Menu a homage to land of original tapas
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Chef Kris Barnholden (centre), shows off his duck salad and shares a laugh with bartender Jonathan James (right) and manager Eryn Dorman. Photograph by: Mark van Manen, Vancouver Sun
MIS TRUCOS
1141 Davie St
604-566-3960
www.mistrucos.ca
Overall: ****
Food: ****
Ambience: ***1/2
Service: ***1/2
Price: $$
Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone.
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Before I get to the food at Mis Trucos, a cool new tapas place in the West End, let’s chat about dating.
On my first visit, a seemingly first-date couple sat nearby. He knew it all. His opinions jack-hammered and ricocheted through the room via a megaphone mouth. I went to the bathroom and his voice followed me through the walls. Just a word of advice, bud. Don’t forget: Your ears are there to help you get a second date.
Aside from being Hoovered into the voice vortex, we loved our meals. Mis Trucos (“my tricks” in Spanish) is run by Kris Barnholden (formerly of Parkside, Lucy Mae Brown, Fiction and Chez Bruce, a one-Michelin star restaurant in London); he’s brought on Jonathan James to tend bar (formerly at Uva and Chow) and Eryn Dorman as general manager.
Mis Trucos marks Davie Street’s coming of age; here you will find refined food, an homage to the land where tapas originated. Sure, Bin 941 isn’t far away, but it’s just outside the orbit of the “village.” And yep, the relatively new La Brasserie, with its Franco-German-style food, is great at traditional comfort food. Mis Trucos is somewhat Main Street boho but the food is beyond casual, closer to upscale and sophisticated.
The menu is short and bounces off traditional Spanish tapas and it’ll change with the seasons. Barnholden is spot-on with so many of the dishes, balancing flavours and textures. And don’t you think it’s about ruddy time someone came along to show off Spain with a modern spin, considering the centre of gravity in European cuisine has shifted to that country. Barnholden delivers Spanish and Mediterranean food with bright, clean, fresh flavours. (The spanking white-surround interior turbo boosts the fresh feel but is it only me? Does it make you think of straitjackets?)
The dishes are small (they range from $4 to $18) and they are to be savoured. My all-out favourite was the white truffle risotto with lobster and creme fraiche; each element had its part to play. There was almost as much lobster as rice and the truffles quietly hummed throughout.
A dish I’d eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and a midnight snack is the piperade with Serrano ham and slow-cooked egg. A snowdrift of a grated Picorino cheese capped the egg, which was poached sous vide. Break the orange yolk and it goes to work as an earthy sauce. Gazpacho in a shot glass was a gulp of fresh liquid tomato with avocado creme and a surprise crab at the bottom. A special, vegetarian coca (a Catalan pizza-like dish) had a topping of rice, spinach, raisins and pinenuts.
Other dishes I liked were cured duck and melon salad with a sherry reduction; cured white salmon with beetroot, apple, creme fraiche. I was hoping the brandade (a salt cod-and-potato dish) would be a baked version, but this was warm and cooked stovetop.
I wondered why the Qualicum Beach scallops with asparagus aioli was poached in olive oil rather than sauteed for that golden, caramelized finish. The answer was a clue to what’s behind the bright, fresh flavours: There was no hood vent in the kitchen when he took it over (the previous tenant managed without frying and grilling) so Barnholden decided to cook with sous vide equipment, induction burners (uses electromagnetism to heat steel or iron pots, leaving the cooktop cool) and a convection oven. He has to think twice as hard to keep the menu varied. Winter, when the body craves fat, will be a challenge, I suppose, but I think braising and roasting can compensate for that.
I’m told I just missed huckleberry season, a disappointment as wild huckleberries from the B.C. Interior send me back to childhood. Barnholden, who’s worked as a chocolatier and pastry chef, had a dessert of almond praline mille feuille with chocolate mousse and cherry syrup; another featured thinly sliced mango rolled cannelloni-like, filled with mascarpone and strewn with blueberries and micro-mint.
Wines are mostly Spanish and priced to match the foods, and James’ cocktails step up to the plate. The signature is Cohombro o Pepino (cool as a cucumber) with easy-breezy honeydew and cucumber.
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