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.
English was not this vendor’s strong suit, but there was enough to ask a couple of questions and to order. He also asked if I wanted it spicy, which is a big sí.
According to Wikipedia, an antojito is a Mexican street snack that does not count as a full meal, but just as an appetizer, even though some are very large and substantial. Antojitos are frequently consumed on the streets or in street markets and are considered informal cheap food.
These may have been appetizers, but they were large and substantial. There was lots of meat on each taco, which were topped with lettuce, tomato, onions, crema, crumbled cojita cheese, cilantro and thankfully, two tortillas per taco. There were even a few sliced radishes. Both the radishes and two tortillas per taco were the giveaways these were authentic Mexican tacos.
I love all kinds of sausages, and crumbled, grilled chorizo in a taco is tough to beat. It was meaty without a lot of filler, and one side of the meat was crispy from the grill.
As far as heat, the salsa verde (green hot sauce) had some serious burn, so decline it if you don’t like spicy food.
The chicken was similar to the chorizo, in that one side was crispy and one side was soft. This was really good too, although I did enjoy the chorizo a bit more.
The beef taco was decent, but I preferred the chorizo and chicken tacos.
I don’t believe Antojitos Mexicanos has a website or twitter account, but they are on the east side of 6th Ave between 28th-29th St every weekday. This area just south of Herald Square is a street food wasteland, so this was a good find for the area.
The other recommendation I can make is a place to sit enjoy your lunch. After getting your food from Antojitos Mexicanos, cross 6th Ave and continue a few steps west on 29th St. Just behind the Eventi Hotel is a nice public park with plenty of tables and a fountain where you can sit and enjoy your lunch.
