Here’s a look at last night’s tacos from Tacos La Carcachita, home of the best cemitas in almost-Ridgewood. You may have noticed the Carcachita truck’s absence for the past week and a half (due to repairs) — and in its place, the loaner waffle-wich truck that advertises “private and corporate waffling” (haha). Continue reading
Chicken empanada
Our next food cart stop might be the busiest cart in Ridgewood. El Palacio de las Empanadas Ecuatorianas greets you as you enter the Myrtle Avenue BID (on the Duane Reade side). As the day progresses and appetites swell, there’s often several people hanging around the cart, catching up on the day’s activities while they enjoy their chicken and chicken and cheese empanadas ($1.50 each). Continue reading
Chicken & rice atop a chess table in Benniger Playground
Food Cart Month continues! Today we checked out Bakhtar, the Afghan-owned halal cart in front of Rite Aid on Fresh Pond Road. The cart offers the same fare as its flagship Wyckoff Heights Hospital location: chicken over rice, pitas and gyros, falafel, biriyani, and, most uniquely, chapli and shami kebabs (flat minced-meat patties, the latter of which also contain chickpea or lentil flour). Continue reading
Roasted coconut
In case you missed it, awhile back we quietly tweeted that May is FOOD CART MONTH here at Ridgefood. We will attempt, weather and energy permitting, to visit every food cart in Ridgewood. There aren’t very many, so this isn’t really very impressive, but hey!
Previously we’ve told you about several borderland carts: Tacos La Carcachita, where the cemitas are big and meaty, and an eponymous Sundays-only Ecuadorian cart that serves salchipapas (french fries and hotdogs, basically) and whole fried fish to voleibol players in Evergreen Park. Continue reading
Milanesa de pollo cemita from Tacos La Carcachita
We just got back from Monterrey, a strikingly beautiful yet largely non-touristy desert-mountain town in northern Mexico. (Fun fact: in Monterrey, they serve tacos on diminutive soft flour tortillas in addition to the traditional corn ones. It’s a cool culinary nod to neighboring Texas that we’ve never seen anywhere else in Mexico, where corn rules the tortilla scene.) Anyway, our trip was short, which meant we returned to Ridgewood craving more Mexican food.
Since we happen to love cemitas – the chipotle’d, sesame seed–topped sister-sandwich to the more common torta — we stopped by Tacos La Carcachita, the Mexican food truck we’ve been meaning to check out forever. The results were pleasing!
A plate of Ecuadorian salchipapas
Few would praise Ridgewood for its bountiful park space, though we love what we’ve got in Grover Cleveland, Rosemary’s Playground, Mafera Park, etc. With such a limited selection, though, it’s surprising not many people know about our second-biggest park: Evergreen Park, just across the freight-train tracks in Ridgewood’s east-side “Cemetery Sliver.” We’d bet even fewer are aware that Ridgewood has a burgeoning, if modest, rival to the Red Hook Ballfields emerging on Sunday afternoons out there. Continue reading