MACSAC announced on August 16th that registration for Bike the Barns is full. There are still volunteer opportunities and plenty of room at the afterparty at Token Creek Park, September 11 from 4-7pm. The Carrot Cruiser and Team A-Z are still collecting pledges to benefit MACSAC’s Partner Shares Program . Our sincere thanks to those who’ve already pledged – and food for thought: If every one of our readers gave just $1 , MACSAC’s pepper pledge-o-meter would go from peperoncini to Scotch bonnet in no time with the blinding heat of your generosity. We know MACSAC can make that goal, but only with your help. Thank you! Update for fellow riders: feel free to leave your own pledge link in the comments. See you in September!

In a word: Uneven fusion and we ain’t lion. The specs: #0575   Address, hours & details via Isthmus ; reviews at Isthmus ( 5/25/10 , 5/27/10 , 7/22/10 ), 77Square , Yelp , QSC , Channel3000 ; listing at Eat Drink Madison ; official web site , JM ate the chicken and a canela whoopie pie with a lemonade. Nichole ate the queso fundido, chicken soup, and a cookie with a beer. The bill was $35, or $17.50/person, plus tip. JM gave King and Mane a B+; Nichole gave King and Mane a C+ (see our grading rubric ). King and Mane feels a bit like “Weird” Al Yankovic’s music. Appreciation, not appropriation, should be the word of the day, and has to be done very carefully. Some folks will find King and Mane is doing fine in this regard, and might find the playful food combinations from Mexico, Spain and Italy charming; others won’t . Getting a table was tricky in the absence of a host station, but we eventually took a seat outside where the patio was shady and pleasant except for the non-synchronization of the clicks from two crosswalk signs nearby (by now you know we’re sensitive to that kind of thing). The lemonade had ample pulp but a fakey flavor. The beer was something from Rogue that neither the server nor Nichole could remember any details about. JM got the chicken. This sounded simple and was in fact excellent. The description (”pan-roasted chicken breast, green onion mashed potato, pickled tomato”) explains the numerous flavors at work, and a curried tomatillo salsa was very good. The meat was seared and juicy, though the mashed potatoes were somewhat cool in the middle. Nichole ordered the wrong stuff again. The oregano, peppers, and Very Small bit of chorizo in the queso fundido didn’t manage to transcend the cold hard facts: that it’s a bowl of melted jack cheese, and it congealed fast. She chose the chicken soup because she wanted to find out how masa spaetzle worked, and it kind of didn’t, though the cultural exchange was a nice ideal. The dumplings were like extruded cylinders without much flavor, but they had a clean, non-gummy texture that’s preferable to a poor dumpling. The soup was thick and opaque, full of roasted peppers, and hot with fresh black pepper, but after a bowl’s worth even that became somewhat dull. Dessert was a canela whoopie pie (watch for it at Taste of Madison ) and a Marcona almond/bittersweet chocolate cookie. Both sounded better on paper. The whoopie pie was soft as a cloud with a fluffy frosting center, but we couldn’t detect the spices that were ostensibly there to make it Mexican; the cookie (served room temperature, which was surprising, and yes, Nichole’s appalled at her own effete expectations based on how excellent a simple 20 seconds in the microwave can be for a chocolate chip cookie – but maybe K&M doesn’t have a micro – now where were we?) was so full of toothsome chocolate planks that the run-of-the-mill dough served merely as adhesive. At $1.75, this cookie kicks ass over every coffeehouse chocolate chip cookie downtown*; if King & Mane’s coffee is any good, and they do to-go, that’s where we suspect a sweet spot is. There was no room on our camera for dessert because we wanted to remember how adorable it was that a pepper plant was growing on the patio. *We’ve heard about Graze ’s baked-to-order cookies. Graze is on the post-S makeup list. Have mercy and please don’t remind us how long we have to wait to go there for reals.

