NY Food Truck Lunch: The Spicy Redneck From Crif Dogs

Perry, the voice behind New York Street Food, brings you his latest review on New York City food trucks.

If you ever see a list of the best hot dogs in NYC, Crif Dogs is invariably on the list. Not only do they have some creative toppings, but every frank is deep-fried, and most are wrapped in bacon. Yeah, that's the ticket!

More: NYC's 5 Best Bacon Desserts

Crif Dogs started out on St Marks Place in the East Village, then expanded to another location in Williamsburg. Their latest venture is a food truck, which put them on our radar.

More: NYC's 7 Best Hot Dogs

As we always do with a new vendor, we ask what they recommend for a first timer. A Spicy Redneck was suggested, which costs $6. A plain Crif Dog is $5 and all the other choices with various toppings are $6.

Crif Dogs is in that Twilight Zone area for lunch. One is probably not enough, but two may be too much, both in terms of food and lunch money.

The only side dishes at Crif Dogs is tater tots, which cost $4. We passed on the tots this time, but will probably try them down the road.

More: NYC's 5 Best Spicy Meals

The frankfurters at Crif Dogs are a mixture of beef and pork. Their signature preparation is deep-frying, which makes the outside crispy, and the inside still retains its juices. Deep-fried frankfurters are popular in some parts of NJ, but you don't see them in NYC very much.

The Spicy Redneck is a bacon-wrapped hot dog topped with chili, jalapeños and coleslaw. With the chili, then slaw piled on, it was difficult to get our mouth around the entire bun. The first bite was slaw, chili, bacon and half a dog. On the second one, we were able to bite the entire thing.

The Spicy Redneck was a cornucopia of flavors - creamy...spicy...crispy...meaty. Definitely a fun doggie to scarf down.

The combo of bacon and chili is great, add some slaw for crunch and jalapeños for heat and you have it made.

The Crif Dogs truck is just getting going, so they don't have a set routine yet. Things will become clearer after the New Year, so we suggest you follow them on Twitter here or on our Mobile Munchies Twitter feed.