Austin Food Data Bank

I don't have much to say about Trudy's. It's popular to a fault, the food's decent, and the drinks (i.e. Mexican martinis) can be quite good. Excellent for people-watching. That and the Mex-marts are probably the main reasons to go, as well as the fact that the kitchen is open until midnight.

The other night I was there to celebrate the in-town-ness of a friend's girlfriend, who proceeded to reach a hilarious state of intoxication, to the point where every thing coming out of her mouth (words, that is) made perfect sense, yet did not fail to rhyme. Well most of it made sense. In our state, we all thought it made sense.... Ok anyway, here's what I ordered:

- 1 Mexican martini
- 2 enchiladas, one spinach, one mushroom, both with the hot "caliente" sauce
- sides of Spanish rice and pinto beans

Mex-mart was standard. Pretty good. Did the job properly. Enchiladas were, you know, ... good. Normal. Not *awesome* like those at, say, Maudi's. The caliente sauce wasn't as caliente as I had hoped... Maybe they got the wrong sauce? Pinto beans were surprisingly tasty... though they didn't light a candle to the ones at Artz. Rice was ... useful.

Ho hum... this is the normal situation at Trudy's. Now here are the odd standouts this time around: black beans from my friend's plate were REALLY good... That completely flabbergasted me. Another, more important, is the salsa that goes with the chips. The chips are average, and so are the salsas (green and red).. But this time the green hit the jackpot.

There's a salsa made in San Antonio (or El Paso?) called La Fogata, easily acquired at groceries here. I think it's their "roasted" one. It drives me insane.. Total salsa bliss, everywhere you look. Inescapable. Nothing you can do about it. The point: this Trudy's green salsa (just from this visit!) was evvvver so slightly comparable to La Fogata. Realizing that left me in a sweaty mess and with a burned mouth... as I'd suddenly finished several refills of the stuff. Anyway, many salsas around town are better, but this was completely unexpected.

Moral of the story: go there for the crowd and/or the drinks. You might get lucky and go on a day where one of their normally passable food items is suddenly, deperately, inspired.