In a word: Not your father’s office coffee. The specs: #0574   Address, hours & details via Isthmus ; reviews at Isthmus , Madison Coffee Fellowship ; official web site , Facebook . JM ate the turkey panino and a chocolate chip scone with a Sprecher root beer. Nichole ate the veg panino with a cupcake. The bill was $20, or $10/person, plus tip. JM gave Java Den a C; Nichole gave Java Den a C+ (see our grading rubric ). There’s a quote attributed to Maya Angelou that goes “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Sadly, Java Den made us feel like we were reliving the jetlagged morning a few years ago when we felt brilliant and adventurous for using a long layover at the San Francisco airport to check out the city, but got off at the wrong BART stop and instead of seeing anything interesting ended up crabbing at each other in a crowded, overpriced chain bagel place in the financial district. It’s not their fault. It looks like Java Den’s serving a captive audience of business school students in a restaurant dead zone. The nearest other eats are probably the Good Food Cart if you’re lucky, the new Qdoba on Regent and Park, and another coffee shop half a block away. To Java Den’s credit they’re serving that zone well: bakery from Elegant Foods, La Brioche True Food, Cupcakes-a-GoGo and Kickapoo Coffee are all excellent sources, if not exactly bargain-conscious. Our lunch was two panini (picked from the four remaining at 11:45), a scone, a cupcake, and a root beer. The sandwiches were, in JM’s words, “trying to be all Mediterranean and stuff.” The bread was very heavily infused with olive oil. Nichole’s veg panino had fresh mozzarella, crisp red onion, and tomato with a delicious – but again, highly lipidic – spread of some sort of salty, pinkish aioli that hinted at anchovies and maybe red peppers. Good, but twice as heavy as it should have been. JM’s turkey panino swapped out the mozzarella and for that was more balanced, he felt. We ate our desserts anyway because as it turns out, three tablespoons of olive oil may be a lot of calories but is not all that filling when hidden in a couple pieces of bread. The chocolate chip scone was dry in a good, biscuity-crumbly way, that paired fine with the root beer. Nichole had been looking forward to trying Cupcakes-a-GoGo ’s cakes for a while. This was one of a half dozen of two flavors on offer; the vanilla with cream cheese frosting and blueberry mousse won out over chocolate. The clever individual-cupcake packaging looked like Darth’s helmet so much that we expected it to hiss when opened. The cake was fine; a little too moist, in that the heavy mousse (which came across as so much more frosting) pushed through the structure at first bite. So why didn’t we try the coffee at a coffee shop? The ordering process somehow went FUBAR (Nichole blames her indecision, caused in part by arriving overcaffeinated). She ended up waffling and then declining the barista’s suggestion of a complimentary Americano, which is just silly of her; water is good for you . If she weren’t blogging this visit, she might have taken the perk – but the upshot is, we still have no idea what the coffee’s like at Java Den, and we apologize.

In a word: The Cadillac of food carts. The specs: #0573   Address, hours & details via Isthmus ; review at Isthmus . JM ate the teriyaki chicken with a fresh lemonade. Nichole ate some of JM’s lunch. The bill was $7 plus tip. JM gave Hibachi Hut a B-; Nichole gave Hibachi Hut a C+ (see our grading rubric ). Hibachi Hut is the slickest cart on the Mall. The outside is all shiny chrome and vibrant orange. The inside is well-lit, surgical white, and spacious enough for two workers. The grub itself was somewhat disappointing, but once again our experience was limited: we just got one dish of teriyaki chicken. The chicken was tough, and the little bit of onion, carrot, and broccoli florets and stems didn’t distinguish themselves. Both the strifry and the long grain white rice underneath were permeated with a heavy brown sauce. Just under a third of the container was occupied by a lightly vinegared, coarsely chopped salad of cabbage and carrots. The large cup of fresh lemonade was probably the best part, if not for the flavor then for the State-Fair-showmanship of the juicing. This was accomplished with a motorized countertop juicer that rotated itself as the operator simply pressed a halved lemon down upon it. Add water and a scoop of sugar, shake, and hey presto, refreshment – because sometimes all you need is a high-tech quickie.

