Midtown Lunch

If you live and/or work in Culver City you’ve likely noticed the new Westside Food Truck Central lot on Washington and Culver.  In fact it’s become such a popular lunchtime destination that they’ve extended their lunchtime schedule to 5 days a week, 11am to 2:30pm (they also have trucks out there for dinner on Mondays and Wednesdays.)   I’m a huge fan, and whenever I’m in the mood for some gourmet food truck action, near where I live, I now know where to go without even checking twitter (although they do have a twitter account to let you know their daily schedule.)  But that’s not the only place for a truck lunch in the area, and if old school loncheros is more your thing  it turns out one of the best trucks in the city parks on Venice and Jasmine (right in front of Smart & Final.)

I first heard about the cemita milanesa at Angelica’s Cemitas Truck from Serious Eats’ best sandwiches in L.A. under $6 list, but people who are into such things probably read about it long ago on Chowhound.

The cemita de milanesa is the goto order for a reason.  Thinly pounded steak, deep fried to a crisp, sandwiched in a sesame seed roll with quesillo (Mexican string cheese), avocado, and a smokey chipotle sauce.  For $5 it’s a steal.

I assumed that the cemita de pollo would be a grilled chicken sandwich (after all, we are in the avocado topped grilled chicken sandwich capitol of the world)  but I was excited to discover that it’s actually the same as the milanesa just with chicken instead of steak!  Delicioso.  In fact is SE put the milanesa on their best sandwiches list, this could have easily gone on their Best Fried Chicken Sandwiches list.

The head cheese cemita (queso de puerco) was made with store bought, generic deli headcheese.  It would have beenn nice to have a slice of this on the milanesa (the way that Pal Cabron does it) but on its own I wouldn’t bother.

If you want the best Angelica’s experince, a cemita is clearly the way to go, but the rest of their menu is perfectly serviceable as well.   I had a very tasty tongue taco there on one visit.

And even though their carnitas burrito won’t make any best of lists, it was better than average… and became even that much better with their super delicious, and seemingly homemade, salsa verde.

It always feels like most of the best taco trucks are only out late at night, so it’s always nice to find a lunchtime gem like Angelica’s.  The truck isn’t much to look at, but you’ll be hard pressed to find a better cemita milanesa west of La Brea.

Angelica’s Cemita Truck, 10113 Venice Boulevard, 213-909-4027

Sometimes there can be a bit of a wait during lunch, so if you’re in a rush you might want to phone in your order. (A lot of people do.)