One area of town that I should explore more is International Avenue. There is a diverse range of food culture represented there, one of which is Portuguese. I’ve had Portuguese food once before; when I had a salt cod casserole. It was delicious.
Mimo is a family run place, for over 29 years. Mom is the chef and the daughters are servers and hostesses. We had a large party so we got to sample a few dishes. I found the flaming sausage quite entertaining. It was homemade; tasted smoky and spicy at the same time. I also had a nibble of the grilled squid which was tasty. My main dish was the paella and what a paella it was. Lobster, crab, shrimp, mussel and clam served in the shell. Also a braised chicken leg, squid and pieces of beef served on top of flavorful, buttery rice. I had enough to take home.
Our server was one of the daughters and she gave us a history of how the restaurant came to be along with memories of a thriving Portuguese community in what is now Little Saigon Mall. She was astute enough to notice that one of her guests left the chicken leg uneaten on her plate. It was uncooked in the middle. Another one of our guests had undercooked chicken as well. She offered to cover everyone’s dessert which I thought was really nice.
The dessert was good. I preferred the passion fruit pudding over the orange creme caramel. Only because the pudding was less sweet. Life would be complete if only I could find some Portuguese egg tarts. According to our server, best head to Edmonton.
