†he area’s newest Mexican food truck got its start in the oil fields of North Dakota. Bruce Parnell, a native of Mobile, Ala., was there working in the oil and gas business.

His current business partners — Angelica Bugarra and Jorge and Anita Sandoval — were serving homemade Mexican cuisine out of a small food truck to the oil boom’s influx of workers, including Parnell.

Parnell was impressed.

He had a background in food service: He started with a hot dog cart in 2011, spending hours outside his oil job rolling it up and down Panama City Beach, Fla., making regular stops at bars and amusement parks.

When he sold that cart, he moved up to a full-fledged concession stand, all while working his oil job.

The food industry, Parnell says, was his real passion.

So when North Dakota’s oil dried up, and Bugarra and the Sandovals’ customer base started vacating the region, the trio partnered with Parnell to find a new market.

Parnell’s oil and gas background led to Southwest Louisiana — Sulphur, specifically.

They launched Mucho Bueno in August. Though a mobile food truck, Parnell said the constant demand doesn’t allow them to stray much from their regular spot at 1511 Ruth St.

The menu, handwritten on blue poster board outside the bright red truck, focuses on standard Mexican fare — tacos, burritos, nachos and the like. Some dishes have a California flair, Parnell said, owing to his partners’ West Coast roots.

Tacos cost $2.50 or $2.85 each, while a substantial burrito comes in at $8.50-$9.

Our order — three tacos, a burrito and a quesadilla — clocked in around $20.

I started with a street taco. The tacos, like other dishes, are served with your choice of meats: steak; fried, marinated or shredded pork; shredded or ground beef or chicken.

I picked the latter. The chicken was fresh, naturally flavorful and generously heaped on the tender corn tortilla. Topped with raw onion, cilantro, roasted peppers and homemade guacamole, it had a subtle mix of flavors that let every ingredient shine through.

Though not on the menu, customers can order vegetarian tacos, too; ours came with lettuce, pico de gallo, cilantro and guacamole.

I moved on to the California burrito, ordered this time with beef. The beef, like all the meats, was tender and rubbed with Mucho’s signature spice blend for a light smoke flavor. The start, though, was the french fries, which were stuffed inside the burrito alongside cheese, sour cream and pico de gallo. The flavor was creamy and tangy — much like a loaded baked potato, in a good way. Parnell calls the dish “a big, sloppy something.”

We finished with the simplest of the dishes, a quesadilla, a standard but good take on the staple dish. It provided an ideal backdrop for Mucho’s two homemade salsas: an extraordinarily hot red one and a mild and fresh salsa verde.

Though still relatively new, Mucho’s plans to grow. Parnell said they’ll open a brick-and-mortar location at the old CK’s Diner spot — 2975 Cities Service Highway — within three to four weeks, freeing the truck to roam Sulphur and Lake Charles.

It sells jars of seasoning and salsas, too, as well as Mucho Bueno shirts and hats.

The food, though, is always the focus.

“The secret to our success is the hours we spend in the kitchen,” Parnell said. “Everything — the vegetables, the meat, the beans — it’s all fresh.”