When I went down to the World Financial Center Food Truck Lot recently, there were 5 different trucks to choose from.  I wanted to get a lunch that I hadn’t tried yet, and a rice bowl from Mexicue fit the bill perfectly.

You can get a rice bowl with fillings from any of the main dishes.  They all cost $9.75, and I went for the burnt ends chili.

Chefs and BBQ aficionados know the burnt ends are some of the tastiest pieces of barbecued meat.  Using the burnt ends of brisket for chili is a genius move on the part of Mexicue.  Add some ground beef and a sweet and spicy BBQ sauce, and you have the makings of a kick-ass chili.

On the bottom of the bowl they put paprika lime rice. Then chili is placed on the rice, and it’s all topped with lettuce, jalapeños, cilantro lime crema, crumbled cojita cheese and crispy tortilla strips.

Wow, was this good!  The chili was nice and spicy, especially the bites with jalapeños.  The rice tempered the spiciness a bit, and the tortilla strips added a welcome salty aspect that played really well off the sweetness of the bbq sauce.

Mexicue makes the rounds of various neighborhoods, so you can find them on twitter here or on our Mobile Munchies twitter feed.  They also have 2 storefronts, one near Penn Station and one on the Lower East Side, so when the urge hits, you have several ways to get Mexicue.

2 Bullets cut in half for us (normally served whole)

Have you ever eaten a huge burrito for lunch, only to end up in a food coma halfway into a 3pm meeting, drooling on your shirt?  Mexicue believe they have the solution.

Mexicue contacted us recently about a new addition to their menu – Bullets.  Bullets are burritos served on 8″ tortillas and come 2 to an order, plus tortilla chips and salsa for $8.75.  This way you can either share your lunch with a friend or co-worker, save one burrito for after that meeting, or try two different bullets for some variety.

Being the intrepid reporters that we are, we asked Mexicue if we could try out these new Bullets.  They graciously invited us to their LES store for a tasting.

Click through for our report on the Bullets, other new menu items, and details on how you can get a FREE Bullet yourself.

Mexicue's LES store

Similar to their rice bowls, you can get Bullets made with any of the fillings on their taco and slider menu.  That means short ribs, Alabama chicken, bbq beans, pulled pork, bbq brisket and our favorite, burnt ends chili – with the appropriate fixin’s of course.

In addition to the ingredients on the menu, paprika lime rice is included in each Bullet. This adds another layer of flavor and texture to the Bullet.

Mexicue also added two new side dishes to their store menu -  Blistered Creamy Corn and BBQ Beans & Rice (pictured below).  The corn had a lightly grilled flavor, a few pickled onions, cream and chipotle chili powder.  The bbq beans & rice were a mix of traditional bbq beans on top of paprika lime rice.

In Mexicue’s trucks, side dishes are rotated seasonally due to space restrictions.  In the winter, hot side dishes are available such as Green Chili Mac & Cheese and Blistered Creamy Corn.  In the summer, cold sides dishes like Spicy Potato Salad and Cole Slaw are sold.

If you still have room, Mexicue has added a rotating list of desserts to their store menu such as a Mexican chocolate chip cookie, root beer ginger snaps and sweet potato white chocolate chip cookies.

We know you’ve only been reading this far to find out how to get a FREE Bullet yourself.  Next Monday, Jan 9th, Mexicue will be celebrating the launch of this new menu item with Free Bullet Day.  Just stop by one of their two stores for a FREE Bullet.  Please note the Free Bullets are NOT available at the truck on Monday.  We were told the Bullets will be rolled out to the trucks within the next few weeks.

There is one thing we don’t understand about Mexicue’s food coma prevention theory.  Two 8″ burritos plus chips and salsa are not any less filling than one 12″ burrito.  If you don’t have someone to share this with, it’s about the same amount of food.  Maybe they can offer one burrito and half the chips & salsa for $5 for people who want less food.

We would like to give a shout out to Pete at Mexicue’s LES store for treating us so well.  If you go by one of the Mexicue stores, let us know what you think of the new Bullets (and the other new menu items as well).

?uest Loves Food's Origami-Wrapped Fried Chicken

Ahmir “?uestLove” Thompson is best known as one of the creative forces behind the musical group The Roots, as well as the leader of the house band on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

Lately, he’s been showing off his chops in the kitchen, as well as  behind the drum kit.  His new catering company, ?uest Loves Food, has been very busy lately, and they say they will be opening a buttermilk fried chicken food truck in the near future.

