Hannah "Hey You Up There" E.'s Profile
Date
Oh, it's got stuff in it! It's like those Vietnamese drinks with the seaweed and the longan and the barley and the sweetness all meshed together. Delicious, even more so than its weird Vietnamese counterparts, which sometimes are too much for me.
Only after home and Wikipedia did I know: shredded squash (left in the bottom of the cup), honey, cinnamon, and brown sugar.
Luckily I have had cactus fruit before, so when my horchata with cactus fruit showed up all magenta, I wasn't startled at all.
Deciding between the mole-dunked goat tacos and the yellow mole with chicken was not an easy task, but that night I wasn't feeling risky (beyond the drinks) and I know how tough it is not to cook goat too, well, tough. So I chose the chicken.
This was tender, mild, and came with more squash and green beans hiding in the depths of the mole, as well as tortillas for dipping. The tortillas had a strange fennel-y taste that took some getting used to, but once I figured out toothpaste wasn't lurking in my bowl, I was OK with it.
My friend's quesadillas with jalapeño, string cheese, and epazote were fantastic - almost more like little crispy-skinned self-enclosed dumplings with a drizzle of green sauce.
And if the chips we got at the beginning drizzled with black and red mole were any indication, I'd be comfortable ordering any of the moles.
I wasn't wild about the passion fruit, guava, and cactus pear sorbets - they were kind of mushy.
But I plan to be back, preferably with mole-philic friends so we can do a big sampler.
Pho.
I got the small pho ga with everything - liver, gizzards, what looked like blood cubes, but who knows, what looked like yellow quail eggs, but again, who knows, skin, and breast meat.
This cost $4.70 and I had to take half home. Crazy.
Also, it was delicious. Well, it did give me major dry mouth, a telltale sign of too much MSG, but at least they didn't rely on it solely: the soup was stuffed with stuff - the above mentioned ingredients, plus bunches of fresh veggies, and a very Hainan-chicken-like not-too-sweet ginger dipping sauce came on the side.
The chicken was soft and pillowy, not stringy at all. Cooked just barely past done. This is difficult to do in soup.
And they had the best soda chanh muoi I have had the pleasure of consuming in Little Saigon. Step aside, Bo De Tinh Tam Chay and Com Tan Thuan Kieu. My only regret is not ordering another to go. They shred the lemons so the flavor is everywhere and the arils all up in your straw. There's also no gross layer of sugar at the bottom.
Didn't get a free dessert like others have, but hey, couldn't have eaten it anyway. I was stuffed.
Irvine, CA 92612
(949) 856-2227
Steelhead Micro Brewery
Categories:
American (New),
Breweries
OIL.
Yeah, I know it's bar food, yeah, I know it's not supposed to be healthy. I know. But if after two sticks of fried zucchini I know I either have to get some Yogurtland to absorb the oil slick forming in my stomach or make a trip to the bathroom to throw up, guess what?... IT'S TOO OILY.
Yeah, even the carnitas fries.
And the drinks come in big self-serve coolers, where they give you a cup ALL THE WAY FULL of ice before you start filling up the drink. I estimate a resulting change of 50% of the original drink, but the price of course remains the same.
There's always a giant line now, which I would have been happy to wait in before...
Listed in: Food Trucks, Carts, Stands...…
3 Previous Reviews:
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6/2/2011
I really, really hate to do this. But I gotta be honest. On average this truck isn't five stars anymore. The guys are beyond nice to me. They recognize me even when I don't see them for months. And their drinks remain the best, most creative concoctions ever. (Aloe-guava anyone?)
But the food, I don't know. Maybe it's starting to come out at its experimental stage instead of its already-been-tested- for-quality stage. It's still innovative for sure, but it no longer always works. The last few times I've come, I haven't loved what I ordered. The duck taco I had last night was actually pretty awful - overcooked, rubbery, with greens haphazardly thrown on top, a drizzle of berry, and cold tortillas. For $6, I don't want to be hungry enough afterwards to eat an entire burger, and I definitely was.
Same with the crab ceviche a month or so ago - it was mostly vinegar. And the pizza bombas - just balls of fried cheese.
I will continue to try what the Lime Truck offers because I know they are capable of greatness. The carnitas fries are fantastic, every time. Same with the Yum Yum Lamb Sandwich, the panna cotta creations, and of course, the drinks. If you're a first-timer, and you want something that's guaranteed awesome, I recommend sticking with those things. -
9/23/2010
Here's what I love about the Lime Truck.
Lots of food establishments like to be all verbose in their menu descriptions just for the hell of it. They're all like, 'Succulent, tender, lovingly roasted leg of lamb with organic homegrown vegetables and Mother's special recipe sourdough bread!' or whatever, and then you get the food and it just tastes like normal, mass-prepared food and you're disappointed.
