It was March 21, the day after the deadline for submitting votes in the SMART awards, our way each year of honoring San Miguel’s favorite restaurants. It was time to tally up all of those votes.
It’s always an ugly job. Best done without anything that needs recharging. Best done with a pencil…no, make that a few pencils…an old fashioned notebook…you know the kind with the one inch margin on the left… and a whole lot of patience.
So there I was tediously opening each of the hundreds of emails, pencilling a checkmark besides the restaurant each of them had voted for, when I suddenly paused.
“Sharon, we need to go out for lunch.”
“But I’ve got to go to La Comer to get the pigs’ feet for the pozole.”
“It’s OK. The restaurant is close to La Comer.”
“What’s it called?”
“Trino.”
“Trino? Never heard of it.”
“Neither had I.”
Yes, there I was pencilling the usual ticks besides the usual restaurants when it came time to pencil in a brand new one to the list.
Trino it was called. I thought it might be a misspelling of Trina’s on Stirling Dickinson. But then there was another vote for Trino. And another. I looked it up on Google Maps.
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Google said it was in Pantoja. “Pantoja?”, I said to myself. I enlarged the map and saw it was behind La Lejona. Way behind. Past El Secreto. We ordered an Uber.
The car turned at the Oxxo and made its way past hundreds of new homes until we weaved right, then left and back to the land of olden days, the San Miguel of dirt roads and cacti. On the right we could see some hanging tarpaulins and a waving Mexican flag. The car stopped and out we got.
The place was a little cluttered and very casual but in a classy, creative sort of way. I couldn’t see a sign but in the distance I could see a menu board. There was the word Trino at the top.
We were warmly welcomed by a gentleman about two decades older than the usual San Miguel greeter. He asked if we’d been there before. I told him no. I asked if he might be the owner. He told me his family was. I asked him his name. He told me Ruben and off he went to get the blackboard.
Now I’m a foodie and I take pride in my knowledge of Mexican cuisine but I’m not sure that Rick Bayliss would even be able to tell me what everything is on Trino’s menu. Both of us were pretty well stumped by the last five items on the board. But Ruben to the rescue. He gave us a good run-through, including a little history and geography lesson about some of the dishes.
I looked at Sharon. She looked at me. We both looked at Ruben.
“Could you bring us the two dishes you’re most proud of”, I requested.
With hardly a hesitation, “That would be the Pescado Málaga and the Pollo Savana”, said Ruben and off he went to the kitchen.
Now I know that a pescado is a fish and I have memories of misspending part of my middle-age in Málaga but I didn’t put the two together until the plate arrived. This looked like the fish dish that the locals lunch on in the south of Spain.
“Sardinhas? Anchoas?”, I asked Ruben.
“No, tilapia”, he replied.
Now I must admit that tilapia is far from my favorite fish but I had to admit that Trino’s version immediately became one of my favorite ways to eat it.
The fish was sliced in strips, battered and deep-fried, then sided with tartar sauce. It was reminiscent of English-style fish and chips and I didn’t even miss the potatoes.
I didn’t know anything about the second dish, the Pollo Savana, other than there was a whole lot of things happening on the plate. We very much liked that the pollo was thigh and not the breast that most Mexican dishes use. We liked even more what the chicken was stuffed with. There was a bit of bacon, a slice of cheese that we guessed was Oaxacan, and lots of buttery spinach. The thigh had then been pan-fried to a crisp on the outside while the insides maintained their juicy tenderness.
On top was a sauce that was reminiscent of Argentinean chimichurri. On the side were apples, cukes, lettuce, shredded carrots and cabbage. So many tastes, so many textures, in a dish that, in my so many years, I’d never experienced before.
I’m trying to break my bad habit of a diet cola almost every day with my lunch. Ruben suggested Trino’s jugo verde. It was as good a recommendation as his Pollo Savana and the combination of celery, cucumber, apple and the very Mexican hierba buena was a excellent compliment to the chicken.
We decided we had just enough room to share one dessert and again took Ruben’s recommendation.
“Our cheesy flan is very, very good.”
Again, Ruben was right.
It was time to pick up the groceries at the close-enough-to-walk-to La Comer, head home and start the SMART tallying again, perhaps even see more votes for Trino, but, before we left, Ruben’s son Oskar came over, introduced himself, and suggested we return for one of his Mezcal Sundays.
We did want to return. I still wanted to know and taste what Pollo Cañada, Chiapaneco and Pescado Acuyo were. But how would I resist ordering the Pollo Savana again.
Restaurante Trino is located at Paseo Real #1 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The restaurant is open on Thursday from 1:00 to 7:00 pm, Friday from 1:00 to 9:00 pm, Saturday from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm, and Sunday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. It is closed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
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