Ethnic Eats – Sampling the World’s Cuisine Without Leaving Vancouver

The new kid on the Davie Village block is Mis Trucos, a Spanish-inspired tapas restaurant with a fantastic patio. They’re open for business as of last week, but when a group of bloggers were invited to road test the menu, the walls were still a minimalist white and the lack of a sign meant that I walked back and forth a couple of times in the place where I thought the address should be, wondering if I had to smack myself Harry Potter style into the wall to gain entrace. Turns out that it’s upstairs, and the patio where I will be spending many August evenings, is in the back, far (enough) from the maddening crowd.

I started off with a glass of wine while I was waiting for the rest of the party to find the stairs, but then quickly moved on to their signature Spanish cocktails. The first, cohombro o pepino, means “cool as a cucumber” and contains Hendricks gin, honey dew, cucumber, lime and sprite. It was sublte and the melon balanced out the cucumber in a pleasing way, but it’s not a groundbreaking leap away from a classic G&T.  There were familiarities elsewhere as well. The Barcelona (Plymouth gin, orange liquor, white wine, lemon, orange, elderflower and soda) was like a sort of boozy Orangina and the Spanish snapper (gin, lemon, red wine, tomato juice, spanish paprika, worcestershire sauce, parsley salt) is a Mis Trucos taste on a bloody Mary. All went down easy.

Mis Trucos, “my tricks” in Spanish, comes from one of the chef’s favorite cookbooks that had a tips and tricks section and it suits. Food started with olives and bread for the table, followed by panko-breaded petrale sole with tartare sauce. This “fancy fish stick” would be a bit small for anything other than a snack or a side, but the flavours were balanced and it wasn’t greasy. Then came a salad of Serrano ham, asparagus, slow cooked egg, manchego cheese (above) and the trio of wild fish crudo (top), easily my two favorite dishes of the evening. The salad is a variation of one I’ve been making all summer because the salty cheese and ham paired with greens is heavenly and the addition of the soft egg is sheer genius. The seafood plate is a mini carousel of flavours; scallop ceviche topped with radish and parsley with lemon pepper salt, Spring salmon with grapefruit and truffle oil, ling cod with apple and celery. Perfect patio munching.

Prices range from $8 – 13 and the portions are not large but the ingredients are fresh and I have no doubt that the menu will only get better with time.

UPDATE – August 13th: They’re not quite open yet, but check back with them soon, or follow them on twitter at @mistrucos for updates.

________________________________________________
Mis Trucos
1141 Davie Street, Vancouver