Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

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May 10, 2011 By cheryl

Snack Dragon: Toothsome Taco Truck Fare

One of the great things about this recent book busyness has been the nudge it’s given me to venture into unfamiliar territory.

While it’s true that I have managed to eat my way through impressive swaths of New York City in my eight years as a New Yorker, there are some rather untouched spots in in my eating landscape. Based purely on subway inconveniences (and my great sloth) the gastronomically rich far East Village, sadly, is one of them.

So when I recently found myself in that neighborhood, still coming down from the high of having just met and read with the lovely Gabrielle Hamilton, chef of Prune and author of “Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef,” at KGB Bar and completely ravenous from our joint reading from our food memoirs, the stomach, naturally, started calling.

“Mmm … Snack Dragon,” my friend Noa said, her eyes getting so large I instantly could envision them popping out of their sockets. When she started smacking her lips at the thought of the place, I knew we had to go.

Despite the raves that this little taco stand has gotten in the five years it’s been around, I’d never been there. From Noa’s look of utter shock, clearly, this was something that needed to be remedied. Pronto.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cheap Eats, Mexican, New York, Restaurants Tagged With: Beef, Carne Asada, Cheap Eats, Chef, Chorizo, Citrus, East Village, Gabrielle Hamilton, Grilled sole, Mexican, New York, Pineapple, Pork, Prune, Taco, Taco Truck, Thai

January 31, 2010 By cheryl

The Loading Dock: "Worthy" Fish Tacos


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This might be what they call a classic New York food fairytale.

Boy moves to New York. Boy starts selling fish tacos at out of a little stand at the Brooklyn Flea in Dumbo. Boy’s tacos develop a hungry following. Boy opens restaurant.

And to add to the cool factor, he opens it in the loading dock of a former garment factory in downtown Brooklyn — talk about economical use of space in this land-starved city.

The Boy in this case would be Forrest Cole, who explains on his Web site that he first started selling fish tacos at the flea after fruitlessly trying to find a “worthy example” of a Baja-style fish taco in the city.

Now, that’s talking quite a bit of smack about New York’s many pre-existing taco joints.

We had to see just how “worthy” these fish tacos were …

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Filed Under: Brooklyn, Mexican, Restaurants Tagged With: Adobo, Avocado, Baja, Beans, Beer-battered, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Flea, Burrito, Carne Asada, Carnitas, Chicken, Chipotle, Choncho's Tacos, Downtown, Erik Hougen, Fish, Forrest Cole, Mahi-Mahi, Marinade, McDonald's, New York, Parsley, Police station, Pollo, Rice, Slow-cooked pork, Soda, Taco, Tomatillo

July 7, 2009 By cheryl

Calexico Carne Asada: Taco Truck Fare With A Wait


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You would think that when a bunch of guys running a street food cart in one of the busiest neighborhoods in Manhattan get around to opening a restaurant, there wouldn’t be much of a wait for your food.

And yet there we were at Calexico Carne Asada in Brooklyn, mid-afternoon on a recent Friday, waiting for 10 minutes … 15 minutes … more, before our tacos and burrito finally surfaced.

We’re talking carne asada/pulled pork piled onto or wrapped up in tortillas, folks.

Assuming the meats have been prepped ahead of time, shouldn’t these be fairly easy to put together?

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Filed Under: Brooklyn, Mexican, New York, Restaurants Tagged With: Bay Area, Beans, Brian Vendley, Brooklyn, Burrito, Carne Asada, David Vendley, Food Cart, Jesse Vendley, Manhattan, Martha Stewart, New York, New York Times, Pollo Asada, Pulled Pork, Quesadillas, Red Hook, Rice, Saveur, SoHo, Starbucks, Taco, Tofu Torta, Torta

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