TEXARKANA, Texas - If comfort food from a country kitchen with the tastes of Cajun country and Mexico is your thing, check out the newly opened Texas-side food truck: Lot 1621.
Located at 1621 Texas Blvd., appropriately enough, Lot 1621's lunchtime fare shows the combined food heritage of its proprietors, Oscar and Dixie Hernandez, the husband-and-wife team who've combined the foods they knew growing up for this menu.
On Tuesday, opening day, the menu featured chicken and dumplings, roast beef po' boys, ham and cheese po' boys, potato salad, blueberry muffins, banana pudding and more.
It's comfort food, through and through, and Dixie says the food has roots in where they're from.
Originally from South Louisiana an hour outside of New Orleans up north of Lake Pontchartain, she grew up eating a lot of regional fare but also typical country cuisine: beans, greens, cornbread, chicken and dumplings. Her husband was born in Juarez, Mexico, and grew up here in the U.S.
"I call my cooking co-ca-mex: country, Cajun and Mexican," Hernandez said. "My intentions were just to do really good food."
And to her, that food is authentic. She's used to cooking for a big family and her kids' friends coming over on Sundays.
"I want to keep my cooking authentic. If you try to feed an army, you tend to lose the flavor," said Hernandez, who owned two restaurants in Las Vegas. "My goal here was just to have really good food that tasted like your mama cooked it, and your grandmothers."
She's using authentic New Orleans French bread, for example, noting it has a different texture than other breads. She makes strawberry pudding with Ponchatoula strawberries.
"My mother loved to cook, and I've always told the kids, 'If I love you, I feed you,'" Hernandez said. "I love to cook. It's just my passion. It always has been."
For now, Lot 1621 will open for lunch, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., typically Monday through Friday, possibly Saturday. If she gets in earlier, she'll post that on the business Facebook page.
What else might folks find on the menu? Hernandez aims to keep things as fresh and locally-sourced as possible. Watermelons? She'll get them from Hope, Arkansas.
"I plan to do some crawfish dishes," Hernandez said. She'll use Louisiana crawfish tails and Gulf shrimp. She'll do red beans and rice, perhaps spaghetti. "I may potentially do some boudin dishes," she said.
For the taste of that comfort food, visit this mom's food truck, Lot 1621.
(On the Net: Check out Lot 1621 on Facebook.)
