Breakfast Burritos and New Bike Gear

The block that I live on was having a bunch of garage sales a couple of weekends ago, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to make some breakfast burritos for the visiting crowds. It was also a chance to try out the new side containers that my father in law put together to mount on the bike frame.

First I had to gather and prepare the ingredients.

• 12" flour tortillas from the Mexican market
• cooked a few pounds of chorizo seco (dried)
• peeled, diced, and boiled a couple pounds of potatoes
• 1 lb. of mixed of shredded jack and cheddar cheese to melt on the tortillas
• 2 dozen eggs
• diced jalapenos

The side car containers now had to be filled. The great part about this devise is that the individual containers come out for easy cleaning, and you can put ice in the bottom to keep the container contents cold. You can also put a Sterno candle underneath the container with some water inside of it to create a hot water bath to keep the container contents hot.

It was about 8:30 in the morning and I was ready to ride down the street and open up shop.


I had never cooked eggs on the hot 'arriba' part of the comal, but if I laid them down gently, they mostly stayed together without sliding off.

After the eggs were cooked, I mixed in the chorizo and egg that have been kept warm on the outer ring of the comal. Jalapenos occasionally went in here.

I scraped the completed filling to a free spot on the side of the comal so that I could use the center part to heat the tortilla and melt cheese on top of. The finished result turned out pretty good. Next time I would try to get more moisture in the filling. Maybe a chipotle sauce mixed in.

Bike Cart Jamaican Barbecue

Back from Jamaica, I had to take a shot at recreating the jerk chicken and serving up some fish that I had grown accustomed to eating on the island. The perfect opportunity for firing up the barbecue on the bike cart.

First a little more fabrication was due. While on vacation, the butcher block that I custom ordered had arrived. It is an awesome cut of maple end grain, 2 inches thick and sized to fit into the leftover space next to the cooking area. My father in law planted four studs into the wood and drilled corresponding holes into the aluminum frame. It fit perfectly and is removable for cleaning. We also put some hooks on the frame for holding utensils.


Picked up some beautiful halibut at Costco trip and thawed out some banana leaves in the freezer from the tamale expedition. Seasoned with a little dill and lemon, this cooked along side of some foil wrapped corn. A pretty simple dish, but it sure turned out great.

Now that the barbecue had been initiated, it was time for something a little more complicated, slow roasting a whole chicken prepared with jerk marinade. I am so glad that I had researched the Outdoor Chef City Grill 420 ahead of time. It really lives up to its reputation and high reviews. I was amazed how I was able to control the temperature within about five degrees for long periods of time.

This chicken cooked for an hour over 275 degree heat. It really was falling off the bone. The marinated was infused in the juicy meat and the jerk sauce was spicy, sweet, and wonderful.

Functionality for the Bike Cart

The plan for building a taco cart from a Mercurio cargo bike is coming along. My first task was to decide upon what type of cooking devices that I wanted to incorporate. With an area of only 28 square inches to work with, I needed to find portable devices that allowed a lot of flexibility in a little space.

The first purchase was the Outdoor Chef City Grill 420. It got great reviews and is able to cook both directly and indirectly due to its flip funnel technology. The funnel passes the heat to the grill when set as an inverted "V". Heat is sent to the sides when it is turned over into its "V" position. All this is bundled into a small, light frame.

Now where to put it on the bike. Mounting to the base would take up a lot of space and eliminate most of the storage area. After taking the legs off the grill, I noticed the mount that connected the grill body to the legs. It would be perfect to attach to a frame and suspend it above the cargo area.

Light bulbs started going off, if I could suspend a grill with this mount, maybe there was a way that I could use the same mount to suspend a propane stove top cooker as well. Over the internet, it was hard to figure out the size compatibility of the two devices, but I found the smallest and toughest cooker available, the King Kooker 1205 outdoor cooker, and rolled the dice.

The final procurement of this stage was the taco cooking device. I needed to have this to ensure that everything was going to fit with the mount placement. There was no doubt that it had to be the legend for making tacos, the comal bola arriba (comal with the upward bowl). I had to search no further than our local Mercado Loco for this stainless steel tool.


