The Austin Foodie

The Austin Foodie

COVID in the Kitchen A Quest for Kale Backstage at the Bakery Food Trucks From Everywhere!!

Table of Contents Meet the Editors Page 6

Behind the Dessert

By Mackenzie Waldinger

Page 8

Chocolate Chip Cookies

By Mackenzie Waldinger

Page 12

Cooking Up Covid

By Cyrus Rule

Page 16

March to March

By Cyrus Rule

Page 18

The Hunt For the Best Kale in Austin

By Astrid Gothard

Page 20

Astrid’s Famous Kale Salad

By Astrid Gothard

Page 24

The World of Food in Austin

By Amari Pandian

Page 26

Amari’s ASF

By Amari Pandian

Page 28

Meet The Editors

Hi! I’m Astrid Gothard, a 15-year-old LASA freshman. I love reading, writing, singing, watching Formula 1, and sending overly ethusiastic texts to my best friend. I’m on a competitive mountain bike racing team, and I’m often spending time with my dog, Rubeus. I’ve always been fascinated by the unique culture of farmers markets, and I brought my extreme love of kale to this magazine.

Hello!! I’m Mackenzie Waldinger and freshman at LASA highschool. I am on the Velocity dance team at LASA, as well as a dance company I’ve benn with since I was two. Other than dance, I love painting, playing with my dogs, watching New Girl or really any good show I come across, and baking. I have been baking since I remember. From helping my grandma make desserts for holiday’s to making my friends quick treats baking truly is a big prt of my life. And I hope I can share that with you in this magazine.

Hello! My name is Amari Pandian and I am a freshmen at LASA. I am in the LASA Raptor Band and I am on a rock-climbing team.

In my free time, I love playing my instrument, petting my cat, and hanging out with my rabbit. I’ve always been interested in the diverse food scene in austin and I’m excited to share all of my favorite restaurants with y’all!

Hello, I’m Cyrus Rule and I am a freshman at LASA. I swim with LASA and in my free time I enjoy listening to music, watching TV, playing video games, and on occasion eating food. I really missed going out to eat over this past year and a half, so I decided to take an in depth look at how COVID has effected the restaurant industry here. I hope you enjoy our magazine!

Behind the Dessert

When people think dessert they think a sweet, salty, crispy, gooey, By: Mackenzie Waldinger chewy treat that melts away in your mouth, but there is so much more behind the dessert!

Photo by Lama Roscu on Unsplash

W

ould you have thought to put bacon in ice cream if it hadn’t already been done? Or have dill flavored ice, fried milk, or even a face sized cookie? The creativity of a dessert is what makes the dessert special, but the process of developing and executing the recipes is even

more important.

Making dessert recipes doesn’t seem that difficult, for you just throw some tastes together and it becomes a delicious treat. In some cases this might work, but in reality that isn’t how it works. It is a lot more difficult. The measurements have to be precise

and the reactions with the ingredients need to be successful so the treat doesn’t end up inedible or nasty. Of course the flavors need to work together, but be unique at the same time. There is a lot that goes into making something delicious.

Many bakers bake in

their homes, but having a place to make and sell your desserts is even more rewarding. Amy Simmons started Amy’s Ice Creams to share her creations in 1984. “She [Amy Simmons] opened up the business when she was 21. And when I think back to what I was doing at 21, it amazes me every time because I was not opening up a business at that time. But she is simply amazing.” said Mark Davidson, the CEO of Amy’s Ice Creams.

You could simply see a color or smell something and get the inspiration for a recipe.

“They’ll see a funky flavor like our charcoal ice cream, which is made with actual activated charcoal. And it gives it that black tinge that you kind of see during Halloween,” said Davidson.

Like charcoal in food, ideas can also come from social media. “And we see on

things. Recipes are also developed to taste or look like other foods, drinks, and places around the world. Possibly the most meaningful kind of motivation for a recipe comes from a person or people.

Many recipes even are adapted or copied from families froms years and years ago. “Many of our recipes are either old family recipes with our own twist or recipes we have been making and perfecting for years.” says Paige Karner, the co-owner of Pieous, a pizzeria.

