Featuring fusion food, Californian chain The Lime Truck has parked one of its kitchens on wheels in Singapore – its first permanent site out of the US.
At the PasarBella@Suntec City food hall, the stationary truck has a Mexican-inspired menu serving six varieties of taco as well as Singapore exclusives like fried chickenskin with chipotle honey drizzle and cheese. The Lime Truck also makes its own tortillas, a first for Singapore.
There are also slushies, churros for dessert, and rice and salad bowls topped with grilled meat. There are also one-off daily specials.
The truck initially appeared in Singapore at a pop-up event in Orchard Road three years ago as part of a charity initiative with Fiji Water, where more than 1000 tacos were sold out in two hours.
Chef Daniel Shemtob launched The Lime Truck in 2010, expanding it from a single truck in Orange County, California, to five trucks in other cities in the state. He also has three restaurants in California, and came to cook at the truck’s Singapore launch.
The Lime Truck won the second season of Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race in 2011 and was placed on Yahoo’s Top 10 Trucks In America list for three years running from 2012.
“There’s a hidden Asian element to a lot of the dishes, so it’s familiar but kind of different,” says Shemtob, who picked up his cooking skills “from the streets”. He started cooking when he was about six years old, learning from YouTube, cookbooks and “just messing around in the kitchen”.
While regulations prevent the food truck from roving the streets as it does in California, Shemtob says he hopes it can make appearances at events such as the Formula One races.