Taco Trucks in Sunset Park

Street food al fresco on Fourth and Fifth Avenues

Comments (0) By Sarah DiGregorio Tuesday, Aug 19 2008

Most customers order Yissel's chimichurris, although many come for tacos or skewers. There's also a selection of more deluxe plates, combining fried meat with fried, smashed plantains called tostones. A friend who is a tostones connoisseur declared these properly crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. On top of these fried plantains, you can get fried pork feet, fried pork, fried sausage, fried chicken, fried pork skin, or steak.

As the lone non-fried option, the steak doesn't distinguish itself; it's tough and ordinary. The best is the fried pork sausage—a pile of craggy, inch-long fingers of spicy ground pork. They're hot and crispy on the outside and gush salty juices under your teeth. A friend noted that it's the sort of thing that a 90-year-old chain-smoking daredevil eats every day and, against all odds, never dies.

Staci Schwartz

Rockwellian: Yissel's chimichurri truck

Details

Yissel's 71 Chimichurri
Corner of Fourth Avenue and 36th Street, open Wed. to Mon., 8 p.m. to 7 a.m.*

Tacos el Bronco
Corner of Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street, open daily from between 9 and 10 p.m. to 8 a.m.*

Rosa's Elotes
Corner of Fifth Avenue and 44th Street, open daily from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.*

Tacos Deliciosos
Corner of Fourth Avenue and 60th Street, open from Tues. to Sun., 4 p.m. to 2 a.m.*

*These times are not always consistent.

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One night, I went with two friends and ordered a heap of food—several tacos, a plate of fried sausage and tostones, a pork skewer, a chicken skewer, and a chimichurri. We sat in the dusk and stuffed ourselves under the truck's flickering fluorescent lights, watching Yissel cook and commuters come up out the 36th Street subway. We had the best sidewalk table for al fresco dining in the city.