“Our ice cream recipes are developed through our employees, through our customers through random 3:00 AM. thoughts. Oh man, This would taste good,” said Davidson.

The occasion the dessert is used or is a key factor for what the dessert is.

Desserts can be made for many different occasions. This can vary from luxury parties to music festivals to a late night snack “It elevates your mood.You either eat it to celebrate, or you’re eating it to commiserate with someone, but either way it’s a mood.” said Davidson.

social media and people, the public are more accepting because they see those maple bacon done by multiple other ice cream companies” said Mark.

Recipes can also be created from customers. Surprisingly, people don’t need

Mood or occasion is to be a professional chef to the first inspiration for deshave good ideas. But inspiraserts, but you can’t have a rec- tion for desserts don’t always ipe without more inspiration. come from random ideas or

Some recipes are even dedicated to a person. A young girl with cancer named MK inspired a recipe at Amy’s Ice Creams. She would vcome in often and order regular belgian chocolate with M&M’s. Sadly, she did not win her fight with cancer, so Amy’s Ice Creams decided to dedicate “the MK special” to her.

After getting inspiration, the actual recipe development starts. Sometimes a recipe just comes to mind and

other times it takes months and months to perfect it. “I definitely inherited the ultimate Uchi dessert and have made a few changes to it over the past few years while keeping the essence of it.

Who doesn’t love chocolate, fun cereal, and milk together?” said Ariana Quant, the Assistant Pastry Chef at Uchiko.

From the amount of baking soda to the flavoring, a good recipe requires lots of work even if there is already a starting point. “They [her previous recipes] have certainly morphed into new recipes as I learn to break the rules with recipes,” said Adriana Quant.

There have been thousands of years that new recipes have been created, branching out is a key step of creating an interesting recipe.

Photo by Ahwahnee’s Desser on Unsplash

“They [her previous recipes] have certainly morphed into new recipes as I learn to break the rules with recipes,” said Adriana Quant.

Photo by Deve Williamson on Unsplash

And really recipes are never finished because there is no such thing as a perfect recipe.

Once the recipe is drafted, it gets tested and tested, then eventually shared through family, friends, the internet, and even social media.

New recipes actually starters for many trends and popularity. “They’re more likely to accept it because then they’re able to put this funky, awesome flavor up on social media and gain notoriety by posting it,” said Davidson.

Other recipes are taught to incoming generations, family members, close friends, and new employees.

But just giving somebody a recipe is a lot different than actually teaching and learning it. And, just like making the recipe, learning how to execute them is a long pro-

cess. “It takes a lot of work, teachings and many hours of training. Usually, Josh or I work one-on-one with each employee to pass along our proprietary recipes.” said Paige Karner.

Memory and instinct are the main part of learning a recipe. Most bakers and chefs are just born with instinct.

But no matter what, ‘chefs’ instinct develops over time.

So, most of the time learning a recipe is just a matter of repeating them over and over.

“Our pastry cooks will learn the recipes as they spend their days making them each day,” said Quant.

One of the most rewarding things is to finally learn a recipe. But something even more rewarding is teaching somebody else a recipe. “I enjoy teaching and when I can

Photo by Jennifer Palian on Unsplash

“It takes a lot of work, teachings and many hours of training,” said Karner.

Photo by James Lee on Unsplash

share some knowledge with my cooks, it is greatly rewarding,” says Quant. Even if it’s a job, successfully transferring an original recipe or spreading to many others is a great accomplishment.

Then in the end, it’s time to share the finished dessert. Whether it’s just for friends or family, or if it’s made for a restaurant or a big party, the dessert sure went through a lot. From getting inspiration, to the actual construction, to teaching and spreading the recipe and dessert there is a lot behind the actual dessert. So, the next time you find yourself eating a dessert on saturday night think about everything somebody did just for that small treat.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE RECIPE

By: Mackenzie Waldinger

Are you craving something sweet? Somehting crispy on the edge, chewy in the middle and lots of chocolate? Follow this recipe created by me!

INGREDIENTS 1/2 Cups - Salted Butter (melted) 3/4 Cups - Brown Sugar (packed) 1/2 Cups - White Sugar 1 Egg (room-temperature) 1Teaspoon - Vanilla Extract 1 1/4 Cups - AP Flour (sifted) I/2 Teaspoons - Baking Soda 1/2 Teaspoons - Salt 6 oz Chocolate of Choice

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. and line a cookie-sheet with partchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together both sugars and hot butter (doesn’t need to be dissolved).

3. Add in one egg and the vanilla extract, stir until smooth and a light brown color.

4. Then mix in sifted flour, baking powder, and salt til fully combined.

5. Stir in chocolate chips/chunks. At this point you should add in any other toppings you want.

6. Roll cookie dough into balls, it doesn’t matter what size but it will vary the time they cook for.

7. Cook for about 10-15 minutes or until the edges are golden.

An essential worker prepares food in a restaurant during the COVID-19 pandemic

Cooking up Corona: Restaurants in the time of Covid-19

By Cyrus Rule

C

OVID-19 has created profound waves of change for everyone and everything. Millions are out of work, once-bustling streets are empty, and those in the restaurant industry are forced to close their doors and leave their once loud dining halls empty. Everyone has struggled over the pandemic, but those in the restaurant industry have been in a relatively unique position. Restaurants must adapt to ever-changing regulations while balancing the needs of their employees and customers. More than most others, those in the restaurant industry are in a sink or float situation.

One of those who has needed to adapt the most is Raf Robinson, co-owner of SLAB BBQ, whose business had to deal with very abrupt changes. Within a week of the lockdowns, SLAB had gone from “25 people at each of our locations to about three or four at each location.” They also had their business model flipped on its within days, going from “ about 25% of business being takeout and … third-party deliveries, like Uber eats, favor, and door dash” to all business being takeout and delivery.

To combat these challenges, SLAB is having to rethink the way they operate. In the initial stages of the pandemic, many people were scared to leave home, let alone order food. So the restaurant devised a plan to get food to neighborhoods in a safer and more personal way. They call it Neighborhood Deliveries.

I

t allows them to set up a delivery station in a central area of the neighborhood that customers can walk to get their food. This program has been very successful for SLAB and according to Raf, neighborhood deliveries do very well to “encourage people to get outside, walk the neighborhood, and get out of the home if they’ve been locked in.”

Despite this progress, there have still been major hiccups for SLAB. As Raf explains, “a significant portion of the culture of the restaurant is having people come and sit in your space ... and when they can’t come and sit in your space and eat food, then that poses a pretty big problem, especially when you’re still having to pay rent on a space.”

Other restaurants are going through similar struggles. Abel,

Manager of a Chuy’s, says that Measures like barriers between his restaurant struggled to find a booths, enforced social distancing, “balance between having sales and limited capacity do a good job and profit, and also being able of keeping everyone safe while to provide employment for the still allowing for people to enjoy staff. You have a restaurant to remember atmosphere.

“It’s not just about that in most

restaurants, On the staying in business, but it’s not just frontline, things the reason you stay about staying can be very in business because in business, but different. At the reason you the outset of you have families stay in business the pandemic, that depend on because you Angelica, a have families waitress at employment as well that depend on Snooze, was well. ” employment as left “not having well.” Finding a job for an equilibrium between keeping almost a year.” Being an employee employees and customers safe, coming in direct contact with and keeping doors open is customers can be very dangerous. challenging for anyone. Despite Since COVID has become more this, Chuy’s and other restaurants rampant, , she says that everyone have done a remarkable job of has been forced to “be more finding a happy middle ground. aware and take everything a lot

more seriously.” At times, however, it seems people are losing that urgency about the virus. Angelica explains that “in the beginning, when the mask mandate was in play, everyone was wearing masks. Everyone was following sanitation procedures, but as soon as everyone was able to choose if they would like to get vaccinated or not, we kind of lost track of what we were doing. The vaccinated employees had the choice of whether they wanted to wear a mask or not. And I feel like we kind of let go of the strictness that we had in the beginning.”

Because of this looseness, there were times when Snooze had to close because there weren’t enough staff left who hadn’t been exposed to COVID-19 to keep

https://unsplash.com/photos/yTSEb_7-dAc

During the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants have been forced to take many measured to keep customers safe. Some restaurants, like the one pictured, use certain tables and booths as bufers to help maintain social distancing

https://unsplash.com/photos/poAEkff6iys

Essential workers in the COVID-19 pandemic go to great lengths to protect their customers and themselves, often wearing multiple face coverings.

doors open. Customers also became more relaxed as time went on. Angelica recalls that “at first, there were those customers who refused to wear masks, and who would get loud and cause a scene, and we would have to ask them to leave.” However, after Snooze stopped requiring masks, many customers forwent them without thought.

As the pandemic wears on, the mandates are driving many away from the restaurant industry in general. According to Angelica, “There are some [employees] who actually quit because they refuse to wear a mask,” and after restaurants begin requiring employees to be

vaccinated, Angelica is likely to leave the industry as well.

It is hard to overcome pessimism in times like this, but it is important to note that there is a silver lining to the food industry. The pandemic put a huge emphasis on sanitation within the restaurant industry and forced restaurants to be as cleanly as they should have been anyway.

Another long-term effect of the pandemic is going to be the rise of delivery and takeout. Because for a long time, delivery and takeout were the only ways to get food from restaurants, the infrastructure now exists such that almost every restaurant now has a tried and

true system to deliver their food to your door without your moving an inch.

The pandemic has been a devastating time for everyone, restaurants included, and adapting to serve food amidst a global health crisis is no easy task.

However, owning a restaurant has never been easy, and restaurants have found ways to open their doors. These restaurants have managed to create some semblance of normalcy in these trying times and have managed to make due serving food in the COVID-19 pandemic.

March to March The First Year of The Pandemic In Review As the Covid-19 pandemic rages on, and we lick our wounds of 2020, let’s take a moment to look back on the first year of the Coronavirus.

Below is a timeline of important events in Austin’s Covid-19 pandemic along with a graph of cumulative cases.

March: Austin Declares a State of Emergency. Travis County closes bars and restaurant dining rooms and limits gatherings of more than 10 people. Travis County reports its first death. The U.S. reaches 100,000 cases.

May: Visitation at county and municipal jails is prohibited.

Offices, manufacturing plants, bowling alleys, aquariums, rodeos, drive-in concerts and similar events are allowed to reopen at 25% capacity.

April: Austin and Travis County require facial coverings in public. Governor Abbott announces that schools will be closed for the rest of the academic year.

Day 0

August: The first school districts reopen. Many districts begin virtually. Travis County has 25,000 cases.

July: Fourth of July events, including fireworks and parades, are canceled. Travis County has 10,000 cases.

June: Hays and Travis counties issue mask orders. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones leads an anti-mask protest near the Capitol. Travis County hits a record 636 new cases in a week.

September: Ballet Austin announces its “Nutcracker” this year will be virtual.

Abbott allows businesses to open at 50% capacity.

Restaurants, bars, gyms, museums, libraries and stores may open at 75% capacity.

As of March 15th, 2021, exactly a year after the first reported case in austin, there are...

181,826 total Covid-19 cases in the greater Austin area.

2,961,532 total Covid-19 tests in the greater Austin area.

November: The Austin school district goes virtual-only after the Thanksgiving break. Texas reaches 20,000 deaths.

October: The Austin City Limits Music Festival is virtual.

Abbott increases business capacity to 75%. He says bars can open at 50%, but Travis County keeps them closed.

Day 365

2,866,512 fully vaccinated people in the greater Austin area.

January: Austin Public Health launches its vaccine preregistration portal and begins administering doses.

Travis County has 75,000 cases.

December: Austin moves into Stage 5 for COVID-19 risk. Travis County has 50,000 cases.

March: Abbott announces that capacity at all businesses will increase to 100% and the mask mandate will be lifted, effective March 10.

Texas opens vaccinations to anyone 50 or older or with preexisting conditions.

Febuary: The UK variant is detected in Travis County.

Vaccinations are put on hold because of ice and snow. The U.S. reaches 500,000 deaths.

Information provided by The New York Times, The Austin American Statesman, and The City of Austin

The Hunt For The Best Kale in Austin

By Astrid Gothard An attempt to perfect a beloved salad recipe leads to the world of Austin’s local farmers markets

Photo by MJ Tangonan on Unsplash

W

hen looking at the produce section in any large grocery store, it’s hard to not feel intimidated.

There are shelves and shelves piled high with fruits and vegetables, all the exact same shape and color, shining in the fluorescent lights.

You can feel the cold radiating off the refrigerated cases. Everything is neat. All of the foods look like they have come out of a factory: perfect and crisp.

But when you taste them, the waxy-bright produce is

unremarkable. And when you think about it, the fact that they taste good at all is a miracle. These products have been shipped all the way across the world, transferred from farms to trucks to trains to planes and pass through so many different hands before they reach the shelves of your grocery stores.

“When you go to a grocery store, that food was shipped around three weeks ago,” says Gabriel Ornelas, the farmers market manager at the Sustainable Food Center. “It had to be picked and pulled with enough time to be

transported and travel hundreds of miles and then sit on the shelf until someone buys it.”

This is often apparent in the kale I buy. My favorite dish, without question, is my kale salad. Fresh, lemony, and easy to make, I love to throw it together after a long day at school. The salad makes an appearance at every dinner party, holiday, birthday, and celebration.

But more often than not, the kale I use to make it isn’t great. Some days it’s dry and the stems are split. Sometimes the edges of the leaves are yellow or spotted with

brown. Often the kale is flat and floppy. When tossed together with dressing and served, the imperfections are harder to notice, but I still want a kale salad that highlights fresh, flavorful kale. And although I dragged my mom to grocery stores all over the city, checking every location for fresh, bright kale, it was nearly impossible to find.

Impossible, that is, until I started visiting Austin’s farmers markets.

Austin has a variety of farmers markets, all selling fresh produce, prepared foods, and handmade crafts. Texas Farmers Market, which is one of these, runs two markets, Saturdays at Lakeline and Sundays at Muller. It’s a city favorite farmers market, and popular because of its lively atmosphere and friendly vendors. Nena Johnson, Texas Farmers Market’s executive director, understands the importance of connecting with the vendors. “I’ve been working mostly with agricultural producers, with farmers and ranchers, for about 17 years, not on the selling side, but more on consulting with them on their own businesses. This was just an evolution, after I did that for a ton of years on the East Coast, and then the South opened up.

It felt like a good sort of transit transition to helping [the vendors] on the selling side.”

Besides the fresh produce and handcrafted goods, the close connections betw en the vendors and the market is part of the reason why shopping at a farmers Photo by Laura Johnston on Unsplash

market is such a rewarding experience. The food there is fresh and sold directly to from the growers. At farmers markets, you know where your food is coming from, and you get to meet the vendors who actually had a hand in growing the produce. There’s something special about knowing the carrots in your lunch have been grown locally and are fresh, a far cry from foods at a grocery store that could have been grown on another continent and picked weeks ago.

And buying from farmers markets is also helping these vendors. “It’s a really direct way to support the people that grow your food,” says Johnson. “Some of [the farmers] also have their food being sold in the grocery store, but in exchange the amount of money they get for that is different. There’s a lot of processors and middle people involved, so shopping at farmers markets is a great way to directly get that money into the hands of the producers.”

I stopped at Texas Farmers Market on my search for the best kale in Austin. After I used it to prepare my favorite salad, my family agreed it was the best version of the salad we had eaten. The fresh, locally grown kale tasted so much better than the bunches we had been buying from the grocery store. We agreed to officially only make my special salad with farmers market kale.

There is one farmers market in Austin that has a truly special mission. The Sustainable Food Center is an organization dedicated to supporting local farms and improving access to healthy food in central Texas.

Their two farmers markets, which are both open on Saturdays, are bright, cheerful, and always a joy to visit. Behind the scenes, they’re working to support local farmers who employ sustainable farming practices.

“Farmers Markets are an incredible opportunity for a small farmer to be able to sell directly to their community,” “Farmers Markets are an incredible opportunity for a small farmer or small rancher in Texas to be able to sell directly to their neighbors,” says Morgan Ehmling, the SFC farm viability program manager. “Everyone in our farmers market network is within 125 miles of Austin, so you’re not even reaching Houston or Dallas or San Antonio yet.You’re in this kind of local bubble where these producers are growing food.”

Showing even more commitment to the local community, the SFC farmers market has a program for people who are receiving

government assistance money. “For example, you may get $30 a week from a government assistance program, but if you come down to the market, because of the support we have and the grants we have, we can take your $30 and turn that into $60 [and] you can spend that here at the market to get fresh, local food,” says Ornelas.

Earlier this fall, my family and I were invited over for a dinner party. I was put in charge of making enough of my salad to feed twelve people. For this special occasion, I bought my kale from the SFC farmers market. I spent all day washing, chopping, and taking the stems out of kale. By the time I was finished, I swore I never wanted to see another leaf of kale ever again.

By the time of the dinner party, I changed my mind. The salad was a hit with everyone there. The fresh, local, sustainable kale was the star of the show, as it should be.

Photo by Ashley Winkler on Unsplash

Astrid’s Famous Kale Salad This is a short, easy recipe for a fresh, delicious salad!

Perfect for summer and days when you don’t have a lot of time to prepare. Best with fresh kale. Enjoy!

Six Cloves of Garlic

1. unpeel and crush six garlic cloves with the flat edge of you knife

Third Cup Lemon Juice

Teaspoon of Salt

2. place the garlic in a bowl Third Cup of Olive Oil

Two Heads of Kale

3. squeeze a third cup of lemon juice into the bowl

4. whisk in a third cup of olive oil

7. chop up and destem the kale,

5. whisk dressing together and set

8. pour dressing over kale

6. wash and dry the kale

9.

and add a teaspoon of salt

aside; let it sit for about an hour

placing it in a salad bowl

and toss

serve and enjoy!

A World of Food Trucks In Austin

The story of another side of Austin’s restaurant industry

By Amari Pandian

“

“Food is very important. I think food is important to every culture. Every culture [has its] own taste. [Its] own kind of food.

Back where I come from, people cook and just share. We are not rich in Africa, if you have food, it is worth a lot.”- Lawrence Eguakun

“ W

hen Lawrence Eguakun was 28 years old, he moved to the United States from his hometown of Benin City, Nigeria. When he first moved to the US, he worked in a tech industry job. Lawrence would cook and bring food to potlucks, and his food would always be the first to go. That’s when he realized that people enjoyed his cooking and that he enjoyed cooking himself. So after he graduated from Huston Tillotson University with a degree in business administration, Lawrence bought a small burger joint that he turned into a restaurant called World Beat Cafè where he cooked and served Nigerian food along with other traditional African cuisines. World Beat Cafe was a place to hang out.

Lawrence would book nightly live music and poetry readings. He built a steady base of clientele, and soon knew the names of all of his

customers. They would go to him the world you’ve never been to; for advice, hang out, listen to music, India, Nepal, Mexico, Poland, Africa, and eat good food.

China, Korea, Iraq, Egypt, the Caribbean, and so on.

In 2006, a cancer diagnosis changed the course of his restaurant’s Food trucks are at the center of future. Medical bills began piling up, Austin’s diverse food scene. And and the upkeep of the restaurant as more people move to Austin, and the medical bills became too the food truck scene has blown much. Consequently, later that up. In a 2017 article in the Austin year, Lawrence closed World Beat Business Journal ¹, the number of Cafe for good. Five years later, food trucks had increased by 600% his desire to cook and share his and it continues to grow. That’s an food with the community fueled enormous amount, more than any his efforts to open the food truck other U.S city, at that time. People called Wasota Vegan Paradise, an open food trucks for a variety of all-vegan restaurant that serves reasons. ² Whether it’s community African cuisine. The food truck’s building, a springboard before focus connects to cultural values.

In an interview, Eguakun said, “At home [in Africa] we usually eat mostly organic food.” Sadly, earlier this year there was a fire in a nearby building, and the smoke damage was too much for the food truck to stay there. The truck is still closed and Lawrence is looking for a new location for his food truck.

It is not unusual for food trucks and restaurants to come and go.

In a way, this creates a vibrant food scene in Austin with all of the many different restaurants popping up everywhere. One restaurant pops up and shines in the community for a little bit, and then makes way a piece of culture from someplace around

Photos from various sources on Creative Commons 1. Theis, Michael. “Another No.1 for Austin: The City Where Food Trucks Pop up the Fastest.” Bizjournals.com, 5 M

Photo coming soon

city nestled in small neighborhoods and along major roads. The Keep Austin Weird motto also promotes supporting local businesses such as food trucks

Plantians from Wasota African Cuisine

really add to the food diversity in Austin in an incredibly important way.

“

When people eat African “food, it’s a change....I use simple cooking and flavors...

Every culture has it’s own taste”-Lawrence Eguakun

a chance to test out their market and see how their restaurant might do as a brick-and-mortar location.

It also gives people with fewer resources the opportunity to open a food business and follow their dreams. Austin supports the food truck scene with its many food trailer parks peppered around the

However, there is also value to the stable restaurant that serves as a cornerstone for the community or a neighborhood, like Eguakun’s first restaurant, World Beat Cafe.

Restaurants like Eguakun’s that are owned by people of color, often serve as a cultural gathering place for a community, remind immigrants of their homeland, and expose people to new cultures and flavors they may not have encountered before. Growing up, most of us probably remember our parents telling us to “just try it.You might like it!” as we stared disdainfully at our plates. Austin’s food scene puts the fun in “just trying it” and inspires you to try more.

“

opening a brick and mortar place, to earn an income, or to pursue a passion. Either way, food trucks have become an integral part of Austin and they But the pandemic has caused ma jor shock waves through the food truck community.

Many food trucks are closing down because of the drop in the amount of customers. Food trucks are struggling to stay afloat with waves of COVID numbers going up and trailer owners have been forced to close down at even larger rates than normal.

Food trucks allow aspiring chefs Food from Wasota African Cuisine

May 2017, https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2017/05/05/another-no-1-for-austin-the-city-where-food-trucks.html.2. Darcy Sprague, Maggie Quinlan. “Food Truc

Local Restaurants from Around the World A guide to delicious ethnic food in Austin Amari Pandian

2

1

Koriente is a Korean Family owned Restaurant. The owner says his mom opened the restaurant because she “hated to cooks” “she loved going out to eat, but found it tough to find healthy meals with prices within daily reach” - Koriente’s website. So, she figured she would be the restaurant that would be healthy, and easy option for families to have a quick meal. They have yummy lunch and dinner options.

3

DipDipDIp Tatsu-Ya and DipDipDip Ice cream are both located in the same building with the ice cream shop in the front and the restauraunt in the back. The Ice cream shop offers a limited variety of complex and delicious flavors including shiitake chocolate ice cream with a varitey of toppings. The restaurant is a traditional shabu shabu restaurant with broth and veggies to put in it

Wasota Vegan Paradise is a vegan food truck that has totally vegan African cuisine. Their menu includes fried plantains, Jolof rice, and more. The owner makes all of the food fresh when you order it. It’s packed with nutrients and flavors. They currently have no physical location do to a fire in a neaby building

4

Mr.Natural is a Latinx owned restaurant and bakery that has all vegan dishes and desserts as well as vegetarian and non vegan options.

They make all of their food in house, and handmade. They also own a health store next door to the bakery and restaurant that carries holistic remedies.

2

= Interstates 3

Addresses: 1

Koriente- 621 E 7th St, Austin Tx.

2 3

6

5

183

Mr. Natural - 1901 E Cesar Chavez St. Austin Tx.

The Clay Pit - 1601 Guadalupe St, Austin Tx

6

2

Wasota Vegan - Paradise 9313 Anderson Mill Rd. Austin Tx.

Dip Dip Dip Tatsu-Ya - 7301 Burnet Rd, Austin Tx.

4 5

1

4

Aster’s Ethiopian - 2804 N IH-35 Service Rd. Austin Tx.

1 35

6

5

The Clay Pit is a traditional Punjabi restaurant located near downtown Austin. They serve traditional Indian comfort food and desserts.

The restaurant is in a beatiful old brick building that lends to the unique experience.

The food is delicious, and authentic.

Aster’s Ethiopian is a traditional Ethiopian Restaurant. They have all kinds of delicious Ethiopian food. It’s a small restaurant that has a homey environment. The food is full of spices and flavors. They have Ethiopian collard greens, potatoes, lentils, and so much more.