¡Ask a Comida Critic! On Our Disappearing Cemitas Poblanas Trucks



I have other, non-Mexican related food questions in queue, but am answering this one because the answer pisses me off:

After reading your write-up on this cemita truck, I headed out but
could not find it.  But on my second try, the truck was right there
where you said it would be. The cemitas they offered was unreal. Perfect all the way around. I frequented that truck half a dozen times
after that first visit but now they are no where to be found. They
might have moved or stopped doing cemitas because they were never too
busy the times I went. Anyways sorry for the long email, I was just
writing to find out if you knew any other places in OC that offered this
awesome sandwich.  Thanks for all your recommendations and hope to you
keep sharing more great places to eat.

Ah, Anaya's–just a week after I reviewed it for its glorious cemitas poblanas (the gargantuant sandwiches made with a challah-like bread, stringy cheese, a chipotle pepper, milanesa, and a bitter herb), it was already not showing up. I haven't seen it in weeks, so I can safely say it's kaput–which pisses me off.

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Simply put, eaters: it doesn't seem Orange County can support a proper cemitas place. It only has truly existed in OC in the lonchera-sphere–first, at a long-gone taco truck that stood where the tacos acorazados place now parks, on the corner of Sycamore and Cubbon in SanTana. Even the much-missed Nancy Puebla restaurant, the only true Pueblan restaurant in la naranja, didn't prepare this sandwich.

There are rumors of a cemita poblana at Taqueria Don Victor in Huntington Beach, but I doubt it's real–Pueblans haven't settled much in Orange County (their main American outpost is New York, so much so that many jokingly call it Puebla York, a play on its Spanish name), and definitely not in Surf City. I will research though–details to come…

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