Tag Archives: Mexican

08.10.22
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Too Hungry While At North Park Multicultural Festival

20220724_113628DK: Victoria, BC’s North Park Multicultural Festival is unique for a couple reasons: 

  1. Vendors aren’t charged any fees 
  2. It’s explicitly marketed as culturally diverse. 

Does this make the quarterly event wildly different from any of the other market-type events hosted throughout the CRD? I certainly hoped it would!

ES: I wasn’t aware of this event until Don told me, and I suspect it started up when health restrictions were lifted to allow for such gatherings. Out by my neck of the woods, Saanich, we also have a similar type of show but do I really want to go to Uptown Mall? 

Downtown is a better choice–North Park is west of the city core, and it’s a beautiful area with a handful of diners and other goodness to wander around in. 

With this event at Royal Athletic Park, it took up one side more than to use the baseball diamond field. All I can say is batter up! Don and I were there to see what was offered, and there were some interesting goods that I could’ve picked up, but I wanted to fill up instead. I didn’t have breakfast.

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05.04.22
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At Boomtown, All You Want to Do is Dance, Dance

20220325_190317Boomtown
950 Yates St
Victoria, BC

Hours: Open every day from 11:30 am to 9:00pm (10 on weekends)
Phone: (778) 265-9150
Menu: boomtownyyj.ca

ES: Don’t ask me why, but when Don suggested we check out Boomtown for some fancy Mexican style food, I had to cue up Vengaboys to listen to while downtown. It’s a diner located opposite the Harris-Green Shopping Centre, and it can easily be missed by those who aren’t looking.

DK: We spent the night together, watching Sandra Bullock search for a hidden tomb in the movie afterwards.

Boomtown is in a spot that has housed a revolving door of different cafes, food trucks, and weed dispensaries over the last decade. Back in 2013, the Refiner Diner was parked in this spot, and I still have fond memories of their burger (Ed gave it a 4/5 way back when). Does Boomtown carry on the 950 Yates legacy in style? Ed, what say you?

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05.29.19
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Come Aboard for Feast! Food+Film June 13-15, 2019

FEAST-Logo-design-website-4-02Feast Food+Film is the Victoria Film Festival‘s love letter to all things culinary and it will be spotlighting the best treats that the Capital Region can offer. This event runs June 13-15, 2019 and the movies featured has Ed endorsing the search for Shangri-La with Himalayan Gold Rush. There’s a reason: variations of this fungus is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Does it work? Ed says some of it does, if you can stomach the taste. A lot of manufactured medications work the same way as those harvested in the wilds. The only difference is in purity and concentration, and the belief that it does the body good than the gross out factor of, say, consuming bugs.

The film line-up features five documentaries and one feature film that explores the flavours, stories, and people behind a particular cuisine. The line-up and menus include:

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05.23.18
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Crispy Churros Dessert Cafe

Crispy Churros Dessert Cafe
2A – 4071 Shelbourne
Victoria, BC

Hours: 11am to 8pm
Phone: (250) 590-2277

¡Ay, caramba! Miss Fruits H.K. Desserts closed up shop, and it changed from Asian style sweets to Spanish—well, sort of. The new operation has shaved ice, designer brand coffee and to its namesake, crispy churros!

When the people behind the counter are Korean, this mishmash of cultures is fine by me! The churro has no clear origin story. It may have come from the Orient. In China, we have our own doughnut, a Youtiao. It’s a starchy crispy delight I love to have with congee (or any other thick creamy soup). In Spain, they have a sweeter version which can be consumed on its own and the dips, ranging from chocolate, vanilla or caramel, only enhances the cinnamon flavour. I could eat them all day if I had the metabolism!

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05.17.17
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Defining Tacofino, or finding it in a Maze of Mexican Diners in One City Block?

Tacofino_Logo_colour-1_400x400787 Fort St
Victoria, BC
Phone: (778) 406-1787

I think too many Mexican “taco” centric diners are located too close to one another in Victoria, BC. When one operation is busy, the hungry taco consumer can easily walk across the street to another to find a place to sit down for a bite. Located within the same city block is La Taquisa, Tacofino. La Taqueria and La Fiesta Cafe. In terms which operation stands out, none of them truly do. Well, maybe La Fiesta since they have Mexi-Fries (taters), and a condiment station with freshly made toppings (which range from mild to hot) but for the others, they all tout the same thing: locally sourced ingredients. Each of them have their own spin.

Tacofino began their operation in Tofino, the west coast of Vancouver Island and have broadened to a large franchise operation which includes Vancouver. The others have their own stories, but in brief Taqueria is from the mainland and Taquisa is family-owned. Each have their own range of goods. I simply rolled a dice to decide where I wanted to go and landed on ‘fino for bite.

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05.17.16
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La Taqueria Pinche vs La Taquisa

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Victoria‘s La Taquisa is facing stiff competition with Vancouver‘s La Taqueria Pinche now on the island. The former operation has two seafood offerings (cod and shrimp), the latter has one (albacore tuna). As for beef, the latter has three different cuts to choose from: flank, cheeks and tongue. I’m in bovine heaven! The only thing our home-grown operation offers, in addition, are burritos and even then I’m not sure that’s enough for me to be loyal.

Ever since I visited their Broughton street operation and had a few sloppily made tacos, I never had the desire to go back. Back when they were a food truck style operation at Cook St., better care and attention to the product was made. I’m fairly sure I lost my custom (matching frame) sunglasses there and none of the staff were all that helpful when I returned to check. This happened a few years ago, and I left feeling unimpressed.

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