Hernande'z

<2010-08-24 Tue>

No. 86



Hernande'z secret to success is extremely simple: hand made tortillas, a very good salsa, and fresh ingredients. They are absolutely the best tortillas in town. I am not surprised they have stopped selling tacos to go (you can't have a taco 1/2 hr later, it would have disintegrated by then).

They have two menus: the slow and the fast, depending on how long you are willing to wait. It is unfortunate the pressure that some customers impose on the speed of preparing food in a restaurant. Some of us would prefer a richer, better cooked meal than a fast one. I think Hernande'z approach is the right one: state, upfront, that some items in the menu will take longer to prepare, and let the customer decide. When you order you get a card. It is a "Loteria" card, which is similar to Bingo but for kids. They will call your card when your food is ready, and bring it your table; you can sit and relax while waiting for your food (other places in Victoria should learn from this simple method of keeping your customers happy while waiting).



I tend to order el Huarache (they call it "La", which is wrong. It is "El"), which is a central Mexico staple. Their version is not very authentic but I enjoy it. A true huarache has beans filling sandwiched in the "masa", not on top. This huarache is closer to a big "sope". Their interpretation is a also "healthier" (it lacks the lard that enriches the authentic ones) and has a good salad to top it. The flavour of fresh cooked corn and the salsa does to me what good comfort food should always do: brings me back memories (in this case, of my years in Mexico). I have tried other items in their menu and I have enjoyed them, but keep going back to the huarache.

A final note: they stay open for most of the day, from 11:30 to 21:00, making it an ideal place for a late snack.

I am a regular.

Verdict: Very good prices, and highly recommended.

Paid: ~7.50

For more information, including location, visit:

Adriana's (and my view of Mexican Restaurants in Victoria)

No. 78

<2010-08-17 Tue>

Adriana's is no longer open. As much as I like Mexican food, I never ate there and I was looking forward to my visit. Part of the reason is the location. Adriana's was in the periphery of downtown, out of the typical areas that I tend to frequent, and didn't open every day of the week for lunch. The few times I have tried, it was closed.

Verdict: Defunct

I will take the opportunity to write about Mexican food in Victoria.

First of all, Mexico is a very large country. To put into context, Mexico has an area (1,972,550 km2) twice the size of British Columbia (925,186 km2), and closer to the size of British Columbia, Alberta (642,317 km2) and Saskatchewan (591,670 km2) together. But perhaps more important, it is more sparsely populated. While the population of Canada is concentrated in few areas (notably along the border with the US), the population of Mexico spans all over its territory. Mexico includes most types of territory, including glaciers, deserts, rain forests, and has cities that dwarf Canadian ones. Like Canada, it spans from the Pacific to the Atlantic. There are dozens of native languages still spoken in Mexico, remarkably Nahuatl (the language of the Aztecs--1.6 million people) and Mayan (.89 million). Mexico City is a city as cosmopolitan as any of the big metropolis in the world.

In conclusion, the food in Mexico is a kaleidoscope of cooking styles, ingredients, and influences, and every region of this rich and vast country has its own unique cuisine.

With few exceptions, restaurants outside Mexico do not make justice to its food. And I can't blame them. The typical person does not know much about the real Mexico, and instead, is looking for his or her perception of what Mexican food is. A Mexican restaurant has a difficult decision to make: do we offer authentic Mexican food? or do we offer food that our patrons will consider authentic?

So here is a list of Mexican Restaurants, and what I think about them. First the ones I have visited, although some of them not in a very long time. They are in no particular order:

- Cafe Mexico. It offers the Mexican experience as expected by many Canadians and Americans, and while their menu includes some typical Mexican dishes, they are below average. I stopped going there the day that I was given corn tortillas warmed in the microwave (they become cardboard in few minutes).

- Hernande'z. Hernandez is run by a Salvadorian (Jerson) and his wife (Tamara). They are lovely people. This place gets brownie points because they make their own tortillas (I have ask them if they sell them individually, and the answer is not) and they are absolutely the best in town. I am not surprised they have stopped selling tacos to go (you can't have a taco 1/2 hr later, it would have disintegrated by then). Their salsa is also very good. I tend to order the Huarache (they call it "La", which is wrong. It is "El"), which is a central Mexico staple, but their interpretation is a bit "healthier", although it lacks some of the flavours (the Mexican ones are usually slightly passed by lard). Very good prices, and highly recommended.

- Puerto Vallarta Amigos (what I call the taco truck). In less than 1 month, it is gathering a following. Run by a family who lived in Puerto Vallart and Acapulco, they make tacos in the style of the central part of the Pacific coast. They have some misnomers in the menu (their barbacoa is not authentic barbacoa, and their chorizo is made of soy). Nonetheless, they deliver at a hard-to-beat price. I love their tomatillo, avocado and cilantro salsa. It has become a gathering point for Mexicans. As authentic as it gets in Victoria. Like Hernande'z, very good prices and highly recommended.

- Rebar. Yes, Rebar. When I enter the Rebar, I feel like I am in a Mexico City restaurant. The decor, the Virgen of Guadalupe in a niche, the plastic table cloths, they all look like they belong there. There is clearly an influence of Mexico in the creation of the restaurant. Order the enchiladas de calabacitas plus a apple and pear juice (not in the menu) and it is as Mexican as it can be. I recommend it.

- Orale. It feels more like a cafeteria than a restaurant, and a bad one. The tacos feel overpriced, and made with no love. Their tacos al pastor as a misnomer (tacos al pastor are cooked on a pit, the way shawarmas are). Their tamales are small. I will review this place soon. Based on my previous experiences, it is overpriced for what they offer, and I do not recommend it.

