Sunday, September 19, 2010

The Lime Truck {Irvine, CA}

The Lime Truck is one of those Yelp gems. You've never heard of it before, but you keep seeing it's name pop up on the corner of your Yelp page. Your interest peaks, you click, and all of a sudden you're reading numerous amounts of rave reviews. Then you wonder... why haven't I eaten here yet? The Lime Truck classifies itself as "California Beach Cuisine." I classify it as outrageously delicious cuisine. After just reading an interview of the truck's head chef, Jason Quinn, I was thoroughly impressed. I mean, the guy is 24! I loved his opinions on food and his optimism about the Orange County food scene, plus his taste in music is quite sublime.

But, I digress. Onto the food! My favorite of everything I tried had to, had to be the Middle Eastern lamb sandwich. It was diiiivine. The lamb was tender and full of flavor, and with the fresh veggies and yogurt-ish sauce, mmmm. I want another one... immediately.
Would you look at that? It's the most beautiful home smoked salmon I've ever seen! Home smoked salmon off a food truck? Umm... ridiculous much? And tell me, who would have thought to pair it with Siracha remoulade? Jason Quinn that's who. Genius, that guy.

In all honesty though, this smoked salmon was unlike any other I've had. My favorite smoked salmon plate is still the basil cured salmon from The Ramos House Cafe, but this was a close second. I don't know how to explain it, but it was purely salmon. All I could taste was salmon, but I mean that in the best way possible!


Ahhh, how I loved this Israeli couscous and roasted eggplant salad! The eggplant was cooked perfectly!!! Not too mushy, like so often done and I loved the addition of the cashews and cranberries.

Everyone on Yelp was raving about these carnitas fries, and after learning that they spend 10 hours a day preparing the carnitas, I knew I had to try it. Basically, I don't know how you could not like this, just look at this monstrous, beautiful thing. I saw Jason, the chef, hand-tossing my fries and I knew right then and there it would be good. The carnitas was REE-diculously tender, seriously and the other flavors were spot on as well. I think the stars of their menu were definitely the drinks, not because the food weren't stars, but because drinks are so often neglected! I love how they offer fresh, seasonal drinks and on a summer day, you couldn't ask for anything else. Also, my favorite part is that their drinks aren't too sweet so they don't weight down the meal in any way.
On the left: strawberry-acai mint. On the right: pomegranate aloe vera

And lastly, the tangerine limeade. This one was my least favorite of the three, but that doesn't mean much since I still enjoyed it. It had a bit of bitterness, which some might be opposed to, but it didn't bother me much.

3 comments:

  1. wow, this food looks awesome for coming of a moving car!!!

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  2. Those drinks sound fabulous! Can't wait to try this place :)

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  3. wow, chef jason here, im so thrilled to read this page, it makes me blush. the pictures are so beautiful and your writing is exquisite. please come back soon and introduce yourself, ill teach you the secrets of the salmon and the lamb!

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