Can we have tacos for breakfast, mommy dear, mommy dear? Ya gotta have ’em in Texas–cuz that’s where they’re super legit, bro! Seriously, just about every Mexican joint in Austin is open in the morning, serving up tacos with some variation of egg, meat and cheese. And at The Original Tamale House, in East Austin, you can even come up with your own funky, flavourlicious creations. Let’s just say I made a few…
Now, there’s some debate over who first started eating tacos for breakfast, with both Austin and San Antonio laying claim to the title. But if you’re in Austin, and you want tacos for desayuno, then you gotta go to Tamale House East, bro!
Now, I got there right at 8, but they didn’t open till 8:35, at which point a whole pile of people showed up behind me. I got three of the in-house specialties–migas & queso; egg, bacon, cheese and ranchera; potato, egg, bacon and cheese–and then built two culinary creations of yo mismo–a chorizo egg & cheese and a bacon egg & mushroom–cuz you gotta get some chorizo, bro!
It’s also worth noting that the prices on their menu online are off; instead of $1.25 a taco, you’re paying $3.25 for the house specialties–or $2.75 for a build-yer-own with three toppings. But hey, cinco tacos for $16.50 still ain’t a bad deal, though…
So, we’re starting off with the migas and cheese, a Tex Mex breakfast staple. There’s definitely nothing wrong with crispy fried tortilla strips, eggs and cheese–and when you put ’em in a taco, it’s even better, bro!
Next up is one of my Triple B creations, the chorizo, egg and cheese. I can now see why they don’t include chorizo in any of their specialties–they don’t give you very big chunks of it here, either. Probably my least favourite one.
Now, these last three all had bacon, and if I’m every back in Austin, I would just do five with bacon, bro! Their bacon is cooked to perfection, finding the right balance between crispy and chewy. And the potatoes in this one were on point. 5/5
This Triple B creation was a personal favourite–bacon, egg n mushroom, son! And the mushroom is what makes it–thick, juicy and they totally don’t taste like the come from a can! If I go back here, I’m adding mushrooms to everything!
Aaaaaand that brings us to the last taco of the morning, the in-house specialty of bacon, egg, ranchera and cheese. I was scared this might be too spicy for me–but the sauce was definitely on the mild side. I normally like salsa on my taco, but it doesn’t work quite as well for breakfast, though. Still, if I ever feel like eating five tacos for breakfast again, then this is definitely the place to be!
So, here’s my Keep Austin Weird story, bro. I was at this heavy metal horror movie convention, and I walked across the street to this funky coffee shop that also serves booze and has a real-deal BBQ food truck in its backyard. I was wearing an Iron Maiden t-shirt and they were playing Iron Maiden on the stereo, which was totally awesome. The bartenderista tells me they’ve been playing Maiden all day, and Number of the Beast is up next. I’m like “Dude, that’s my favourite album!” and he gives me a free beer. I totally wanted to move to Austin the next day.
Man, this place has everything; breakfast tacos, fried chicken ‘n waffles, legit BBQ, real-deal Mexican… Even the food at the airport doesn’t suck!
They call these breakfast migas, which is Texican for scrambled eggs and fried tortillas.
You can get breakfast tacos pretty much anywhere in Austin, and they’re super-cheap, too!
If you don’t eat so much for brunch that you don’t have room for dinner, you’re doing it wrong, dude…
Bro, this green chili sauce is even better than Guy Fieri’s! I would so put it on a flip-flop!
