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What I Ate: June 23, 2010 (Maria Maria, Chi'Lantro)

Posted 24 June, 2010 at 8:11pm by Michael Chu
(Filed under: Food, What I Ate)

Dinner: We went to a food blogger event at Maria Maria (415 Colorado Street, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 687-6800‎) and tasted several of their tasty dishes.

Beef and Chicken Nachos. I really liked the combination of pickled onions, marinated jalapenos, zesty salsa, and crunchy tortilla chip in their version of nachos.
Maria Maria - Beef and Chicken Nachos

Crispy Chicken Flautas. Decent tasting, but nothing special.
Maria Maria - Crispy Chicken Flautas

Soft Duck Tacos. These rolled tacos are stuffed full of tender duck. My problem with it was that I thought the sweet sauce was a little overbearing and the duck wasn't strongly flavored enough. A lot of other food bloggers loved these duck tacos though, so they are certainly worth trying.
Maria Maria - Soft Duck Tacos

Braised Short Ribs. I really liked the short ribs which were cooked until perfectly tender. Often, short ribs can be a bit bland if the cut it too large (it's hard for any seasonings to penetrate deep into the cut even with a long braise), but this was solved with the flavorful cooked chiles served with it.
Maria Maria - Braised Short Ribs

Housemade Sorbets. I only tried the lime sorbet which was made with just lime and lime zest (along with sugar and water). The lime flavor was exceedingly strong and very pleasant. I'm a big fan of lime, so having such a potent (but not so sour as to cause the mouth to pucker) lime sorbet was very nice.
Maria Maria - Housemade Sorbets

After the event, we saw this food truck parked across the street from where I parked the car. It's Chi'Lantro (a portmanteau of Kim Chi and Cilantro - two distinctive flavors from the two cultural cuisines they brought together - Korean and Mexican). The truck moves around, so the best way to find out where they are is to check the website or follow them on twitter (@chilantrobbq) or look them up on Facebook.
Chi'Lantro Korean BBQ Taco Truck

We tried the Beef Taco (Marinated Beef / Chi'Lantro Salsa / Julienne Lettuce in Korean Chili Soy Vinaigrette; Cilantro, Onion, and Green Onions / Roasted Sesame Seeds; Garnished with Lime Wedge, $2) with kimchi and it tasted great. It was like eating some bulgogi wrapped up in corn tortillas with a really flavorful kimchi salsa.
Chi'Lantro - Beef Taco

We also had the Spicy Pork Taco with kimchi and thought that was just as good. If we hadn't already eaten at Maria Maria, we would have probably ordered a couple more tacos. They also have burritos, burgers, and quesadillas for $5.
Chi'Lantro - Spicy Pork Taco

Lunch: Leftover jalapeno sausage and collard green pasta.
Leftover jalapeno sausage and collard green pasta

2 comments to What I Ate: June 23, 2010 (Maria Maria, Chi'Lantro)

erinmcr, August 26th, 2010 at 5:19 pm:

  • Is that little heart-shaped pasta? How adorable. This sounds really really good right now.

Michael Chu, August 27th, 2010 at 1:11 pm:

  • Heart shaped pasta made by Maestri Pastrai. We got this bag back when Cissi's Market was selling it.

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