In an interview with AdWeek, ?uestlove says “Food trucks are the new black. And I’m trying to prove that fried chicken is the new cupcakes.”

Click through for additional information on ?uest Loves Food, as well as more of his interview with AdWeek.

A week before Thanksgiving, ?uest Loves Food debuted with origami-wrapped fried chicken at Bon Appetit magazine’s new party digs, BA Kitchen.

Last night, ?uestlove and ?uest Loves Food were at the Blue Note.  ?uest Loves Food took over the Blue Note’s kitchen and served Creole-seasoned buttermilk fried chicken drumsticks called Love’s Drumsticks.  ?uestlove himself was burning up the stage with singer and vocal acrobat Bobby McFerrin.

According to the Twitter account cook4quest, ?uestlove’s creations include other reinvented classics such as sweet potato pie doughnuts on a stick…and they are looking to hire a pastry chef asap.

Questlove told Adweek he thought up the food truck idea while doing a few DJ gigs on the West Coast. “These really great, awesome food trucks would be outside selling weird specialty things.

“This one guy was selling his ‘world famous’ roasted corn. So at 3 in the morning, I’m watching these people kill all this Mexican corn. And I was like, ‘Man, I want a food truck.’ I imagined having a ‘Soul on a Roll’ Mister Softee truck that served good soul food,” he told the magazine.

“In a perfect world, I would like to have a line of 15 really funky food trucks that go to all the festivals, the Bonnaroos, the Coachellas,” Questlove said.

A perfect world indeed!

That’s all the information we have for now, but as soon as we find out more details on the fried chicken food truck, we will let you know.

sweet potato pie doughnuts on a stick

I wasn’t too hungry today, but have been wanting to try the new chicken sandwiches from The Frying Dutchmen.  A couple of weeks ago, on the day of its menu debut, I tried their new Black and Blue Burger.  It had some ups and downs, and afterwards, the owner Ben asked for my suggestions.  We’ll check back in on the burgers soon to see if he took our advice.

For Today’s Lunch, I went with a BBQ chicken sandwich ($7).

Opening up the sandwich, the bun was an unseeded Kaiser roll, and on the sandwich were lettuce, tomato, sliced pickles, grilled onions and a chicken breast.

The chicken had a nice grilled flavor to it, and it had been cooked with the bbq sauce already on it.  The chicken wasn’t slathered in bbq sauce (which was good), and there was a little bit of char just singing the edges of the chicken.  The bbq sauce flavored the chicken, it didn’t bury it.

The bbq sauce itself was nice, with a little spicy sweetness, although like I said, it was put on fairly lightly.  The onions also benefitted from the bbq sauce.  The bbq sauced onions on top of the chicken were really tasty.

The only thing missing from this sandwich was cheese.  I didn’t realize until I got back to the office and looked at my photos that cheese was one of the options available on the bottom of the new chicken sandwich menu.  Oh well, my mistake is your fair warning.  You can also see the new burger menu here.

Today’s Lunch of a grilled bbq chicken sandwich from The Frying Dutchmen was very tasty.  Even though I didn’t get their fries this time, I definitely recommend them – and now I can recommend the bbq chicken sandwich too.

Last week I did a short post about Mexicue’s new recipe contest where you have to feature bacon as the main ingredient.  Can’t wait to try the winning recipe for that contest!

The article also mentioned the winning recipe for the last contest that had to use butternut squash as the main ingredient.  The winning recipe is now on Mexicue’s menu for a month or two.

Today’s Lunch is a butternut squash taco ($2.75), a burnt ends chili slider ($3) and a short rib taco ($4) from Mexicue.

burnt ends chili slider, butternut squash taco & short ribs taco (bottom to top)

The first thing I picked up was the burnt ends chili slider, which had sliced, pickled jalapeños and crema on top of the chili.  You know how some chili can be mostly meat and some chili can be mostly beans – this was mostly meat.

The chili had a sweet, smoky bbq-type sauce, and was excellent on a slider.  The pickled jalapeños were a perfect addition, kicking up the heat level a notch or two.  The burnt ends chili slider has to be one of my favorite dishes at Mexicue.

butternut squash taco

Next I picked up the butternut squash taco, which had spicy slaw, crumbled cojita cheese, cilantro lime crema and crispy tortilla strips.  This was a very good taco too.