But when the Lime Truck says '10 hour slow cooked pork' on their menu, it actually tastes like they literally cooked it for 10 hours: fall apart tender and with every millimeter infused with flavor. When they say 'house smoked salmon', it actually tastes like they smoked it at home. It doesn't taste like any old smoked salmon you can get at the grocery store. It tastes it is being eaten in a cabin in the woods, after a day of salmon fishing.
And of course it goes without saying that the Yum Yum lamb sandwich literally makes me say 'yum yum' - but I guess that's not measurable so you'll have to try it yourself and invent your own Yum Scale.
The sauces are all powerfully charged with flavor, but they never use so much that it's overwhelming. In fact, they usually serve it somewhat on the side so you can choose yourself how overwhelmed you feel like being that day.
So trust in their descriptions, get there early before everyone else eats all the food, and marvel at how, after only one visit, the guys who run the truck will remember your name forever! -
8/20/2010
Deserted, sprawling corporate park, except for the huge crowd milling around a bright green truck... check.
I was wondering whether Irvine had a hidden food truck thing going on. I felt like it must. It's built for it. Corporate parks exist in little pockets, completely separate from shopping and restaurant areas, and employees gotta eat somewhere, right?
Where I used to work, in Boulder, a lady came around and sold breakfast burritos out of the back of her station wagon. I loved that then (despite the fact that the burritos weren't all that great - just convenient).
The Lime Truck isn't convenient for me, so I figured it better be good. And it was... it was fantastic. I asked the guy in the truck for his recommendation, which was the prosciutto-goat cheese-asparagus quesadilla. It came out big and absolutely stuffed with stuff, like the chef promised me as he was flipping it. I mean, prosciutto was bulging out the ends and dragging around in the deliciously spicy, fruity sauce that was poured over it.
I took my plate over to the curb and ate watching the airplanes landing at John Wayne mere yards away. Holy goat cheese. 'Crisp, refreshing California Beach Cuisine' (their tagline) sounds, to me, way worse than this food actually is. I find, typically, with California cuisine, that people tend to get all these beautiful fresh ingredients from three feet away or wherever they were grown and then present them on your plate going, 'uhhhh... they're fresh!' No adornments. Boring.
But the Lime Truck isn't like that. While the ingredients taste just as fresh, it's right to my taste, which is to say, veritably exploding with flavor. No apologies about clashing/mingling sharp cheese and sweet sauce. Non-woody asparagus. In a portion that's finishable and affordable.
I will be following this truck around like a stalker over the next few days/weeks. If all their food is this good, it could easily be a five-star-er. Show owner comment »
I drowned my sad memories of bland, tasteless food in TNH's Szechuan special spicy hot pot with fish and pig intestine, which was both a party of textures and a firecracker of flavors. Intestines can be cumbersome and squishy to eat, but these made it worth it with their intense, fatty flavor. Tears were pooling in my eyes before I had finished three bites, the mark of a spicy adventure to come. Luckily, they provided ample rice.
Then I erased any recall of of expensive, totally-not-worth-it dishes with TNH's $6 heaping bowl of shredded radish and shrimp stew. Mild in flavor, like bouillabaise, the shrimps were big, whole, skin-on, and firm. The radishes were almost noodly in their skinniness. The whole thing was the definition of comfort food.
Ahhhhh.
This, by the way, was New Years Day.
I hope this portends a great year of eating in 2012.
I'd been trying to get them for the past six months and was told every time that they were out (no matter whether it was 11AM, 6PM, or somewhere in between).
Finally, someone told me they didn't make them anymore.
This makes me sad.
The place is still good, of course, but the goat is what gave them their edge.
Listed in: Good Deals!
1 Previous Review:
-
9/26/2010
For soon-to-be new customers of El Toro Bravo: the place is hard to find. It's around the corner from the address listed on Yelp, even though that address reads 'El Toro Bravo' as well... that is a mini-mart like place, and doesn't serve tacos. Turn right from there and walk across the parking lot. Follow your nose and look for the bustling line. It's there.
The line moves fast, so inspect the menu well before you reach the front! Between the three of us, we decided on carnitas, barbacoa, buche, and goat tacos, plus a rib tostada and a huge tamarind agua fresca.
Winner: goat taco. Spicy and gamey and just wonderful. I wished I could replace half the tacos I ordered with more goat.
The other three tacos were very generously portioned. Usually three tacos is about right for me. This time, it was ridiculous and not even close to an amount I could finish. They seriously scoop the meat in there. The result is a double-wrapped tortilla that doesn't even come close to being able to hold in all the meat. And the meat itself is all really well cooked. But I think it could use more spices, particularly the carnitas and the buche. You can order extra salsa for 25 cents or something, and when I go back I'll be doing that to see if it helps.
