The Surf-N-Turf Po' Boys truck in downtown Austin, Tx

There are so many food trucks in Austin—some stationary in parking lots, some migrating from one corner to another—that it can be hard to pick a location and cuisine. Don’t worry, though, because there’s an app for that (actually, there are several).  Not only can you search for the ideal cuisine online (www.AustinFoodCarts.com and www.MobileCravings.com are both great resources), you can follow your favorite trucks on Twitter for up-to-date locations, or download an app on your iPhone or Windows mobile phone to get descriptions and locations. If you aren’t technology-dependent, you can also resort to the tried-and-true method of drive-and-spot—food trucks in Austin are flamboyant and plentiful. It took us about a minute of driving along Congress Street to spot one parked in the shadow of a skyscraper.

Lucky for us, gut instinct led us to Turf-N-Surf Po’ Boy parked on the corner of Willie Nelson and Congress. Turf-N-Surf looks like a marine shipping container on LSD. Barnacles have morphed into plastic lobsters, and neon surfboards cover the wall willy-nilly. A collection of porch swings, park benches, and steel tables sit out front. The menu—delightfully—is written in thick black marker on creased cardboard. Talk about rustic.

Ralph in his kitchen.	The menu at Surf-N-Turf.	Shrimp tacos, pulled pork po'boy, and fries.

Turf-N-Surf is run by Ralph Gilmore and his daughter Kirsten. Ralph, a Brownsville native, used to build custom Harleys and custom homes. He gave up running two lube shops in Houston a couple years back because, he says, he always loved to cook.  Cooking runs in the family; Ralph’s brother owns the famous Z'Tejas restaurant chain. When asked why a food truck, Ralph says he likes the low overhead because it allows him to cook and serve the best food at a good price.

Ralph’s menu includes fried shrimp tacos, shrimp scampi, and fried catfish with tartar sauce, or po’ boys made with free range chicken, Philly cheese steak, pulled pork, breaded catfish, and hamburger or chicken patties. We settled on fried shrimp tacos with slaw and cocktail sauce, a pulled pork and mango salsa po’ boy, and an order of sweet potato fries. We finished them off in five minutes, tops.

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