Several months back, my good blogging "buddy", Clayfu, sent me an email telling me about a Taco Truck located in the parking lot of Joe's 99 Cent Store on Linda Vista. Now understanding Clayfu's, ummm, how shall I say it, rather "frugal" ways, when he described this Taco Truck as being really good, well I had to check it out! I did find the Taco Truck to be pretty good, though sometimes a bit inconsistent. I had a few meals, and took a few photos, and decided to wait until Clayfu did a post on the Taco Truck, since it felt like the right thing to do……and waited, and waited, and waited. Until finally Clayfu did his post on Friday the 13th of all things. You can read his post here. Now I won't pretend to be like the His Royal Highness of Taco Trucks, Bandini, but I did develop a fondness for Taco Truck cuisine during my little road trip to Yuma, thanks mostly to the one and only, Ed from Yuma.
Recently, the old Taco Truck has been replaced with a updated version. But luckily the food is the same.
Few things beat the smell of Carne Asada grilling at sunset! The drill is you walk up to the window and place your order. In addition to tacos, the truck also makes burritos. Once you get your tacos, you load up with Pico De Gallo, Salsa Roja, Salsa Verde, Lime, among other things……
This Guy is always very nice, and cracks me up!
On this night, the Missus and I were after a snack, and ordered Cabeza(beef head/cheek), Lengua(beef tongue), and Al Pastor(marinated, and in this case grilled, pork – all tacos $1.50). Lest you think this may be a bit expensive for Taco Truck fare, the tacos are loaded with meat.
The photo to the right is kinda odd, I guess I was focusing on the last taco in line, so it came out bright and clear, and the rest blurred…oh well, back to the tacos. On this night, the Lengua was numero uno! Very moist, with a nice beefy punch, and a mild gamey aftertaste. The Cabeza, was very moist and fatty with nice bits of gelatin, but lacked the condensed beef flavor of really good cabeza. The Al Pastor had a nice bit of caramelization, and was on the chewy side, with only a mild chili flavor. What you'll notice with these tacos, are that there's a lack of saltiness, so the true flavor of the meat comes through.
Here's a photo from way back when. On this evening, they were out of Cabeza and Lengua, so I settled for 2 Carne Asada and 2 Al Pastor.
I brought these home with me, with all the various garnishes and salsas in little sandwich size bags which are sometimes available. I started dressing my tacos, than remembered to take a photo, after these two photos, I was too hungry, so I just said the heck with it, finished loading up my tacos and ate them.
The Carne Asada was decent, fairly moist, with a nice salty, slightly citrus flavor. The Al Pastor on this evening was on the very chewy side, but had a really nice chili flavor.
So if you're in the Linda Vista area during the evening, and want some better than most Taco Shop tacos…just follow your nose!
La Princesita Taco Truck(well trailer actually)
In the Parking lot of Joe's 99 Cent Store
6882 Linda Vista Rd
San Diego, CA 92111
Clayfu has told me that the hours are from 6pm to 11pm daily, but I've seen the trailer there from as early as 5pm…as to when they close, hey at my age, I'm usually done for by 11pm!
Thanks again for the recommendation Clayfu!