Hard Shell Chicken and Beef Tacos from the Austin Grill Food Truck Paired with 2010 La Ardilla Moscato de Valencia

The recent growth of gourmet food trucks is a good thing.  It is a particularly good thing if you live in a place that has some healthy competition among a number of these creative vendors.  In Washington DC, we are lucky enough to have a great variety of these young entrepreneurs. We have a sufficient number of trucks to warrant a website and an app for both iPhones and Android phones that shows you (in real time) where all the food trucks are located.  Go to Food Truck Fiesta to locate the trucks and find out about the App.

At the moment, Food Truck Fiesta lists 55 trucks with 12 more on the way.  With only a couple of exceptions, these trucks are all offering some unique cuisine.  These are not the hot dog trucks of our childhood.  About a month ago, I decided to make it my mission to methodically and scientifically work my way through each of these food trucks.  I started today with the Austin Grill food truck.

I will be honest and tell you that today’s wine pairing represents about 30 seconds worth of forethought.  Here is my story.  I was walking home from a meeting in NW DC and realized it was closing in on noon…my stomach let me know before my watch did.  So I pulled out my Food Truck Fiesta App and found the trucks that happened to be on my route home.  I selected Austin Grill.  Austin Grill specializes in Tex Mex and today had a $7 special that included two hardshell tacos (one with grilled chicken and the other with grilled steak), rice and beans.

At first, the tacos did not seem to be anything particularly special; corn shells, diced onion, diced tomato, lettuce and shredded cheese.  However, after the second bite, the magic started to happen.  The secret ingredient is the exceptionally well seasoned grilled meat (both the chicken and the beef).  Included in this seasoning is a hint of heat that accentuates the rest of the flavors.  The beans are better than average, and the rice is a unremarkable.  The reason to buy these tacos clearly lies in the perfect grilling and seasoning of the meat – worth the price of admission.

Paired with this little lunch time treat was a 2010 La Ardilla Moscato de Valencia.  When I saw the taco special at Austin Grill, I immediately thought of this Moscato I had tried just the night before.  I really enjoyed this wine.  It is intensely floral on the nose with crisp citrus, and complimentary flavors of citrus, honey, and apricot.  Many times with Moscatos, the sweetness buries the fruit flavors.  Not so with the La Ardilla.  I did not have to hunt for the flavors.  And this wine had a very pleasant surprise – a light effervescence.  The first impression is a wonderful balance between the sweet and the fizz that make this wine both fun and refreshing.

When I purchased the tacos, I was expecting a little piquance and therefore immediately thought of the 2010 La Ardilla Moscato de Valencia to balance the heat with the sweet, fruit, and effervescent components.  The tacos did not have as much heat as I expected, but the pairing still worked exceptionally well – particularly on a hot-almost-July day in DC.

Other pairings that I might try with these tacos would be:

• Beef taco: Zinfandel, Malbec, Syrah, Shiraz, Spanish Rioja.
• Chicken taco: Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc.

When you have a choice, support our DC Food Trucks.  I want to see them stick around and continue to surprise us with their creativity.

In vino veritas, buen provecho.

Craig

Chilorio with Mexican Rice Paired with a Long Line-up of Wine

To celebrate cinco de Mayo, Chef Sue and I decided to put together a Mexican based wine pairing featuring Chilorio with Mexican Rice.  Unfortunately, none of my favorite wine shops carried Mexican wine.  And to be quite honest, I don’t believe I have ever tasted or even seen a Mexican wine.  I’m sure they exist, but for the purposes of this pairing we had to make do.

We invited over several friends which resulted in a long line-up of wine ranging in price from under $10 to over $20.  With the Mexican theme in mind everyone brought wine to pair with the spicy chilorio.  The selection was dominated by Sauvignon Blanc along with a Pinot Grigio, Viognier, and a Moscato.

In addition to the wine line-up, we were treated to Formerly of Austin Dawn’s spicy shrimp.  The shrimp was a perfect addition to the chilorio – and they did not last long.  Dawn was nice enough supply the recipe you will find at the end of this post.

All of the Sauvignon Blancs provided the fundamentals to pair well with the chilorio – mild sweetness, well balanced acidity, and pleasing fruit flavor.  The Pinot Grigio was very pleasant and worked well for much the same reasons.  The only wines that we found questionable were the Viognier and the Moscato.  I find it hard to describe now, but the Viognier paired with the spicy ancho chiles of the chilorio resulted in some off flavors – nearly offensive.  The Moscato might have been a reasonable choice except for the company it was keeping.  Side by side with the Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio, the Moscato felt too sweet.  I think it suffered by simple contrast to the higher acidity and moderate sweetness of the other wines. 

The next time you are looking to add a little spice to your life (the food type), this recipe and a nice Sauvignon Blanc will surely do the trick.

Recipes

Spicy Grilled Shrimp

Ingredients

• 1 lg clove garlic

• 1 TB coarse salt

• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

• 1 tsp paprika

• 2 TB olive oil 
• 2 tsp lemon juice 
• 2 lbs large shrimp, peeled & deveined

• lemon or lime wedges, for garnish

Preparation

1. Preheat grill for medium heat. 
2. In a small bowl, crush garlic with the salt. Mix in cayenne pepper and paprika, then stir in olive oil and lemon juice to form a paste. In a large bowl, toss shrimp with paste until evenly coated.
3. Lightly oil grate (or spray with nonstick cooking spray). Cook shrimp for 5-7 minutes or until opaque, turning often with spatula.
4. Garnish with lemon wedges.

Chilorio

Ingredients

• 2 pounds boneless pork
• 4-5 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3-4 dried ancho chiles (dried hablano peppers)
• 1/2 of an onion

• 1/2 teaspoon cumin

• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 teaspoon salt

Preparation

1. In a large pot or Dutch oven, simmer the pork in the vegetable broth, covered, for 2 hours.
2. During the last 20 minutes, ladle out enough liquid to cover the dried chiles in a bowl. Let the chiles soak in the liquid until they are soft then remove the stems and seeds.
3. At the 2 hour mark, drain off the liquid and reserve 1 cup.
4. Using a fork, shred the pork.
5. Using the pot or Dutch oven that held the pork, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
6. Add the pork and fry until browned. Remove the pork and set aside.
7. In the same pot and same oil, sauté the onions until translucent. Remove them from the pan and set aside to cool.
8. In a blender, add the chiles, onions, spices and reserved liquid (1 cup). Blend until smooth.
9. Combine pork, and chile sauce back in the same pot and simmer for 10 minutes then serve with rice or tortillas.

Mexican Rice

Ingredients

• 2 cups uncooked white rice
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

• 4 cups chicken stock

• 1 large diced onion

• 1 large diced tomato

• 1/3 cup cilantro, chopped (add at the end)
• 1 tablespoon seasoned salt

• 1 tsp. garlic powder

• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 2 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar

Preparation

1. Using a small amount of the oil, sauté onions over medium heat in a large skillet until tender.
2. Add remainder of oil along with the rice and remainder of ingredients except cilantro, diced tomato and chicken stock. Stir for one minute.
3. Add diced tomato and chicken stock. Bring to a boil.
4. Lower heat to simmer, cover, and cook for 20 minutes.
5. Add chopped cilantro, stir and serve.

In vino veritas, buen provecho.

Craig