SIBLEY—Roman Mejia serves up warm and authentic Mexican food, bringing his restaurant experience from Toluca, Mexico, to Sibley.
Taquitos el Toluqueño cooks up delicious food out of a recreational-vehicle-turned-kitchen 4-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 4-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday at 229 Eighth St. in Sibley. Flags and signage on the corner of Second Avenue and Eighth Street draw attention to the space.
“I feel like there’s so much local stuff around us to the point where people probably won’t miss us,” Roman said, translated from Spanish to English by his daughter, Valeria.
The food camper stays parked, but Taquitos el Toluqueño travels to events with a black trailer.
It’s a family affair, with 50-year-old Roman cooking the food; his wife, Santa Esquiel, 53, adding the toppings; and 17-year-old Valeria taking orders. Adrian, 24, travels with the trailer.
“He’s always been around the restaurant life,” Adrian said about his father bringing restaurant experience to Sibley. “That’s all he has known since he was young, and he wanted to bring all that here.”
Taquitos el Toluqueño uses ingredients from Mexico and prepares the food as if it were made in that country.
“The menu’s nothing too crazy, but it’s all authentic flavors. He brings a little bit of what he knows over here,” Adrian said.
Taquitos el Toluqueño cooks up delicious foods that can be found at typical Mexican food establishments — quesadillas, tacos, burritos, nachos — but the “Bomb Burrito” is a customer favorite.
“It comes with a little bit of everything — like steak, pork, chorizo, grilled onions, a little bit of hot and mild cheese and beans,” Valeria said.
Quesadillas — cheese in a tortilla with an option of meat — are another popular item.
“When people take a bite out of it, they’re kind of surprised because it’s super simple. We don’t do anything fancy. It’s just meat and cheese, and people just enjoy them,” Adrian said.
Customers often compliment the tastiness of the food and the swift customer service from ordering to eating, much to Roman’s delight. The Mejias recalled a time when they received praise from Texan customers, who were working in Worthington, MN.
“They tell us it’s different,” Valeria said. “That it’s really good for being from such a small town.”
The outside of the Taquitos el Toluqueño recreational vehicle has a faded blue stripe patterned with pineapples and other swooshing lines of pinks and deeper blues.
The interior reveals a clean kitchen with organized ingredients and drinks and a griddle Roman uses to cook the meat.
“My food truck may not look the greatest, but the only thing that matters is what comes from the inside — the food we make,” Roman said.
The name of the food camper business is another aspect of how Roman brought Mexico to Sibley. The word “Toluqueño” is used to describe something or someone from Toluca, the capital of the state of Mexico in Mexico. “Taquitos” are a Mexican American dish of meat and cheese tightly wrapped in a corn tortilla and fried.
The food camper is where it all began, Roman said, and thanks to the support of customers, they were able to purchase a food trailer to travel around and share the delicious food beyond the corner of Eighth Street and Second Avenue in Sibley.
“Thank you to everyone that has supported us, like our customers and new customers,” Valeria said.
The family also expressed thanks to Kelly Doeden, who owns the shop where Taquitos el Toluqeuño stays parked.
Roman moved from Mexico to Sibley in 2002, and Taquitos el Toluqueño just passed five years in May.
Dining and Cooking