The butternut squash was soft and almost yam-like, but not quite as sweet as a yam.  It went very well with the cheese and crema as far as taste, and the tortilla strips and slaw added some nice texture.

I didn’t think the slaw was particularly spicy, but that could just be due to my love of spicy food.

Last up was the short rib taco, which had shredded short ribs, lettuce, pickled red onions, crumbled cojita cheese and a little molé sauce.

The short ribs had a really nice, smoky flavor, although the molé sauce probably added to the richness of flavor.  Definitely another winner here.

short rib taco

I really like the fact that two tortillas were used for each taco.  It might cost a little more, but it makes the eating experience so much better.  Nothing worse than a taco that falls apart in the middle of eating it.

Today’s Lunch from Mexicue was excellent.  The butternut squash contest-winning recipe was really good, but to be honest, I can’t wait to try the winner of the current recipe contest, which features bacon as the main ingredient.

If you have a taco or slider recipe that uses bacon, you can enter Mexicue’s recipe contest here – and if you need a taste tester before submitting the recipe, feel free to contact perry@newyorkstreetfood.com.  I would be happy to try it out for you before it’s submitted to Mexicue

Mexicue has been running recipe contests every season focused on one seasonal ingredient, from corn to cheddar cheese to butternut squash.  And the winning recipe is put on the Mexicue menu for a while.

The most recent recipe contest was just announced, and it’s…bacon.  Everything tastes better with bacon, so this should be quite a contest.

Below is the Fall Contest winner and their tasty creation – a taco with butternut squash, cilantro lime crema, tortilla strips, spicy slaw and cotija cheese.  Can’t wait to try one!

They have been in “soft opening” mode for the past week, but last night was not a preview for food bloggers and writers, as I initially thought.  When I was invited to the opening of their first store in early July, it was such an event, with everybody receiving a certain number of items to taste.

This was a Grand Opening Party for friends, families and colleagues.  Beer and wine were flowing, food was coming out of the kitchen on a regular basis, and this was more of a celebration than a planned, structured event.

The menu is the same as the Seventh Ave store, so I won’t go into detail about the food.

As for the space, it’s down a couple of steps from street level, and is a little larger than the downstairs of the Seventh Ave store, but it doesn’t have an upstairs dining room, as the other store does.  There’s a lot of light wood on the walls and benches, throw pillows on some of the benches, lanterns hanging from the walls, and wooden rafters in the ceiling.

It was tough to get a good look with everyone there, but the room had a cozy feel, with a nice bar and serving counter across from the front door.  A large menu is on the right wall as you walk in, and the kitchen, which I looked at through the door, appeared pretty roomy.  They expect to have a beer and wine license within the next couple of weeks, making for an even more comfortable place to hang out and enjoy some excellent, inexpensive food and a few drinks.

Congratulations and good luck to everyone involved with the new Mexicue store.  It has all the signs of another successful venture.

A little while ago, we told you that in addition to a new store, Mexicue was coming out with a second truck.

In order to differentiate the trucks from each other (and to give us something fun to do), they are holding a contest to name the Mexicue trucks.

The person who comes up with the winning names gets a free taco or slider every day for a year!  That’s a lot of tacos and sliders.

Click through for further details.

Per Mexicue’s instructions, think famous Mexican duos, notorious Southern pairs or whatever creative couple moniker you’ve got up your sleeve.

The winning name will be clever and funny, yet short and sweet (i.e. Twitter friendly). To enter, send your ideas to their twitter account with the hashtag #mexicuenames, email them to contests@mexicue.com, or post them to Mexicue’s Facebook page.

We have already entered this contest. but if we happen to win, the prize will be given to one very lucky New York Street Food reader.

Good luck everyone!

In case you haven’t heard, Mexicue, a 2010 Vendy Award Finalist in the Rookie of the Year category, is opening a new store next week.  It’s at 345 7th Ave, between 29th & 30th St.  They will have a soft opening Monday & Tuesday to work out all the kinks, and Wednesday is their official opening.

Today they had a sneak preview for their friends, press, and bloggers like me.  I hopped on the 1 train with great anticipation, as Mexicue is one of the best food trucks around, both in terms of their food quality and the creativeness of their cuisine.

So I got off the train at 28th St, walked up a block, and this is what I found.

Inside was a nice little space with Mexicue’s signature orange & yellow colors on the walls, wooden rafters in the ceiling, and a painting of their logo on the wall to the right that you can’t see in the picture above.

