Linda Maria Food Truck
Address: 2003 St. Joseph Blvd, Orleans, ON
Hours: 11am – 3pm (Tue-Wed, Sat), 11am – 5pm (Thu-Fri)
Website: https://www.lindamaria.ca/
Green factor: Garbage bin on site, no recycling; compostable container, plastic utensils
Earlier this year, during the spring of ‘Rona, I found out about a new taco-focused food truck out in Orleans – Linda Maria.
Being car-less, and living and working quite centrally in Ottawa, I’ve never actually been to Orleans! However, I was making an unrelated trip out that way, and added a pit stop for tacos to my to-do list.
Their beautifully painted truck was easy to spot (along with some guidance from Google Maps), and I was soon parked nearby and taking a look at their menu. It’s pretty compact – just tacos and nachos. But with options for both soft and hard homemade tortillas, and varied proteins and toppings, there are plenty of permutations.
While you can get three tacos for $12, they all have to be the same type of protein, so I paid the individual price ($4.50) to try their three meats – asada steak, pibil pork, and chicken tinga.
Toppings are a choose-your-own-adventure, and I went with onion, cilantro, cojita cheese, and pickled red onion for all three. I would have preferred the toppings to be set and tailored to the traditional styles of these tacos, but I was also just glad that the options weren’t shredded iceberg lettuce and cheddar.
I soon had my tacos in hand and was eating out of the passenger door of my carshare.
The carne asada’s hunks of beef were toothsome, but not rubbery, with a light, bright marinade which was a pleasant contrast against the beef.
I found the shredded and sauced pork and chicken to be indistinguishable from each other both visually and flavour-wise, which was unfortunate since the chicken tinga’s chipotle flavour should stand out more. Best case scenario is that I was actually given the same two proteins, otherwise the flavours on these two need to be more differentiated.
The pibil and tinga tacos were generously filled though, and the tender and juicy meat made quick work of the flavourful, corn tortillas (soft, naturally). A double wrap might be needed to maintain taco structural integrity.
Linda Maria is putting out some tasty tacos that are definitely head and shoulders above Tex-Mex, and with some tweaks and amping up those Mexican flavours, they could really stand out on the city’s taco scene.
3 Comments
Linda Maria
Thanks for your nice post and for your feedback. This for sure helps us improve. I have already added more chipotle to the Tinga Chicken Taco. I hope we see you around again soon 🎉🇲🇽
Linda Maria
Great post! Thank you kindly. We appreciate your feedback. This for sure helps us improve. I have already added more chipotle to the Tinga Chicken Taco. I hope we see you around again soon 🎉🇲🇽
Murray
Wish you guys nothing but the best! Keep up the great work! 😀