Galley Girl – She's in Your Kitchen

When Kogi BBQ’s Naranja Truck rolled into OC in late 2009, I was a zealous early adopter scanning their twitter feed, ogling the glistening food photos on their website constantly and waiting in a long line before the truck even arrived to promised locations. 

Seabirds Beer Batter Fried Avocado Taco.

 When it did, I ordered everything on the menu times two and brought back-up to help me consume it all. Kogi delivered. There were ginger-laced short rib tacos, a quesadilla with caramelized onions, pork, jack and cheddar cheese with citrusy jalapeno salsa verde and something called the Pac Man: a burger mash-up of all three meats, both cheeses, salsa roja and verde, chicharonnes and sesame mayo in a bun with a small slice out of it resemble Pac Man’s insatiable maw, or, possibly, Paquiao’s mean sting. 

Seabirds Menu

 Kogi BBQ started the gourmet food truck wave in OC and soon, there were gridlocked griddles from Fullerton to San Clemente.Shortly after Kogi appeared, a convoy of GMC Workhorses, Mercedes Sprinters and Freightliners could be found criss-crossing the county with delicious, budget fare. 

Chomp Chomp Nation's Lamb Burger

 How many trucks could we take? A lot, it turns out. With OC’s sprawling tundra of Corporate Parks sans cafeterias and just one hour for lunch, opportunity is great. Besides the business of filling rumbling stomachs of cubicle-dwellers, the trucks have a natural place at The OC Fairgrounds, OC Certified Farmer’s Markets and events such as Wednesday’s at Irvine Lanes that celebrate nothing other than truck chasers filling their gullets with great food. 

With dozens of trucks to choose from and three new rigs debuting in OC every month, competition is tough and truck food is better than ever. But you only need to go on the used truck section of the Roadstoves website to see how fleeting a career in food trucking can be. 

There are a few trucks, some new, some established, that transcend the great divide between bricks and mortar and meals on wheels. They serve great food in spite of having gallies the size of elevators. Among the best dishes I’ve had this past month are Barcelona On The Go’s bacon wrapped dates, Seabird‘s beer batter fried avocado tacos, Rancho a Go Go Barbecue’s pulled pork  Mac and Cheese and The Lime Truck’s fried gorgonzola and truffle oil risotto. 

 Still, one truck had me at French Toast. Chomp Chomp Nation serves what they call Singaporean-American fare.  Husband and wife team Robert Zuetell and Gina Galvan’s beautiful tiger-striped truck was destroyed in a fire in March leaving them with a homely rental in the interim. But don’t judge a truck by its cover. 

Start with their brioche French toast. The crust is caramelized crisp while the inside remains fluffy and moist. It’s stuffed with Kaya jam; a delicate coconut milk, egg and pandan leaf concoction. The toast is drizzled with sweetened condensed milk and coconut syrup, topped with coconut whipped cream and  lychee, mango and dragon fruit, it evokes sultry tropical climes with the first bite. 

Chomp Chomp Nation's Temporary Rig.

Another dish with enough tropical ingredients to fill a spice caddy is the lamb burger. The tender meat is infused with a mixure of  lemongrass, ginger, galangal and Thai chilies. It is served on a brioche bun with creamy raita and greens. Thirst-quenching hibiscus and rose petal iced tea with lychee gelatin cubes will cool you off. 949 637 1688 chompchompnation.com

The latest food truck to hit OC isn’t a truck at all. It’s a Mercedes Sprinter that serves sushi.  With its rear bubble windows and boxy body, it’s the unlikely love child of an eighties Chevy van conversion and The Mystery Machine loaded with high quality tuna instead of captain’s chairs and The Gang.

Spicy tuna hand roll; Rolling Balls.

 I caught up with it most recently backed up to a chain link fence separating it from a 57 freeway onramp in the clammy shadow of The Bruery, a small, passionate brewery of artisans who craft batches of unfiltered, unpasteurized beer out of an dilapidated industrial space in Placentia.

Sashimi Salad.

This union, it turns out, is a match made in heaven. The Bruery doesn’t have food unless you count hops and barley. And Rolling Sushi doesn’t have booze. What they do have are spicy tuna chips: won ton skins fried to a wispy crackle and topped with a dollop of glittering ruby red chopped spicy tuna, sesame seeds, green onion and a drizzle of creamy sauce. This costs three dollars. I’ve paid more for a side of edamame.

Spicy Tuna Chips.

 The sushi vendor makes both traditional staples such as nigiri fresh water eel and other  more esoteric finds such as the bite-sized Rolling Balls: a dollop of tuna and  rice rolled in crispy tempura crumbs and centered on delicate ’kerchiefs of sesame-flecked  soy paper. The yummy citrus vinaigrette-doused sashimi salad was fresh,  but the sashimi seemed like cutting board scraps. Miso was also an afterthought. Better the spicy tuna hand roll and all of its picture perfect, generous cut roll cousins. Who’s behind all this superlative sushi? Young Choi, the GM, will take your order and Chris Kim is the sushi chef who makes it to order. What’s next: izakaya from a Smart Car? Sake bombs from a Segway? Anything is possible.

Rolling Sushi on the Go http://rollingsushivan.com 909.275.0039

Pimp my paella.

 Most of us eat out in brick and mortar establishments. It’s less drafty, and there are places to relieve yourself, and sit. 

Some of us treat them as homes away from home, pouncing on our favorite booth as if it were a Sit ‘n Sleep floor sample.     

But what about those days when you can’t leave your desk and no one in the office is going out to even the most rudimentary of drive-throughs?   Or when you’re a gridlock captive in the Honda Center lot after the concert in dire need of absorbant vittles?

Meals on wheels are the answer, and their evolution has never been more fully realized. A few months back, a food truck convoy the length of Mariner’s Mile rolled into OC in the wake of Kogi BBQ’s exhaust offering  everything from Taco Dawgs to Hakuna Mattatta Tostadas.

Tapas on board.

The latest mobile offerings come from Barcelona on the Go, twenty-two feet of quilted steel that looks like the spawn of an   Overhaulin’  rig and  Pimp my Ride  utility vehicle. And they have tapas on board. 

Croquettes are  as big as biscuits with the tender texture of Thanksgiving  mashed potatoes. The gilded crispy crust gives way to fluffy, mellow manchego and savory bits of ham. Balsamic reduction drizzle adds a concentrated sweet acidity to the mild snack. 

Chimmi Chimmi Co Co Bop!

Alongside the croquette sits a Galician style empanada is the size of a coin purse, stuffed with  sautéed onion, red and green bell peppers and savory, moist chicken infused with smoky pimenton.   

A full flavored flat iron steak is Expertly seared, hacked into rugged strips and generously doused in chimmichurri giving each bite of fat-marbled beef a garlicky, oily blast. A handful of rustic, crispy hand cut fries accompany the dish.    

While his fellow Argentine chef makes each dish to order,  you notice Barcelona on the Go owner Esteban Nocito’s curatorial attention to detail. His is the only coach I know of with lilting samba on the speakers, a museum quality facsimile of Picasso’s Guernica on the side of the truck and lovingly nurtured snapdragons in a window box. 

Piping hot lentil soup with morsels of ham is deeply flavored and homespun, like something you’d sample in a San Sebastian taverna. 

Flan was, well, flan. But when Nocito adds the promised chocolate drizzled pears poached in tempranillo to the menu, I’m there. 

Check  schedule on Twitter sidebar at Barcelonaonthego.com. 949.939.6798. Dinner for two, $18.00, food only.