Once the components arrived, I put together a wood prototype to get a feel for how these items would work together and where their placement should be. I briefly considered mounting both devices, but gave up on that idea as it would provide too much cooking power and not enough work area. They mostly were sitting next to each other to consider sizing of the dual purpose mount.


At this stage, I drew up some plans and consulted with my father-in-law. He has a wicked set of tools, a great supply of miscellaneous aluminum pieces, and the expertise to build things with them. The grill mount went together first. It was relatively easy following the wood model.


The stove top was a little trickier. After cutting the base off, it was an inch too small to fit inside of the grill mount. We ran through some different ideas for broadening the leg stumps to fit correctly inside the mount. Then my father-in-law had a great idea. What if we found a piece of aluminum that would fit on top of the mount and drill holes through it that would fit the leg stumps of the stove top. Like magic, the perfect size piece of aluminum appeared in the scrap pile. From there, everything fell into place.

At last it was time to have a practice run of the new equipment. I grilled some white onion, chicken breast, and arrachera (thinly cut flank steak). Put a tongue in the pressure cooker. After all of this was mostly cooked, I diced everything into tiny pieces. I also chopped up some red chard. The nopales (cactus) already had its needles removed and was cut to the right size.

I set up the bike in the back yard and fired up the stove top cooker for the first time. It was working perfectly.
I put the comal on top and started sweating down the red chard with some chopped garlic and green onion. Also put on a pound of chorizo to see how it would turn out.

After these items got most of the way done, I added the remaining pre-cooked ingredients. It was a beautiful site to see all of those items getting their finish. Once everything is ready, the hot middle part is used to heat up tortillas.

It was surprising how well everything came together. A little fresh lime juice on all of the meats was the only seasoning that I used. Probably will mix in a little more spices next time, but this wasn't bad for the first time.


Looks like the first objective has been met. I already have a few opportunities for practicing away from home at different types of functions in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, I think there is only one thing to do, accessorize!

Mercurio Bike Cart Arrives

It has been quite a while since I have put a post out here. Of course I have been cooking and even taking pictures on occasion, but haven't been inspired or blessed with the time to put something together. I am thinking that it is about to change now as I have become the proud owner of a Mercurio bike cart!

I became fascinated with these mobile kitchens from prior trips to Mexico (see Oaxaca trip postings if you are interested). It is like a blank sheet of paper with so many options and potential configurations.

I know what you are asking, how did I get my hands on one of these? You probably already know the answer, eBay. I was just randomly looking one day and there it was, a real Mercurio cargo bike in good condition. The price was $380, but it had to be picked up from Burbank. That was going to be the tough part. The good news is that it eliminated the bid competition. A few days and emails later, and I won the bidding.

My brother has some contacts who run produce equipment up and down the southern part of California and over a couple of months, he was able to get the bike moved from Burbank, to Oxnard, to Salinas, and finally, to Sacramento. Alas, my precious bike made it home.

It was a little weathered with some rust on the bare metal parts including the rims and it had no working brakes. Otherwise, it was in great shape and truly the real deal.

Some steel wool and WD-40, and the rust slowly disappeared. The brakes were going to be another issue. I decided to ride it the 3 miles to a local bike shop that deals with vintage bikes. Without any brakes, I had to do the Flinstone stop when necessary. It is difficult enough to maneuver with brakes, but no brakes made for an interesting ride. My forearms were exhausted from keeping the wheels going straight by the time I got to the shop. I was looking forward to dropping it off and getting into my awaiting ride. Bad news, the bike didn't fit in the bike shop doors. I was able to talk the salesman into coming outside to look at it. "Just bring the back wheel in and I can fix the brakes for you" was his comment. Grrr, now to ride it all the way back home and return with the back wheel. At least I got some interesting looks on the way back.


Removing the back wheel did give me a chance to remove the chain and get all the rust off of it too. Tried to put on some new, metal pedals, but they were an obscure size and I decide to put the original ones back on. Got the back wheel back a week later and everything was clean and functioning. Bike repair guy said that the manufacturer didn't put any grease into the hubs of the coaster brakes. This is such a well built bike, sad to see the manufacturer cheap out on greasing the hub and putting on weak pedals.


Now the fun part is about to begin. I have seen all kinds of uses for these bikes, but have never seen one used for making tacos. That is my vision, lets see how it goes.