EAT Magazine May_June 2014_Victoria_48_Layout 1 4/28/14 9:03 AM Page 18
¡Viva México!
A mini Mexican food revolution is taking place in Victoria. —By Joseph Blake
A
boyhood in California established Mexican cuisine as my favourite food, and I’ve always been disappointed by what was on offer locally. No
more!
A couple of popular food trucks have moved into bricks and mortar operations recently. They now join the tiny Mexican restaurant in the Victoria Public Market at the Hudson in a local Mexican food renaissance. All of them are producing food that is high quality, house-made and authentic. Chef-owner Olimpia Cisneros has created an outpost of Mexican culture in the Public Market at La Cocina de Mama Oli. A Guadalajara-bred single mom, she offers a menu of traditional Mexican dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. “Have you had a Mexican breakfast?” Cisneros asks me as we settle into a dimly lit corner of her tiny restaurant, which she has decorated to represent a Mexican kitchen. “I wish the Public Market opened earlier so I could serve more of my favourite breakfast dishes like scrambled eggs with ham or chorizo with fresh corn tortillas and Mexican hot chocolate,” she enthuses. During a mid-day visit, I try the Guadalajara specialty, Carnes en su Jugo, perfectly spiced, lime-accented beef broth with generous pieces of seared flank steak, bacon crumbles, fresh cilantro, radish slices and minced, sweet onions. It was a delicious combination of flavour and texture. “I’ve tried to recreate my family’s kitchen,” Cisneros explains. “You have to try my homemade flan. That’s a very old Mexican recipe.” The flan more than lives up to Cisneros’ recommendation—very eggy, and not too sweet, the perfect dessert after the spicy main course offerings. Don’t expect cheap, fast food at La Cocina de Mama Oli. Everything is made from scratch with very fresh ingredients. At Fisherman’s Wharf in James Bay across from Barb’s Fish and Chips and the Fish Store, a bright, canary-yellow houseboat is the new home of Puerto Vallarta Amigos. Several generations of the Espinoza family ran restaurants in Mexico for 25 years in Acapulco, Morelia and Puerto Vallarta before Antonio Espinoza moved to Canada. For the past decade, Antonio and his sons have operated a popular Mexican food truck parked at Wharf and Yates Rebecca Wellman
streets. They now also park a Mexican food truck at Uptown, and a Metro Pasta truck splits time between both Camosun College campuses. When I visited the Fisherman’s Wharf site, it was a sunny afternoon and the open-sided white tent in front of the houseboat was jammed with diners at all six picnic tables. top: La Taquisa co-owner Scott Demner. Tortilla soup; Bean and cheese tortillas with carrot habanero salsa bottom: Barbacoa beef tacos with avocado salsa; guanillo sauce. Puerto Vallarta Amigos family photo – Antonio I join Antonio Espinoza at one of the restaurant’s handful of small tables inside the houseboat. As Antonio tells me Espinoza; Angelina Espinoza; Ramesh Espinoza.
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EAT MAGAZINE MAY | JUNE 2014