Cart-ology: Mmmpanadas
Hitching up to Austin's favorite food trailers
Say, Cory Fields, is that truck a GMMMC?
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Mmmpanadas owner and primary operator Cody Fields has cooked all his life, but it was his stint as a mechanical engineer that led him to his current gig of slinging empanadas out of a truck. Fields, a UT grad, was working in Costa Rica building wastewater management plants when he found the most delicious empanadas he'd ever had outside of a nightclub in San Jose, sold by a man who somehow kept the pillowy treats warm in just a basket. Fields never forgot them, and eventually quitting his day job to sell his own.
"I modeled my crusts after [the San Jose vendor’s]," Fields says. "In my cooking, I'd always work to perfect a dish. I obsessed over fish and chips and tamales, but empanadas are the ultimate street food."
Indeed, the handheld pies are appealingly portable: The crust remains flaky and firm, so the filling is never so wet that the dough collapses and the juices run down the arm. The portion size is hearty, but not gut-busting, meaning it's perfect for downtown workers looking for a quick breakfast or lunch. And unlike some other grab-and-go carts, Mmmpanadas offers a wide range of fillings, from traditional Argentinian (spiced ground beef, hard-boiled eggs, and olives) to BBQ chopped beef, to Fields’ own savory mix of soy chorizo and brie. Fields also peddles two sauces —a lemony garlic aoli and a fiery chipolte mayo—and several kinds of sweet dessert empanadas from his candy apple red truck.
Those gourmet ingredients, coupled with his insistence on using organic milk from Central Market and unbleached, unbromated flour, means Fields spends three times more then he probably could on his empanadas. "It's pricey but worth it," he says. "You can really taste the difference." That commitment to perfection extends to his own work schedule: Currently Fields mans every shift in the truck—including those blurry weekend nights. He noted the few key difference in the late-night revelers and working schmoes he serves: "The day customers aren't wasted, and the night crowd are better tippers." Day crowd, maybe it's time to step up your roll. The man has certainly earned it.
