Mo's

Moe's is part of a Southwestern chain of fast food restuarants. I visited the newest location in NYC's borough of Queens at 61-01 Junction Blvd.

I had the Funk Meister Meal - soft taco with steak, salsa, black beans, cheese and lettuce with a side of guacamole and a medium soda ($5.77). It's a step up from Taco Bell, but not as good as Qdoba or Chipotle.

Mercadito Cantina

...is located at 172 Avenue B in NYC's Alphabet City. On Monday and Tuesday nights they offer an all you can eat taco special for $23/person.

"M" and I went to see just how many tacos we could eat.

First we started with the traditionale guacamole with tomatillo, garlic, lime and cilantro and chips ($11) - the chips were crispy, fresh and warm. The guacamole was nice and chunky with a hint of spiciness.

For drinks we ordered Mentirosas made with Tric-quilla (homemade tequilla). "M" had a Pinapeno - pineapple and jalepeno which tasted soapy. I had a Nicky the Kid - mango and chipotle syrup which tasted spicy.

Then we started to work our way down the entire taco menu:

- Estilo Baja beer battered shrimp, roasted habanero, avocado cole slaw

- Chorizo homemade green chorizo, manchego cheese, tomatillo salsa

- Pollo rosemary marinated chicken, cactus-leek fundido, tomatillo salsa, crispy leek

- Tinga De Mole pulled organic chicken, mole poblano, sweet potato

- Pescado tilapia, chile poblano, tomatillo-garlic mojo

- Al Pastor ancho-guajillo marinated red snapper, grilled pineapple

- Carne hoja santa marinated grass fed skirt steak, salsa verde

- Carnitas michoacán style braised berkshire pork, cacahuate salsa

- Vegetariano mushrooms, huitlacoche, manchego cheese, pickled onion

Our favorites were the shrimp, the red snapper and the steak.

We were so full we could eat any more and had absolutely no room for dessert, but it was worth it!

Midnight Food Crawl

This past weekend I went on a midnight food vendor crawl in Jackson Heights - NYC's borough of Queens along Roosevelt Avenue. This hispanic neighborhood is filled with food vendors, restaurants and bars. My group of 70-80 people started at 10am in a local bar, then roamed around hitting up every food vendor on the way until 2am.

At two different vendors I tried a bistec taco (steak) and a chorizo (spicy sausage) taco - both for $2/each. The third vendor was out of carnitas (shredded pork) and pernil (roasted pork) by the time we made our way down to them.

"E" tried a veggie taco at one cart, an Arepa at another and a quesadilla de Huitlacoche – filled with mushroom smut and cheese and a third. In between we stopped into a Dance Hall, a Gay Club and finally a Thai Karaoke bar.

Meatopia

"M" and I had the pleasure of attending the first ever Meatopia: BBQ NYC event on Governor's Island (a small island located between lower Manhattan and Brooklyn) on Sunday, July 11th.

We bought a "choice" tasting ticket for $45 (less 30% Blackboard Eats discount) for 6 tastes.

There were 30 chefs/restaurants serving up wonderful food, cooking and butchering demos and musicians.

It was well worth the trip and cost. And the servings were generous so 6* was enough for us.

Here are the foods we tried:

1) Suenos Restaurant: Smoked Duck Tacos, Canela Tortilla

2) Waterfront Ale House/Fuhgeddaboutit BBQ: House cured and Smoked Brisket Pastrami, Stout Mustard, Pretzel Roll

3) Smokin' Joe's True Blue Texas Barbecue: La Caja China Roasted Pig

4) Abe & Arthur's: Country style Pork Ribs with Tomatilla Salsa

* freebie - Aureole: Marinated Skirt Steak with asian slaw

5) The Hurricane Club: Honey glazed Baby Back Ribs with thai basil & mint

6) La Esquina: Roasted Fudge Farms Pork Shoulder, Marinated with Leche Condensada, Eqazote, Ajo Y Naranja

#4 and 6 were our favorites.

I was disappointed that Porter House New York ran out of their Grilled Skirt Steak Hoagies, Chimichurri & Roasted Corn around 3:30. But Chef Michael Lomonaco broke the bad news to the crowd.