To the left of the ordering counter is a metal staircase leading upstairs, where there is seating for 20-25 people.  There is a big picture window overlooking 7th Ave with a counter and 6 stools, and more tables and chairs inside the room.

Upstairs facing the 7th Ave window

The picture above makes it look dark and narrow upstairs, but it wasn’t.  Upstairs was light and comfortable. it’s just that a ton of sunshine was coming through the window, messing up my picture.

One of the owners told me they have already applied for a beer & wine license, and will be staying open late on weekends (2am!) wanting people to come by and hang out upstairs after games and concerts at Madison Square Garden 2 blocks up, or to come over from the Eventi and Ace Hotels nearby.  It’s a nice space to hang out, eat tacos & sliders, and drink beer or wine.

With a full kitchen, they have expanded the menu as well.  In addition to tacos & sliders, you can get any of the tacos & sliders as rice bowls.  They also have 2 salads – a Mexican fruit/nut/goat cheese salad and a smoky Caesar salad.  The side dishes now include a chili mac & cheese, spicy potato salad, cole slaw, and chips with salsa or guacamole.  You can see the main course menu here and the salad/side menu here.

As part of the sneak preview, we got our choice of 2 tacos or sliders or 1 rice bowl for free.  I chose the burnt ends chili slider and Alabama chicken taco ($3.50 each).

When you order chili, sometimes it’s meat, sometimes it’s beans, sometimes it’s a mix of both.  The burnt ends chili slider was mostly meat.  It included sliced, pickled jalapenos and cilantro lime crema.

This slider packed some serious heat – and boy was it delicious!  The chili was meaty and had a great bbq flavor, the jalapenos added lots of heat, and the crema brought some coolness and complexity.  This might be my favorite new dish from Mexicue!  The only downside was no cheese.  Some sharp cheddar cheese would have been nice on it.

burnt ends chili slider & Alabama chicken taco

The Alabama chicken had shredded chicken, lettuce, cojita cheese, and what they called a creamy bbq sauce.  I wouldn’t call it a bbq sauce because it wasn’t tomatoey enough. I thought it was more like spicy thousand island dressing with chili powder, but it went well with the chicken, lettuce and cheese – and they used 2 tortillas with the taco.  This taco was good, but it didn’t blow me away like the chili slider did.  It was a much mellower dish.

I’m going to go out on a limb and predict great success for Mexicue’s new restaurant.  The food is creative and priced well, it’s cooked well, and the space is comfortable.  It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to figure out this is a recipe for success.

Congratulations to everyone involved in the new Mexicue venture.  We’re looking forward to eventually trying everything on the menu.

I saw a few days ago that Mexicue had a couple of new menu items, and since I haven’t been there in a while, I headed there for lunch.

They had a new chicken chipotle slider ($3), which was their spring recipe contest winner, and a mushroom taco ($4), which along with one other item, was supposed to be Today’s Lunch.

Unfortunately, the person right in front of me on line got the very last chicken chipotle slider, so I ordered the mushroom taco (left), a chicken taco (center, $3) and a brisket slider (right, $4).

Starting from the left, I picked up the mushroom taco, which had corn salsa and cojita cheese, as well as 2 tortillas.  This taco was not spicy, but the mushrooms had a smokiness that was very pleasant.  Vegetarians should really enjoy this taco, and even a carnivore like me did.

Next up was the chicken taco that substituted for the chicken chipotle slider that I missed out on.  This taco had shredded chicken, salsa verde and more cojita cheese sprinkled on top.  The salsa verde gave it some significant heat, but it also gave the taco some excess liquid that ran out the back of the taco on each bite.  It tasted good, but I was thankful it was eaten over the container, instead of getting all over my shirt.

The brisket slider was last, and it turned out to be my favorite of the bunch.  The slider had shredded, smoky brisket, a sweet and tangy bbq sauce, red cabbage/habanero slaw and guacamole.  This slider had several different flavors, and while it wasn’t spicy at first, the heat built up with each successive bite.  The slider bun held up well to these strong flavors, and I even tasted a hint of honey glaze on top of the bun.

Today’s Lunch was another excellent one from Mexicue, a 2010 Vendy Award Finalist in the Rookie of the Year category.  I was disappointed not to try their spring recipe contest winner – but everything else on the menu is a winner, so no worries.

If you want to enter Mexicue’s summer recipe contest, click here.  Follow them on twitter here.