Revisiting The Calexico Cart, This Time For Tacos
The beef and pork tacos from Calexico.
Last time I tried Calexico street cart I was impressed by the quality of their burrito, but questioned the $9 price point. I figured I go back and take a run at their tacos. I am glad I did, because frankly they are excellent, and well worth their combined $7 price point ($9 with the rice and beans). Take a look at them. They looked great.
A good portion of delicious beef.
The beef taco was delicious. Squeezing the fresh lime atop it added the zest you’d imagine. One thing that was interesting about the beef was its faint char flavor. There was sweet tomato, as well as cilantro and guacamole. What can I say? It’s a winner. A gourmet taco for sure. My tongue tingled from the low, simmering spice.
The pork taco. Pickled onions!
The pork taco was totally different. Not surprisingly, it is sweeter. I love pickled onions, and there’s the white crema sauce. The tomato flavor was somehow stronger and amazingly sweet – almost to a candy level of sweetness, and it was almost too much for me. But tasty for sure.
Plenty of diced tomatoes.
Next time I’ll save $2 and skip the excellent rice and beans. They were very delicious, the beans not overdone mush, the rice pleasant and the diced tomato/pico de gallo topping was also lovely. It’s worth the $2, that’s not the issue, it’s just that the two tacos were basically enough food, and I didn’t really need it. Get it if hungry.
Compared to the burrito, the tacos were much better (though the burrito was also very good). It’s just that the flavor of the tacos comes through much more clearly, it’s plenty of food. I personally preferred the beef.
Damn good stuff.
Calexico Cart
Wooster & Prince Street, M-F, 11:30-4 www.calexicocart.com
The beef Kimchi bowl from Kimchi taco truck. It looks good, don't it?
Having now sampled the Kim-cheesesteak and the Korean Tacos at Kimchi Taco truck, it was time to complete the circuit and try the Kimchi Bowl. I’m glad I did, because it is by far the best thing on their menu, hands down.
Stir in some kimchi... .
First of all, if you like Korean BBQ, this will scratch the itch. Granted, it’s not the full blown Bul Go Gi you might be hoping for, but nonetheless all the pickled Kimchi flavor you could want is present. The portion is well ample, and at $8 it seems like a reasonable deal. The best thing about the Kimchi bowl is that all the flavors can be appreciated in an isolated fashion or ensemble, whereas with the tacos or Kim-cheesesteak all the flavors are thrust together out of necessity. With the bowl, you can enjoy the flavorful beef or pork or cabbage or whatever at your leisure.
Those maniacs... what are they up to?
The lunatic chefs have gone berserk with their Kimchi-ing. Take a look at the pickled jalapeno they gave me. I will give you one guess as to how spicy it was. When I eventually regained feeling in my tongue I had to make sure that there wasn’t a hole burned straight through it. I’m kidding a little, but it was some real mad scientist stuff. I couldn’t handle the heat, though. For all you heat freaks out there, though, you’ll love it.
These were wonderful.
I really enjoyed the extra bits of chopped pickle. Spreading them across the beef was delightful and delicious. Sweet and fermented pickle flavors at the same time.
Beneath the bed of beef, rice.
The rice sitting below the beef is excellent. It has that faintly sticky quality, making it truly hearty. It also absorbs all the various flavor elements, either from cabbage or pickled onions or what have you. By the way – I prefer the beef they served with the Kimchi bowl over the beef they serve with their tacos.
Assemble your forkful.
Again, the best part of the bowl is choosing what you’re interested in tasting by the forkful. Since I find the variety of flavors at work in Korean food so interesting and compelling, it makes for a very pleasant lunch. All in all, I’ll stick with this, unless I occasionally have a hankering for the tacos.
Kimchi Taco Truck
Location varies, check their website: www.kimchitacotruck.com
Expect a line. Its there for a reason.
