AS you walk along the 200 block of West Esplanade in North Vancouver, the sound of Mexican pop music becomes audible.
The music emanates from Cinco de Mayo Mexican Grill, a restaurant that unabashedly celebrates the fresh and spicy flavours of Mexican cuisine. It is fitting that Cinco de Mayo blasts these tunes for all to hear; the music foreshadows the lively and authentic experience that awaits the diner inside.
In Canada the term "Mexican food" is frequently applied to dishes that have been streamlined for fast service or tempered for conservative palates and bear little resemblance to their progenitors. It is a cuisine too often recognized for its functional contributions: tomato salsa as an easy remedy for uninspired recipes or the tortilla as a pliable, inoffensive wrapper for ingredients that often have no relation to Mexico whatsoever.
Accordingly, many firsttime travellers to Mexico are struck by the complexity and diversity of the food. It is highly regionalized, and techniques and ingredients vary dramatically from state to state.
I am thankful that Cinco de Mayo has set up shop in our climate of banal, do-it-yourself, boxed taco hobby kits to remind us of the invigorating and memorable flavours that authentic Mexican cuisine can present.
Despite opening its doors well over a year ago, I recently visited Cinco de Mayo for the very first time. I'm not sure how this restaurant has escaped my radar up until now, but I am prepared to make up for lost time, if only to have another shot at their housemade Chorizo Mexicano, a proprietary recipe that I sampled in a series of three tacos, each made with delicious corn tortillas and finished with fragrant, marvelously fresh sauces and toppings.
The sauces and toppings are the first things that present themselves when you enter Cinco de Mayo, and they are an encouraging welcome, each carefully handmade and seasoned to add just the right complement to the main dishes.
These ingredients populate a colourful display in the open kitchen and include both a mild and a spicy pico de gallo (fresh tomato salsa), salsa verde (a tart and tangy salsa made of tomatillo), crema con chipotle (sour cream infused with smoky, heady chipotle chili pepper), elote (sweet corn mixed with finely diced bell pepper), fresh cilantro and onion, and another eight or so fragrant selections.
To my delight, I noted that Cinco de Mayo sells a variety of traditional Mexican beverages, including sodas flavoured with apple, tamarind or grapefruit, as well as a true specialty beverage of Mexico, agua de horchata. This latter is an ingenious but unlikely treat made of strained, pureed rice with water, cinnamon and sugar. The result is a sweet and savory, milky-looking drink with a surprisingly refreshing quality. As a mainline of pure, simple carbohydrates it acts as a tasty pick-me-up in the draining summer heat.
Cinco de Mayo has a smattering of outdoor tables and another 20 or so seats inside. The restaurant was doing brisk business on the Wednesday night I visited, with a nearly even split of dine-in and take-out orders.
I have to say that on my visit, service was rather slow. It was nearly 20 minutes before I was able to place my order, but the staff manning the open kitchen was engaging and friendly, helping to while away the time. I was told by the kitchen team that the delays I experienced were the result of an unexpected spike in restaurant traffic following the opening of Yeti Yogurt, a new frozen yogurt shop that recently opened its doors across the street just days earlier. Whatever the case, the wait was worth it. I was able to watch as my meal was assembled, which later had me marveling at how such simple ingredients can conspire to achieve such good flavours.
I enjoyed a sampling of enchiladas stuffed with pollo en achiote (chicken breast cooked in a special annatto-based salsa), a vegetarian burrito stuffed to capacity with rice, beans, cheese, and every sauce available in the restaurant, and the aforementioned chorizo tacos, simply adorned with cilantro, pico de gallo and lime.
It is worth noting that all items on Cinco de Mayo's menu can be made into vegetarian alternatives, and a number of them lend themselves well to vegan options. The quality of my vegetarian burrito suggests that such adaptations do not come at the cost of flavour.
Cinco de Mayo is located at 102-200 West Esplanade Avenue, North Vancouver. Phone: 604-770-1010. Closed Sundays.