The near highlight of the meal for me, in addition to the goat, was the agua fresca. It was so incredibly refreshing, not too sweet, full of tamarind flavor, and bucket sized. I was still sipping it on the way home.
Overall, an incredible lunch deal. There's no place to sit outside, so we sat on the curb. I think most people do takeaway, though.
Our meat/kimchi buns tasted like nothing. Really, nothing. I saw cabbage and noodles and there was a red tinge on the whole thing, but what my eyes saw didn't match what my mouth tasted. Even the garlic sesame oil on the side didn't really help.
Sometimes I wonder if other reviewers and I live in the same universe or if we are visiting alternate versions of the same restaurant. This is one of those times.
Westminster, CA 92683
(714) 894-1085
Lien Hoa BBQ Deli
Categories:
Chinese,
Barbeque,
Vietnamese
But this time, I had a recipe for vegetarian pad thai, plus all the ingredients, waiting at home for dinner. Thing is, I didn't feel like being a vegetarian that night.
Solution: 1/2 peking duck, chopped up, thrown into the wok at the end.
Delicious!
I think it was about $9, and worth it. Slightly hoisiny, with crisp skin and a light layer of fat. Next time I may get the roast duck instead of the peking to cut out the slight sweetness.
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 387-2147
Burma SuperStar
Category:
Burmese
Neighborhood: Inner Richmond
The food, though, was.
I mean, OK. It wasn't offensive. But after the hype, and the line, and listening to the people next to us rave on and on and ON about how transcendent the dishes were, and how complementary the flavors were, and how this was quickly becoming their favorite restaurant and getting straight on the regular rotation with a bunch of pizza places (from what I gathered)...
I don't know, I just looked at my fried yellow bean tofu with the sauce that was so salty and not much else as to have effectively come straight from some salt flats and thought, "Huh?"
And I looked at my coconut chicken chili noodles, which had all the flavor depth of a Stouffer's frozen dinner (all coconut milk, no heat, lots of gristle in the chicken) and thought, "What?"
Our waitress was so nice and friendly and all-around awesome that I couldn't look her in the face when she asked me how everything was. Luckily, the couple next to us provided her with the joy she deserved.
I do like Burmese food (see other Burmese reviews for corroboration); just not feeling this one. Go to Burmese Kitchen on Larkin, enjoy fresh, complex flavors for half the price without the lines.
I will say, however, to end on a positive note, that SuperStar's mango coconut juice rocked.
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"I wish I had a hollow leg."
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1563 Useful, 930 Funny, and 888 Cool
Irvine, CA
Yelping SinceFebruary 2009
Things I Loveletters from strangers, deep tissue massages, riding my bike downhill, driving in the city, sweltering weather, letting the ocean kick my butt, rambutan
Find Me Inthe throes of awkward silences
My HometownEvanston, IL / Boulder, CO
When I'm Not Yelping...I'm shoving information into my brain, reorganizing it, and spitting it back out
Why You Should Read My ReviewsTo seek out the elusive 5 star-ers and visit them
My Second Favorite Website The Last Great Book I ReadLuxury Fever
My First ConcertProbably Sesame Street live, or Raffi or something
My Last Meal On EarthFugu
Don't Tell Anyone Else But...I have an embarrassingly small appetite for a food-lover
Most Recent DiscoveryI am Vietnamese on the inside
Current CrushPeople who can write beautifully about the mundane everyday.
Just take that as a given.
At various points during the lunch, I had in my mouth the following things:
- tender, soft, spicy bulgogi wrapped in radish and dipped in garlic oil (way better than wrapping it in rice paper)
- octopus, zucchini, noodles and egg grilled in a clay pot over rice (spicy, the kind of spicy that starts mild and builds in a wonderful way)
- fermented soybean soup with beef, squash, and onions (think miso, but way way more fermented)
- "New Years soup" - dumplings, rice cakes and beef strips in broth.
Let me just interrupt my own list here to assure you that these were the best Korean-style dumplings (mandu) on the planet.
- fried mung bean cakes, dipped in vinegary red sauce
They give you beef bone broth to drink at the beginning. It reminded me of matzoh-ball soup broth, but beefier!
And their banchan - varied, and delicious! My favorites were the potato-and-apple salad, the squid in spicy red sauce, the seaweed and green pepper one, and the stir-fried kimchi.
So on the way to Mo Ran Gak, I hydroplaned in the driving rain and my car started making this horrible musical squealing noise and we were approaching a busy intersection and I thought we were all going to die.
That would have been a horrible time to die. I would never have gotten to eat all this wonderful food.