In a word: It’s nature’s candy. The specs: #0572

In a word: Did Madison need to import a Laredo’s-style chain? The specs: #0570   Address, hours & details via Isthmus ; reviews at Ruppert Food Blog , Yelp , 77 Square , EatDrinkMadison ; TheDailyPage Forum ; JM ate the lunch combo #3 with a lemonade. Nichole ate the carnitas tacos with an horchata. The bill was $18, or $9/person, plus tip. JM gave Fiesta Cancun an A-; Nichole gave Fiesta Cancun a C (see our grading rubric ). Fiesta Cancun on Mineral Point is the latest branch in a regional chain of family-friendly Mexican restaurants with spots in Platteville and Monroe plus four Illinois locations. It’s fine. Prices are about a buck more than at Laredo’s (our lazy yardstick for all restaurants of this type) and some ingredients are better, but broadly speaking, it serves the same purpose. A few parties were making use of the high chairs and booster seats. High-backed benches with airbrushed tropical scenes made up somewhat for the odd half-covered ceiling and the electrical conduit running at eye level – mostly painted over in peachy paint, but hey, if it were operational, one could bring one’s laptop and linger over spicy salsa for hours. Theoretically. In actuality, there wasn’t much to linger over. Pepsi products and a tiny, giga-brew-only beer list left us parched. JM noted that his pink lemonade was not often the default, but it tasted fine. The kicker was that the horchata was truly icky – evocative of those elementary-school experiments with corn starch in water. JM’s lunch combo #3 of beef enchilada, rice and beans was gone in a flash. The beef filling was a step up from Laredo’s (it didn’t include any of those diced frozen potato bits). The rice and beans were par for the course. Indeed, this was true of the whole affair. Nichole’s carnitas tacos were plain. One semi-portioned pile of fatty pork, slippery with fat, sat on three pairs of storebought corn tortillas. Once picked up they dripped fat into a lake of fat pooling on the wax-paper-lined plate. Nichole likes fat, but this much was enough to keep a 70-pound Afghan hound’s coat glossy for weeks. Some pinkish pico de gallo didn’t add much flavor, but the four jars of Abuelita and other hot sauces on the table helped. Had she thought ahead, Nichole could have augmented the pork with a side of fresh avocado or 12 cooked shrimp a la carte (a menu item we found odd). 20/20 hindsight and all. So, JM gave Fiesta Cancun an A- out of fairness and deference to the fact that he knows his tastes run toward the pedestrian, but Nichole would prefer to stay away. We learn something new every day.

In a word: Let’s be frank, this is the wurst cart. The specs: #0568   Address, hours & details via Isthmus ; review at Althouse ; profile at Wisconsin State Journal . JM ate the Milwaukee dog, the chili dog, and a lemonade. Nichole ate the Italian beef, hot and wet. The bill was $14, or $7/person, plus tip. JM gave FIB’s a B+; Nichole gave FIB’s an A- (see our grading rubric ). FIB’s is a cart worth a trip. It serves a food perfectly suited to the street food milieu, namely eminently portable hot Italian beef, Italian sausage, brats and hot dogs. It’s attractive and clean, kitschy but not over the top. Sinatra tunes (the universal shorthand for Big City) wafted from the screened order window and a flyer featuring Mayor Soglin trivia was on hand.  There are only a handful of items on the menu, but it still took us longer to decide what to order than it took them to prep our stuff. We could have taken the scenic-kraut and walked around with our styro trays, but instead sat on a bench outside the Starbucks on the Square and dog in. The beef was on an excellent roll, with a great ratio of bread to tender meat. The giardiniera and jus mingled in a lip-tingling way that suggested the jus itself had some spice to it. Both of JM’s hot dogs were served on steamed poppyseed buns. The chili dog was one of the tidier, more pleasant ones he’s had. A couple tablespoons of meaty chili was rich with a broad, not piquant, heat, and soft, inoffensive beans, which for JM is sayin’ somethin’. Diced onion (on the bland side) and a Pick-Up-Sticks-evoking pinch of shredded orange cheese topped it off. The Milwaukee dog was dressed with average kraut and yellow mustard. If the mustard had been a good brown or even beer variety, JM would have no reservations about giving FIB’s an A-. French’s Yellow is fine but seems careless on a dog named after the beer capital of the world, like putting bell peppers on an Italian beef. We don’t know of a FIB that would stand for that. In other words (with apologies to John Sams ) we could even say that we never sausage a thing.

