The truck is in East Austin on Rainey Street, in front of a house that will soon house de la Vega’s restaurant, which will also be called El Naranjo.

Shrimp tacos were the highlight. Here, de la Vega shows Texas Monthly’s Patricia Sharpe how they’re made. We thought we’d be able to get her mole, which is only served on Wednesdays, but they had temporarily stopped serving it due to light crowds. This only makes us more eager for the full-on restaurant to open.

Taquitos.

More tacos.

Behold the pork belly slider. This one features a maple soy glaze, sliced green apple, and fried onion with a side of sesame cole slaw. Pork belly sliders seem to be all the rage these days, but this one is special. It’s sweet and salty punch to the gut (which I mean in the best possible way), served on a perfectly toasted bun. It also happens to be a diet friendly food, provided you are on the I’ve-worked-my-ass-off-all-week-and-I’ll-eat-whatever-the-hell-I-please diet, which I am.

As you can see, it’s also pretty generously sized for a slider.

Next up was Asian Fried Chicken with sweet chile sauce, wasabi mayo, and sesame cole slaw. We consider ourselves to be connoisseurs of Asian fried chicken around here, and while this stuff didn’t have the characteristically crisp skin of Korean fried chicken, it was one of the better pieces of fried chicken I’ve had in a while. In fact, the fried chicken was so well executed, I kind of wished it didn’t have any sauce on it.

Cracklin’ meatloaf wrapped in bacon with cheese grits and collard greens. The collard greens not only won Eliza’s seal of approval, they were her favorite part of the meal.

Actually, it was two tacos and two fried taco-like things. Not sure what you call them, but they hit the spot.

This one was filled with spicy pork.

Barbacoa and chicharron (fried pork skin).

A better title for this post might have been “How We Tried And Failed Repeatedly To See Music During SXSW.” On the Friday of SXSW, we decided to take the afternoon off and head downtown to check out some day parties. On the way, we stopped off at Sushi A-Go-Go. Unfortunately, right after we showed up and started to order our food, I got an email from a co-worker that said “Where the hell are you guys? Is anyone going to be able to do this conference call?” So we took our food to go and went back home. Strike one.

Stevie bravely faced down some ferocious wind.

The sushi was great, but spending my “afternoon off” at home on a conference call put a damper on the experience.

No big deal, we figured. There’s still plenty of time to see some music. So on Saturday night, we went to east Austin for the Todd P Showpaper party. I was hoping to see Real Estate, but we ended up seeing a few minutes of some other band whose name I can’t remember. (Something about Cleveland, maybe?)

What I do remember is that it was absolutely frigid outside and we weren’t dressed for it. Luckily, we were able to warm up with some delicious Korean BBQ tacos from Chi’Lantro, which we had been meaning to try since sampling Austin’s other Korean BBQ truck, TaKorea.

The last stop in our food truck roundup has nothing to do with failed attempts to see live music. East Side King is located behind east Austin’s liberty bar and has been making waves with their take on something we love dearly, the steamed pork bun.

They also have a cow tongue bun. Yum.

And then there’s the fried beets.They’re beets, so it’s healthy right? Especially when you dip them in mayo.

They keep odd hours, so check their web site before you go.

I told Eliza this could be her album cover.

I don’t eat a lot of sandwiches, but when I do, I like ‘em warm. This one had it all: fresh bread, lemongrass pork and raw jalapenos for some kick.

They have salads, too, but the sandwich is where it’s at.

Afterwards, dinner was a no-brainer. When I have access to the Deluxe Chicken-Avocado cone, I take advantage. You used to only find these at ACL fest, but now they’ve got their own trailer on South Congress.

Just to break up the routine, I threw in a brisket taco from neighboring Airstream tenant Vaquero Cocina. I was a big fan of their typography, and the taco wasn’t bad either. But I wish the brisket had been served hot (it was chilly) and that they offered a corn tortilla option (flour only). Still, it was nice and spicy, with some tasty toppings in there, too. Here’s Taco Town’s take.