Since we just got done discussing dining with Mark at Yankee Stadium, it seemed like a good idea to select as the subject of the next review a very inexpensive joint.
It is really hard to argue with Mamoun’s, and it already has a huge cult following so it scarcely needs any endorsement from me. Why? They make a perfectly delightful falafel (not especially great, but better than many) for a terrific price. The result is very solid bang for the buck: it’s just $2.50 for a falafel sandwich.
The cramped interior. Expect jostling.
You get a number of crunchy falafel balls, a spritz of tahini, plenty of lettuce and some tomatoes. The falafel has a very faint peppery spiciness that brings in the lowest of low sizzles to the tongue. But if, as Hugh says, money has an aftertaste, then savings has a taste, and you get it with each bite of Mamoun’s falafel. Considering that a slice of pizza is probably much less healthy, and likely much less tasty, Mamoun’s is a solid deal.
The falafel itself. Somewhat sloppy, plenty tasty.
Look, Mamoun’s is no Taim, which serves up extremely choice falafel. Taim’s are almost dainty and delicate. Mamoun’s is rugged, workmanlike and simple. They seem to me to be hitting right in the falafel wheelhouse at a very inexpensive price. They ask just one more thing from you: willingness to wait on a line and not being rattled as people brush past you getting in and out of the cramped space.
Plenty of lettuce resting atop mushed falafel below.
I’d like to say that Mamoun’s is fantastic falafel. I can’t say that, exactly. It is, however, perfectly priced, and it is perfectly suitable.
All in all it’s a big win and I am eager to return for their shawarma, which is about $5. Maybe they’ll knock that out of the park, like they do at Bereket.
Mamoun’s Falafel
119 MacDougal Street New York, NY 10012 212.674.8685 www.mamouns.comME LIKE EAT Contributor: Dining With Mark At Yankee Stadium
Once again, ME LIKE EAT is proud to present the thoughts of contributor Hugh, whose recent experience at Yankee Stadium got him wondering what that aftertaste was in what he was eating.
Sitting, and dining, at Yankee Stadium in April, 2011. (credit: Hugh)
Say what you will about the Christmas season, this may really be the most wonderful time of the year. Baseball is just getting underway.
If the new Shea Stadium (or is it Citi Field?) is like a nice, intimate park where players go to play ball, Yankee Stadium is like an office building where men wearing pinstripes go to do professional work. It is also a great New York dining experience. However, one might reasonably argue that the food is merely a side dish to baseball, which is the main.
Like every great restaurant, part of the dining experience is the place itself. The sounds. The smells. The people. By that standard there are few places better to eat in New York than Yankee Stadium. Especially if you are a Yankee fan.
It is true that the stadium boasts all sorts of high end restaurants, sushi, steaks, and a Hard Rock Café. But I am something of a purist, and I believe that food one consumes when at the stadium should be marked by the three ‘F’s – fattening, filling, and fun.
A night at the stadium is expensive. On top of the $85 stated ticket prices (for good seats) is the food and beer prices – at $10.50 for a sixteen ounce plastic cup of imported beer.
Money has an aftertaste. No matter what else, if it costs two dollars when it should cost one, you taste that dollar. So a $20 burger has to be that much better to make it worth it. So for the those reasons, I eschewed the high-end joints and went for the food of the fan. The food what you can eat in your seat with a cold beer. Hot dogs. Peanuts. Popcorn. I also had a cheesesteak– the high end of the food part of my in-seat dining experience.
The gooey, messy Carls Steak cheesesteak. (credit: Hugh)
The Carl’s Steak cheesesteak was excellent. The meat was enveloped by gooey American cheese, and the bread soaked through. It was the highlight of the food.
In second place were the shelled peanuts – I always enjoy tromping through the broken shells during game breaks. The Popcorn, Indiana brand popcorn was excellent. One of our group, though, insisted it was not appropriate for baseball and refused to partake.
The rest of the food, other than the beer, is “Good Luck, Chuck.”