- Santiagos. It has Mexican influence, but does not feel Mexican. I wasn't very impressed in my visit.

The other places in Victoria, that I have never visited (but will soon) are:

- La Fiesta Cafe (cafeteria style)
- Delicado's (cafeteria style)

In conclusion, we do ok in tacos, but we lack a good Mexican restaurant.

For more information on Adriana, including its address, visit:

Puerto Vallarta Amigos

No. 64


<2010-07-29 Thu>
Finally, a real taqueria in Victoria.

Taco is a generic name as much as sandwich is. Essentially, a taco is a
tortilla (preferable corn) wrapping some food. As there are an infinite number of types of sandwiches, there are an infinite number of tacos (although I have never dared to try a peanut butter taco, but some people have tacos of banana and strawberry jam in flour tortillas).

Tacos are fast food. Most Mexicans eat their main meal at lunch time, hence tacos are usually a later afternoon/evening snack. In fact, many taquerias do not open until late in the afternoon. Arguable, Mexico City is the world capital of the taco. Around one year ago, the Guardian had an editorial listing the The
50 best things to eat in the world, and where to eat them. It included "El Pastorcito"', in Mexico City as the best place to eat tacos. I have eaten at El Pastorcito many times (I used to live blocks away from it and I can vouch for them being some of the best, if not the best). They open from 5-6 PM until later in the night (2-3 AM); Tacos al Pastor are their signature dish. The meat is cooked
in a spit, like a shawarma, and sliced on demand. Your taco is filled directly by slicing the spit loaded meat (pork), and frequently adorned with pineapple, cilantro, onion, and equally important, salsa.

In taquerias you frequently eat standing, from a plastic plate, and order tacos by the unit, and eat until you are full. They are a great snack if you are hungry after a night of parting with your friends. I have many fond memories of eating at El Pastorcito very late (1 to 3 AM) to "end the night". Tacos are usually served in small tortillas (two tortillas, to make sure that if one breaks, the other does not), covered slightly with a small coat of oil (that makes them more resistant to moisture, and less likely to break).

Puerto Vallarta Amigos is a taqueria, and also sells other fast food (like tortas, which the Mexican sandwich). I tried to find it on Tuesday, but failed. I thought it was ocean-front (like Red Fish, Blue Fish). It is not. It is exactly in the corner of Wharf and Yates, right next to Matisse. It is a food truck.

Today I walked from Yates to the waterfront, and passed right in front of them without seeing them. It was until I saw people eating what looked like tacos, and asked them, that I realized I had missed them by meters. (The people I asked recommended them: "they are very good").

As I approached it I was greeted in Spanish by a middle aged man, clearly from Mexican ascend. I asked him what he recommended, and without delay replied "the tacos".

Amigos has only four options: tacos, tortas, quesadillas, and a "combo". But each of them comes in six different flavours: chicken fajitas, beef barbacoa, chopped pork, potato and spinach, beans and cheese, and soy chorizo. He suggested I try the sampler of tacos (that included one of each). They added a free extra taco of barbacoa.

While my order was prepared (I was the only person), I had some time to talk to them. They are a family from Puerto Vallarta, who have been cooking long before they came to Canada. They were proud that the use family recipes and try to be as faithful as possible to the original recipes and ingredients as it is possible in Canada.

I received my tacos; they included a wedge of lime. I was indicated where the salsa was.

For the taco newbie the salsa might seem unnecessary (in fact, why have it, they might wonder, when some of the tacos are already spicy?). But salsa is a condiment that, when properly prepared and matched to the food, it enhances the flavours. In Mexico it is often said that, in the quality of the salsa, you can evaluate the quality of the taqueria.

When I saw the salsa from "Amigos" my eyes brighten up and my mouth watered: this is a green salsa, made with cilantro and avocado, with hints of lime. A type of salsa that I enjoy. I proceeded to add a good amount to each of my tacos.

The tacos were delicious. The best was the beef barbacoa. Their beef barbacoa (which is nothing like the barbacoa of Central Mexico) is exquisite: the meat is nicely braised for a long time, to the point that it is soft and tender; and the chillies and spices make it a full package of flavour. It was followed by the potato and spinach taco, which worked extremely well with the green salsa. Then the soy
chorizo. I joked with them that ""soy chorizo" should be renamed "artificial chorizo", but they didn't appreciate my humour. They interjected that their chorizo is very real! I was honestly surprised by the balance of the soy and the rest of the ingredients. It worked. In Central Mexico Chorizo is typically made by combining
ground meat with chillies, spices and vinegar; the mixture is turned into a sausage (made with the external part of the tripe) and let to cure and dry for a while for the flavours to develop. It didn't taste like "real" chorizo, but it was very a good dish, nonetheless. The chicken was ok, the pork was a bit overcooked, and I am not a fan of bean tacos (those are the "poor" version of a taco--if you can't fill
it with anything else, at least you should have some beans to put inside a tortilla). It was a nice contrast with the rest of the tacos, but I would not order only bean tacos.

My lunch was perfect for the day: I was on the run, and had only 15 minutes to eat. I got my tacos in a three minutes, eat them in 7. But more importantly, fully enjoyed them.

The only thing I missed was some eating surface where I could rest my plate while I ate my tacos. They only have three chairs, which means that in a busy time, you either eat standing or sit on the ground. I was told by the owner that most people take their orders and eat them on the grass across the street, next to the ocean. It was exactly there where I found the person who pointed me to the truck.

The owner mentioned that they will have specials once a while. He recommended for tomorrow the ceviche, Puerto Vallarta style.

My only wish is that they would open late at night.

Verdict: Recommended for a quick snack. Best tacos in town, and a solid quick and
inexpensive snack for the middle of the day.

Paid: $6.00

For more information, including address, visit: