Image credit: Joel Salcido
Yes, we have our BBQ here in Austin. We have our chips and queso. We have Paul Qui. But the dish universally heralded by residents and visitors (and, even fictional characters we’ve grown to love) is the breakfast taco.
Versatile, portable, kid-friendly and certainly not restricted to the morning hours, the breakfast taco has been the subject of the popular Taco Journalism blog since 2006. Mando Rayo, Jarod Neece, Gordon Murphy and Justin Bankston have an Austin taco map on their website with over 75 destinations and one to five star reviews of each establishment. Yes, tacos are serious business here in Austin, and these evangelists are spreading the love, one bite at a time.
Rayo and Neece have taken their love of tacos one step further with the release of their new book, Austin Breakfast Tacos: The Story of the Most Important Taco of the Day, available at BookPeople (let’s keep it weird, y’all), with photography by Joel Salcido. The book launch party will be taking place at Tamale House East on Saturday, July 20th from 5-7pm (for more information and to RSVP, click here). In the book, Mando and Jarod explore the history and culture behind “Austin’s most important taco” and share recipes from some of their favorite haunts.
Thanks to the Taco Journalistas for sharing one of the recipes from the book for today’s Thursday’s Dish:
Image credit: Dennis Burnett
Eggs, Nopales, Mushroom and Tomato Taco from Papalote Taco House
½ ounce of each of your favorite fresh vegetables (for this recipe, it includes nopales*, mushrooms and tomatoes)
½ tablespoon vegetable oil
2 eggs
Corn tortilla
Before making the taco, boil the nopales in water with a little bit of salt for about three minutes. You can cut the nopales in small pieces or leave them whole. At Papalote, we like to cut them before cooking. Once the nopales are soft, place them under cool water and drain. Then, beat the 2 eggs and pour them on a hot griddle with oil. Add all the vegetables and mix with the eggs for about 30 to 45 seconds. Meanwhile, heat the corn tortilla on the griddle until it is soft and warm. Once ready, wrap the eggs in a taco.
*Mando suggests finding nopales (the fleshy pads from a cactus) at Fiesta, the HEB on Riverside or the HEB on the corner of Lamar and Rundberg.
Yum! What’s your favorite place to get breakfast tacos in Austin?
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]http://www.livemom.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Nicole-Basham-Sara-Marzani-Photography-livemom.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]A native Austinite and soccer-playing mom, Nicole uses her newly-minted-7-year-old son as an excuse to rediscover her hometown through his eyes. In Thoreau’s words, her mission is to “suck out all the marrow of life”, or in her son’s words, to cultivate in him a love of “advenchers”.[/author_info] [/author]
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