Al Pastor Burrito - Piñata - SW 3rd and Ash

A brand new Mexican Food cart opened up next to Big Ass Sandwiches this week, so I decided to try it out. Although there is no sign stating so, rumor has it the cart is "Piñata."

The menu is fairly standard fare for Mexican food, featuring tacos, burritos, rellenos, sopas, etc. Tacos $1.50, Burritos $5.50, certainly a bargain.

I ordered the Al Pastor Burrito, and it is MASSIVE. They grill the tortillas, which makes them 100% more awesome. The burrito contained rice, beans, onions, cheese, the meat (of course) - and, something of a surprise -- pineapple. It works, though.

They have their own red and green sauce, and I loved both of them - if anything, this sauce might cause me to prefer this cart when I'm in the mood for Mexican food.

On the way back to the office, I noticed another new cart has opened up on SW 2nd between Oak and Stark - hey, Mexican food! Maybe I'll try that next week.

Mole Platter - Mr. Taco, SW 5th and Oak

Today I realized, during the entire time I've been doing this blog, I have neglected to stop at a single Mexican cart. There are plenty, almost as many of them as there are Thai food carts.

Perhaps they seemed the least exotic of the carts around, yet - they do often offer the best value for your money, with many offering tacos around $1.50 each, burritos for $5, etc.

Mr. Taco has been around for quite some time, and I think this was my first time stopping there. They have a rather extensive menu, and -- MOLE SAUCE. So, today I ordered the Mole Platter.

It came with a generous amount of small corn flour tortillas packaged in tinfoil, so they kept warm. Refried beans with cheese and a scoop of rice on the side.

The mole was very tasty, not too sweet, and was generously applied to the tender, almost shredded chicken. I actually ran out of tortillas and finished up the remainder with my fork.

Unfortunately, I didn't notice their sign advertising a new dish, which was a cactus platter. This is something I may want to try in the near future, to help erase a traumatic childhood memory where my stepmother taught us that cacti were edible, and proceeded to pull some out of the back yard, prepare and serve it to us - without taking all the spines out. We were picking it out of our tongues for a week. Don't try this at home.

Yeah. Maybe this cart will help undo my fear of eating cactus. Maybe.

Overall review: Good stuff, generous portions, and a very robust menu. Breakfast is also offered, this is one of the carts that is almost ALWAYS open. Tortas, burritos, tacos, enchiladas, and more. Their hot sauce is amazing, if you like to sweat while eating your food... which I do.

Beef Tongue Taco and Hot Tamales - El Sultan - SE 50th and Foster

Today, I had to work from home to facilitate the delivery of a new washing machine.
This left me nowhere near downtown, which is where I usually report from... however, this did not deter me from eating cart food, and gave me a chance to check out a nearby cart pod local to my 'hood, which I usually don't have the chance to try.

This brings me to El Sultan, the longest running cart at the seemingly troubled Carts on Foster pod. I've watched several carts come and go from this location since it was started up, but this one's been a mainstay.

An interesting cart, as El Sultan provides both Mexican and Mediterranean style dishes. I had greek food yesterday, so I opted to go the Mexican route.

I was in luck, their menu offered beef tongue as one of the meat options. I'd been meaning to try this for some time, so here was my chance. (Though, I was hesitant, as they spelled it "tounge" on the menu, a BIG pet peeve of mine, how seemingly half the population misspells this word consistently the same way -> T-O-N-G-U-E, OK?)

They had a sign up declaring the special to be chicken tamales, as well, and those sounded good. I ordered two chicken tamales, and one beef tongue taco. It took a few minutes to get my food, but they wrapped it up 'to go' nicely on a plate, and gave me some small cups of hot sauce to go along with it.

The beef tongue was soft and tender and flavorful - very good. Up until the last year or so, I'd have instantly rejected the idea of eating tongue, but had read a few articles in its defense explaining it's some of the best meat you can get. I'm inclined to agree, after this taco. It was served in street taco fashion, with soft, warm corn tortillas, onions, cilantro, and of course, little chunks of tender tongue meat. Perhaps I should have had two beef tongue tacos, and one tamale.

The tamales were great. The chicken inside was quite spicy, and I didn't need to use the hot sauce except to soak the remaning chunks of tamale after I liberated the spicy chicken from inside. Ate up every bite, and now I'm rather stuffed... and satisfied. Not a bad deal, $6.50 for the meal I had, which was more than enough.

If you haven't tried beef tongue - give it a whirl - I was impressed... and if you find yourself out in the Foster/Powell area, maybe give this struggling cart pod a try - it looks like they're trying a few good ideas out -- such as a beer bar, and heated tent for eating during inclement weather. There was music playing, but hardly anyone in sight. Currently, there appear to be four operational carts, including an Italian, Thai, and Hawaiian cart, plus the one I just reviewed.