Wat Buddhananachat

I came here for the Loi Krantang festival yesterday and can’t contain my excitement. Having recently moved to Austin (from NYC and LA prior), I figured that I’d have to give up finding superb Asian cuisine (except Vietnamese). Arriving at this Thai temple to find two dozen or so food vendors for this fe (a)st was like coming upon cases of ice cold Topo Chico in the middle of a desert.
Sure, one vendor served pad thai and some curries, but many of the offerings represented the cuisine of Northeast Thailand (Issan) and Laos. This has to be some of the best Thai food in the Austin area, and it is incredibly authentic to boot. Sticky rice galore. Sour sausage. Yen tau fu with cubes of congealed blood, squid, shrimp and fish balls. Bags of kaffir lime leaves and incendiary Thai chilis for a good price. Skewers of grilled meats, including chicken hearts. Deep-​fried and grilled whole fish. Fantastic deep-​fried bananas. Mystery surprises wrapped in bamboo leaves. Freshly prepared papaya salad. Fantastic little stacks of coconut and rice pancakes reminiscent of kanom krok (but alas, no actual kanom krok). And dozens more iterations of desserts based on those ingredients, sometimes laced with palm sugar. Then, I ate an entire one of those chilies and lost track of the rest.
Pinch me, I must still be dreaming! And anxiously awaiting the feast for the Thai new year in April.

Awesome! — Ever since I visited Thailand last year, I’ve missed the sticky rice you could buy at pretty much any market you came across. They make it in bamboo and you have to crack the shell and peel it back to eat it. It’s essentially a cheap energy bar for the rice farmers there. — Very tasty!
Anyway, I thought I’d have to go back to Thailand to ever get one of these again but I recently came across a little piece of Thailand in Austin.
If you ever want to get a feel for what a Thai market feels like and/​or just check out a fairly genuine Buddhist temple without having to fly 17+ hours check this place out.
Calendar here:
I’ve only been to one Mahachat Festival so far but I’m definitely planning to check out songkran (
) in April along with some other cool events.
We are lucky to have this in Austin. It’s a long drive and a little hard to find but so worth it!