In a word: We didn’t realize loco meant “like fast food.” The specs: #0566   Address, hours & details via Isthmus ; photo on City of Madison’s Flickr ; review at Taste Test Madison . JM ate the beef burrito minus the beans, with a can of lemonade. Nichole ate a chicken taco and a bean taco, both with hot sauce, and a side of guacamole. The bill was $12, or $6/person, plus tip. JM gave El Burrito Loco a B-; Nichole gave El Burrito Loco a C+ (see our grading rubric ). El Burrito Loco is a cart run by Señor Pepper out of Stoughton. It’s middling to fine for fast food – JM would go so far as to say it’s Taco Bell-icose if with more flavor (but now even the Bell has introduced “pork carnitas” street-food inspired tacos ). The menu is the right size, with a choice of burrito, taco, or salad with beef, chicken, and/or beans, and based on our sample a chicken burrito minus beans might be the best thing they do. Some days sweet corn cake is there too, but not when we were. JM’s burrito was a warmed flour tortilla packed with ground beef, sour cream, and orange seasoned rice. (They were flexible and happy to leave off the beans.) This burrito is exactly what you’d expect it to be, if anything, even moreso. The tacos were not made with Nichole’s favorite stuff. Iceberg lettuce and bagged shredded orange cheese she can do without (unless black olives are there to complete the 80’s Taco Bell nostalgia trifecta). The doubled-up corn tortillas held up well, but left her hands smelling vaguely floral. JM was wise beyond his preferences about beans, as these were runny and too salty. The chicken was the best part: a mix of light and dark meat, shredded fine and tender. The guacamole was merely passable, but the hot sauce was nice. Two invocations of Taco Bell in 250 words might be much for one little cart, but it’s pretty apt, for what that’s worth.

In a word: Nice. Almost too nice. The specs: #0565   Address, hours & details via Isthmus ; reviews at Yelp , Isthmus , AV Club , 5929 ; listing at EatDrinkMadison ; The Daily Page Forum ; official web site , JM ate the plato de bocadillos with a lemonade. John ate the queso fundido with a mango cilantro margarita. Nichole ate the special, lentil croquettes with shoestring fried sweet potatoes and red tomatillo sauce, with a mango cilantro margarita. The bill was $65, or $21.67/person, plus tip. JM gave Cilantro Bar and Grill a B; John gave Cilantro Bar and Grill a C; Nichole gave Cilantro Bar and Grill an A-. (see our grading rubric ). Madison has supported a dozen midrange Mexican restaurants and many decent taquerias for a long time. We’re not in a position to get all highfalutin’ (our willingness to cave to the ease of Laredo’s is no secret) but even we recognize that Cilantro is part of the upscale Mexican cuisine category, and our experience was that they’re filling the niche well. Which is to say, don’t the boys’ grades fool you. In summary: DO go to Cilantro for tasty, upscale Mexican cuisine. DO get some of their interesting drinks. DON’T expect much from the space. DO expect great service. DON’T expect burritos, tacos, and chimichangas. DON’T bring Mr. or Ms. Pickypants. DO expect intelligently designed dishes with a wide variety of flavors. DO bring a little extra cash. DON’T miss it if you want something truly different from the MOR Mex of Madison more generally. Cilantro has made fewer compromises than others of its type, but there are still some incongruities to cope with. An airy location with a vista of Memorial High means lunches are hectic and loud. An audience largely accustomed to $7 enchiladas means the effort that goes into precise presentation may go unnoticed. And a menu that doesn’t include anything remotely like a “burrito as big as your head” might make it hard to persuade your companions to come here if they always like their comfort zone comfy. Our server was extraordinarily skilled, especially in her unstilted recital of several of Cilantro’s complex dishes from memory. For drinks, JM briefly considered the Oso Cilantro (a growling lemonade, lime, and cilantro drink) but went with plain lemonade, which was excellent. Nichole and John both got the signature mango-cilantro margarita. Ours lacked the pepper kick we’d read about and hoped for. Still, the mango was as smooth as nectar, and the bit of cilantro wasn’t overstated. We split a tamale. The fresh corn husk (i.e. probably one not involved with the cooking) was pretty. A center of moist masa with Chihuahua cheese, mild onions, and a liberal dose of cumin in its red sauce was quite satisfying. JM got the plato de bocadillos (the five-item appetizer plate) as an entree. He liked it, but might have preferred something more substantial, and nothing had really called to him from the entree menu. The deep-fried crater of cornmeal topped with spicy sauced beef provided the core of his meal. Nichole snagged the smile-inducing tostada with ceviche, a tortilla chip topped with bright citrusy vegetables and a wee bit of fish. The quesadilla stuffed with cheese, diced potatoes and vegetables, fried and decorated with a light green sauce, was surprisingly delicate. Finally, the flauta of spicy chicken served as a vehicle for some bright guacamole, and John shared his tortillas to help clean out the ramekin. John liked his queso fundido well enough. It was filling, garnished with sliced sauteed poblanos and the chorizo had a nice fennel-ish inflection. The star of the show was clearly the nightly special: lentil croquettes fried in a light egg batter, filled with cheese , onion, and red pepper and topped with sauteed spinach and addiction-inspiring shoestring sweet potato fries. A liberal serving (OK, a lake) of smoky red tomatillo sauce provided an underpinning to the whole meal. Lucky for Nichole, lentils were too weird for her companions, so she didn’t have to share. Therein lies the rub. Cilantro has fabulous food, and its heart is in the right place. Whether the menu has enough perennial favorites to satisfy the average Joe is questionable. On the other hand, the room was packed when we went – it’s good to see them get attention, even if, as we suspect, it’s the connection to a celebrity Anglo chef that finally gets people in the door like we didn’t see at La Mestiza . If Cilantro can grab and retain a loyal following, they’ll do well. Which is good, because we want to go back and try the pecan pie if it’s anything like Frontera’s – er, if Frontera’s is anything like Cilantro’s.