My seats to this game were really pretty good (I was actually a season ticket holder’s guest, so, I lucked out). We had waiter service in our seats. While convenient, it was not necessarily up to Yankee standards.
For example: I wanted a hot dog ($7.50). The server brought back a footlong ($8.50). And the footlong – Hebrew National (an otherwise excellent brand) – wasn’t great. It was served with French’s mustard which, under the bright lights of Yankee Stadium, has a fluorescent yellow color I am unsure is found in nature.
One member of our party ordered a cheeseburger. It was delivered minus ketchup. He described it as “dry.” If Wollensky’s Grill makes a burger rated ten, he rated this a five. “Dry?”
As to the main course – baseball – it is so much better seeing it in person than on television. I love watching football, but generally I would rather watch the Jets with a cold beer, in the warm comfort of home (or a friend’s home, or even a trusty bar), than in the bitter cold of the stadium. The same is not the case with baseball. There is so much good in the stadium that is not translatable to television. The inherent grace and utter beauty of the game itself. The birthday roll and giddy fans on the jumbo screen. The dancing groundskeepers who level the infield to the tune of YMCA. The heckling which starts after the beer kicks in at the eighth inning. And when you leave the game you are sung out by Frank Sinatra.
The Hebrew National hot dog with fluorescent yellow Frenchs mustard. (credit: Hugh)
But in describing the dining experience at Yankee Stadium, I realized something: When you eat at the stadium, unlike at most restaurants, your party shall be joined by your host, who lives there. His name is Mr. Market Economy – let’s call him Mark.
Mark will take a seat right behind you (or maybe in front of you). He wears a Yankee hat, and a team jersey. Mark taps you on the shoulder from time to time and points out the remarkable achievements he accomplished to make your experience at the stadium so enjoyable.
Put another way, when you get to Yankee Stadium, you will be distracted by the business brains who are behind every facet of the experience.
There is business angle behind everything which goes on in Yankee Stadium. Of course, there is a money angle behind every restaurant. Restaurants are for-profit enterprises (hopefully). In most restaurants however, you are not assaulted by the fact that they are trying to get your money.
I could not help but admire it a little.
As a born and bred New Yorker, the old stadium struck an emotional cord: Thurman Munson. Reggie Jackson. Billy Martin. It was the house that Babe built.
The new stadium is the house that Mark built.
His fingerprints are everywhere. The efforts of his team of marketers and brand-managers are nonstop, pounding and often vulgar. A humble beer (ok, a Beck’s) served at Yankee stadium is adorned with the Yankee stamp. Popcorn gets the whole Yankee’s team logo.
But Mark also got a few things wrong. Our seats were very good. I noticed however, that there were swaths of premium box seats near the plate and dugout which were empty, while virtually all of the relatively cheap bleacher seats were filled. Was Mark perhaps too ambitious in his pricing? Dare I say “greedy?” I didn’t dare even think that while at the stadium, for fear of offending him.
Marks handiwork.
Admittedly, part of the fun of being a Yankee fan is complaining about the money. As a Yankee fan, you are almost duty-bound to grumble about whichever player does not merit the ridiculous sum he is paid. It is always useful to decry the latest outrage in food, beer and ticket prices. Many other fans of the sport are religious in their hatred of the Yankees due to the team’s seemingly unlimited supply of money.
An evening at the stadium might be as good a dinner out as you can find in New York. I love going. I love watching the Yankees win. I very much enjoy baseball, it can be served beautifully there. I love the whole experience. You will too. Unless you hate the Yankees.
Just expect Mark to join you at your seats. Make no mistake, he can be a lot of fun. But expect him to want to hold your wallet.
And, from time to time, you may find yourself wondering why Mark keeps calling you by his name.
For additional entries by Hugh, check out his thoughts on The Battle At Nougatine and Hot Dog or Pizza: Which Holds New York’s Soul?
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