Somos Taco Arabi is open at the Yard, at 440 E. St. Elmo in South Austin, according to The Austin Chronicle. The truck combines Mexican and Middle Eastern influences. Its website describes a scratch kitchen that presses za’atar tortillas by hand each day.
Tacos built around lamb and barbacoa
The truck’s online ordering menu lists Al Paisa, lamb birria cooked for seven hours and served with hummus on a za’atar tortilla, and Taco El Jefe, beef cheek barbacoa cooked for 10 hours and served with hummus and pickled habanero onions. The menu also lists Al Habibi, a chicken taco with cucumber labneh; The Austin Chronicle reports that the dish includes house-made cucumber labneh.
More than tacos
Other offerings include halal breakfast tacos with beef bacon or sausage, a lamb burger topped with halloumi, labneh and sumac onions, and fries with goat cheese queso, feta, cilantro and Somos sauce, according to The Austin Chronicle. The truck’s menu sits within a wider Texas history of Mexican and Levantine food influences: Texas Monthly describes tacos árabes as an Arab-influenced dish that inspired al pastor, and reports that Houston’s seven-year-old Craft Pita serves a kofta-based beef taco garnished with tahini.
Somos is a partnership between Luis Mendoza of Un Mundo de Sabor and Tony Musleh of Reem’s Falafel. Texas Monthly reports that the two became friends in 2022 when their food trucks were parked at the same Austin park; The Austin Chronicle also reports on their joint venture.