In a word: Something like a Chang Jiang cart. The specs: #0564   Address, hours & details via Isthmus . JM ate the cashew chicken with a lemonade. Darby and Nichole ate the hunan chicken. Dave, Joshua, Darby, Nichole and JM split an order of crab rangoon. The bill was $14. JM gave China Cottage a B-; Nichole gave China Cottage a C; Dave gave China Cottage a C+/B- (see our grading rubric ). A sign on the China Cottage cart reads, “We serve the best Asian foods with reasonable prices.” While we weren’t wowed, we can’t argue with that sentence since we can’t tell whether “best” modifies “Asian foods” or “Asian foods with reasonable prices,” and besides, “reasonable” is open to interpretation. Such are the problems with syntax in 21st century America. The problem is that food cart competition is stiff; in summer, the world is your food court. If there’s another option even slightly more appealing than what’s in front of you, it’s not much effort to walk a half block and get something to really love. In other words, compared to mall food or even regular takeout, China Cottage is nice and cheap, but there are other carts we’d rather visit. Our original game plan was to hit up Bonne Journee on MLK Dr., but according to his neighbor LMNO’Pies , he’d been absent from his spot from some time. Under our new, more flexible cart rules (basically: be there when we are or get skipped) that meant we could just move on. Fortunately China Cottage was next on the make-up list. While our little group waited for JM to find us, Dave and Darby got burritos from their go-to spot, El Burrito Loco, but shared in our meal, too. A handful of standard stir fry options plus noodle dishes were on offer. We got some crab rangoon that were the very definition of “just OK,” with some bites emanating an iffy citrus cleanser taste. The Hunan chicken was starred as hot but wasn’t really. The dish was juicy but not moist, if that makes any sense – the sauce was there to help the dry meat along, and fresh vegetables (crinkle-cut carrot planks, broccoli, bamboo shoots, and onions) did their part. JM’s cashew chicken was tender and tasty, with nice snap peas and water chestnuts, but the peas and uniformly diced carrots seemed to be from a frozen mix. If Chinese is your choice, China Cottage certainly meets the necessary requirements, though you may find a different type of cuisine prepared better a few steps away.