Orange County Food Trucks-The Lime Truck, Dos Chinos, Short Stop BBQ, Chomp Chomp Nation, The Burnt Truck

Like most of you, I have been hitting up the OC food trucks whenever I can. However, I don't seem to love them as much as a lot of people do. Now don't get me wrong, some of the trucks have pretty good food, but more often than not you end up paying a lot of money to awkwardly eat a meal standing up. It just doesn't seem that fun to me. Nevertheless, I have visited a few trucks and I have decided to post some pictures and a brief write up on some of them. Also, for those of you that don't know, since these food trucks are mobile, they are usually in different places. You need to follow their feed on twitter or visit their website to get their current location. At the bottom of this article I will post all the food truck meetups I know about, where numerous trucks get together on a regular basis.

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The Lime Truck
www.thelimetruck.com
www.twitter.com/thelimetruck

The Lime Truck seems to be a favorite in Orange County. They even won Best in Show at the first annual OC Foodie Fest earlier this year. I went down to the truck with one of my buddies when it was at the Harbor Justice Center and stood in a really long line. The line at Lime Truck can be pretty long due to their popularity. I don't think it's uncommon to wait for 30-45 minutes to order and get your food.

One thing about The Lime Truck is that they are constantly changing their menu. If you go to the truck and love something, there is a good chance that it will not be there during your next visit. One of the things that they almost always seem to have though is Carnitas Fries ($7). This is also one of their most popular items. My buddy and I each ordered one. We also decided to get one steak taco ($3) one order of hatch chile fritters ($4) and two of their freshly muddled juice drinks ($3). This brought our grand total to $27.


(Carnitas Fries: Fries, carnitas, guacamole, sour cream, chipotle-honey slaw and cotija cheese)


(Hatch Chile Fritters and Steak Taco)


(Tangerine Limeade)

All of the food was really good. The fries had a nice spicy kick to them and my friend said his steak taco was fantastic. Neither one of us really liked the drink though. The only problem I have with The Lime Truck is their prices. If I'm going to spend $27 on lunch for two people, I want to sit at a table and relax, not try and balance all of my food and drink while standing up in a hot parking lot.

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Dos Chinos Truck
www.doschinosfood.com
www.twitter.com/doschinos
www.facebook.com/doschinos

Dos Chinos serves a fusion of Mexican and Asian food. Popular items include Korean shortrib tacos and Vietnamese pork belly burritos. Most of their items are available as a burrito for $5 or a taco for $2.

One interesting item I had heard about is the Dos Chinos Breakfast Burrito. The burrito contains a cooked to order egg, chorizo fried rice, filet mignon and sweet & sour guacamole. V and I each ordered one of these and an order of Dos Chinos fries ($4). Their fries are tossed in clarified garlic butter and topped with cotija cheese.

(Breakfast Burrito)

(Dos Chinos Fries)

The Breakfast Burrito was fantastic. Both V and I thought it was delicious and scarfed down the whole thing. I highly recommend that you get this burrito and have your egg done sunny side up or over easy. This way the yolk breaks and creates a yummy sauce inside the burrito. The Dos Chinos fries were also amazing. The pungent flavor of fresh garlic combined with the saltiness of the cotija cheese was the perfect addition to french fries. These fries were definitely worth the money.

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Short Stop BBQ
www.shortstopbbq.com
www.twitter.com/shortstopbbq
www.facebook.com/shortstopbbq

Short Stop BBQ claims to serve real food for real people. Their goal is to bring you delicious "dirty" BBQ with a clean, California appeal. I visited the truck on their third day in operation. I ordered two sliders, one portabello mushroom and the other was tri-tip ($2 each). I also ordered french fries ($2).

(Portobello mushroom sider, BBQ Tri-tip slider)

(French Fries)

Of the two sliders, the mushroom was my favorite. The tri-tip slider had very little flavor. I liked the bleu cheese cole slaw on top, but the meat was pretty bland. The french fries were boring, generic fries that didn't even taste like they had salt on them. I ate a few of them, wished I had gotten Dos Chinos Fries instead and then threw them away. I have heard that the truck has been getting better with experience, so I may try it again in the future.

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Chomp Chomp Nation Truck
www.chompchompnation.com
www.twitter.com/chompchomptruck
www.facebook.com/chompchompnation

Chomp chomp nation says that they serve Singapore Street Hawker Favorites with an American Twist. They serve items like coconut french toast and tofu satay. I recently had the chance to try their Kaya Coconut French Toast ($5.50).

V and I both tried their French Toast and really liked it. The brioche French Toast was stuffed with coconut jam and topped with fresh mango, pineapple and fresh mint. I thought the mint would be kind of weird but it actually went really well with the dish. V really liked what the mint did to this dish as well. She thought it was what made the dish stand out. I believe the description for the french toast said there was supposed to be some kind of passion fruit element to this dish, but neither one of us could taste it. I'm looking forward to trying more of their food.

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The Burnt Truck
www.theburnttruck.com
www.twitter.com/theburnttruck
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Burnt-Truck/116838601694370

At first when you hear the name "Burnt Truck" you might be a little confused. Does this truck burn all their food? Is it cajun? Well, The Burnt Truck is actually just a weird name. They actually specialize in gourmet sliders that they sell for $2 each. They have a few that they serve on a regular basis and then some rotating chef specials that change periodically. They also recently had a contest where they asked for customers to submit their favorite slider idea for a chance to be immortalized on their menu with a slider named after them. Unfortunately, I didn't get my entry in on time. Oh well.....I guess I'll just have to wait for another opportunity to get a sandwich named after me....

I decided to try one of their Fried Chicken sliders, which seems to be very popular, and one of their Peanut Butter and Jelly sliders.

(PBJ Slider-Homemade pretzel peanut butter, blueberry jelly, sliced bananas)

(Fried Chicken Slider-Buttermilk fried chicken, garlic potato spread, country gravy)

The fried chicken slider was pretty good. It was really cold on the evening I got the sandwich though, so the gravy quickly cooled and became thick. Make sure to eat this sandwich quickly if you get it. I was also wishing it were just a little more salty. Maybe they should add some ground sausage into the gravy......mmmmmmmm......

The PBJ slider was absolutely delicious. The thing that made it stand out was the pretzel peanut butter. The pretzels added a fantastic crunch and a little bit of saltiness. I absolutely loved this little sandwich.

The Burnt Truck is a truck that I really look forward to trying again. Since they serve sliders, it's pretty easy to eat while you're standing up. They also have so many other varieties that I want to try, like the Chicken Katsu and the Fried Bologna.

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Known Orange County Food Truck Meetups aka roundups (If you know of others, let me know and I will add to the list)

Sunday-
Irvine Great Park Farmers Market 10AM-2PM

Monday-

Tuesday-
Lake Forest Lanes 5PM-9PM

Wednesday-
Irvine Teller Lot (near Teller and Michelson in Irvine) 11AM-2PM
OC Din Din a Go Go, Irvine Lanes 5:30PM-9PM

Thursday-
OC Fairgrounds 11AM-2PM
AMF Carter Lanes, Fullerton 5PM-9PM

Friday-

Saturday-