it’s fun to say it. Pambaso!
Antojitos Mexicanos - 5 Stars - Undercover Mexican Girl
4221 South 1st
(parking lot of Creditland Cars)
(512) 803-5099
Hours:
Monday - Thursday: 7 AM - 10 PM
Friday: 7 AM - 3 AM
Saturday: 9 AM - 3 AM
Sunday: 12 PM - 9:30 PM
At least it was for the Taco Journalism team. We probably ate more than 300 tacos this year and if you look at my belly, it shows! 2009 hit some people pretty hard but luckily for us, we mostly ate at cheap taco joints and were able to survive "these economic times." We did eat a lot of tacos, met some cool peeps, collaborated on projects (yeah, just like the hop-hop moguls), traveled a bit, ate more tacos, got our 15 seconds of fame, added a girl Taco Journalist to the team and watched a man eat 26 tacos in 15 minutes! All this and we all managed to keep our day jobs!
So here's a quick recap, from our taco world to yours!
Austin Taco Tours
Who knew tacos would bring so many people out for the rainiest East Austin Taco Bike Tour we hosted with TastyTouring? Yeah, I remember seeing all those bike riders (40+) at Porfirio's then it rained on our way to Piedras Negras & Marcelino's but the troopers stayed strong (20ish) finishing at Mi Madre's. We ate a lot of tacos aguados that day!
for Dishola and recruited some pretty committed pork eating peeps. Austin is not D.F. and we don't do our al pastor trompo stlye but we can definitely pass the health inspections. For this tour, we had to try the best al pastor taco in town. We searched far and wide; not really, we just went to 5 taquerias: El Taquito, Rosita's Al Pastor, La Guera, El Primo y La Flor. La Guera won hands down and we got a vid to prove it! We also had a pro photographer (Penny De Los Santos) taking the most amazing photos of any taco you'll ever see!
Well, I didn't get a call back. That's pretty much rejection, right? Gotta keep trying though. We need a show that shines the light on all the taquerias from Austin to Akron, Ohio, right???
Muchisimas gracias to my friend, Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon for filming and everyone else for your ayuda!
Now for your viewing pleasure (or not), here's my rejected Next Food Network Star try-out video...
Last week, I was in the outskirts of D-town, a place called Carrollton/Farmers Branch. Yeah, the same place that tried to ban colorful houses. Anyway, I went to this Mexican joint with the fam and found something curious while I was there....Chones - aka calsones/underwear/boxers, pronounced cho-nees! Yeah, can you believe it??? I didn't but it was true. I even made a short video of it. Check it out...
Have any stories to compare??? I've heard cucarachas and ratones, but chones?? Can you beat it?
El Mundo de Mando
One Taco is a new-ish taco truck operating in the parking lot of the Little Woodrow's on West 6th street. One of the previous occupants of that spot was a Torchy's Tacos. So it is understandable that One Taco can't help but echo some of what people like and dislike about Torchy's. It is self-consciously stylish and clean. It is a bit overpriced (the price's don't approach Torchy's levels though). They both use high quality ingredients and neither serves 'traditional tacos'.
The differentiator, then, seems to be in the menu. Torchy's has a sprawling menu with tons of variations. One Taco took a zen-like approach with a minimalist menu: for lunch they serve breakfast, steak or chicken tacos. No crazy tacos named after fake sexual positions are served here. With such a limited menu, those tacos better be awesome.
