(credit: NYSF)

With what seemed like every food website offering their list of “Best Mexican Food” places last week, I wasn’t going to go down that road.  But I stumbled upon a Mexican food cart last week that is as authentic as it gets - Antojitos Mexicanos.

The cart is run by a husband and wife team on the east side of 6th Ave between 28th & 29th St.  I wasn’t looking for them, and had actually never heard of them before, but when you see a cart with half a dozen locals waiting for lunch, that merits further investigation.

As I walked up to the cart, one guy walked away with a plate full of tacos that looked good, so I ordered 3 tacos: one chicken, one beef and one chorizo.  They cost $2.50 each.

(credit: NYSF)

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(credit: NY Daily News)

One of last year’s Vendy Award Finalists, Mexican Tamales Guadalupe, was recently profiled in the NY Daily News.  The subtitle is “From poverty to prosperity: Immigrant finds success with tamales”.

This is only a small indication of the hardships Guadalupe has overcome to build a thriving business that supports her and her 5 children in Brooklyn.  Click here for the entire article.

(credit: NYSF)

Tacos y Quesadillas Mexico is an old-school Mexican street cart with a fairly wide menu.  In addition to tacos and quesadillas, they have burritos, huaraches, chalupas, cemitas and tortas (the last 2 being Mexican sandwiches).

They also have a nice variety of meats.  You expect chicken, pork, beef & chorizo, but they also have Mexican specialties like tongue, pig’s ear, goat, and salted beef.

They have enough of a following that a 2nd cart was opened last fall.  The original is on 9th Ave by 59th St, and the 2nd one is on 53rd St between 7th Ave & Broadway.  They both have the same menus.

I had dinner plans and didn’t want a huge meal for lunch, so I ordered a chorizo quesadilla for $5.50.

(credit: NYSF)

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I was in Chelsea recently and decided to stop by Brothers L&C Express on 18th St just west of 6th Ave.

Brothers L&C Express is an old school street vendor, and they have regular street food such as burgers, cheesesteaks, gyros and the like.  But the chefs are Mexican, and the best food I’ve had there were tacos, bistec guisado (beef stew) and empanadas.

When I walked up to the truck, the Daily Special menu said pernil con abichuelas, arroz y ensalata (roast pork with rice & beans and a salad).  That sounded good, and it was only $5.

The roast pork was shredded, with a few crispy, well-done pieces of skin tossed into the mix.  The pork had a nice roasted flavor, and the salsa verde was a nice addition on the pernil.

You could tell the beans had been slow cooked for hours in sofrito, but they were still firm.  The beans were tasty, with tomatoes, garlic and peppers all adding flavor.

The rice was a basic yellow rice, but it was cooked right and went well with the pork and beans.

Maybe I should have mixed the pork and rice and beans together.  That would have been crazy.

The pernil lunch special from Brothers L&C Express was good.  We recommend going with their Daily Special, which is basically Mexican home cooking such as roast pork and beef stew.  The food here is authentic, fresh and inexpensive, just as street food should be.

The Brothers L&C Truck doesn’t tweet or have a website, but they are on 18th St just west of 6th Ave.

I had an opportunity to stop by the Tribeca Taco Truck when I was in Soho recently.  Where else would you expect to find the Tribeca Taco Truck?

I’ve never had a quesadilla from there, so it was simply question of which filling to get inside and which sauce to get on top.  Percy the chef and co-owner suggested a Tribeca quesadilla, which was $6.  I decided to top it with spicy mango sauce.

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