Like salsa ousting ketchup from the number one spot amongst condiments in the U.S., quesadillas just might do the same to grilled cheese sandwiches. That’s because quesadillas have become so...common. Except for the name, there’s nothing exotic about quesadillas anymore.
But now we have pupusas from El Salvador. The pupusa was something that I only ever knew about from a song that my junior high Spanish teacher made us sing to practice pronunciation. La pupusera junto al comal, hace pupusas de chicharron... It always made us chuckle because “pupusa” is such a nasty sounding name, and without knowing what a pupusa was, well, teenage minds could only wander.
The El Salvadorean pupusa is similar in concept to the Mexican quesadilla, but executed differently. For quesadillas, cheese is placed on tortillas that have already been baked. The tortilla is either folded over, or a second tortilla is placed on top. Then the whole quesadilla is grilled to melt the cheese and toast the already cooked tortilla. The sides are open. Pupusas, on the other hand, are made by building raw masa (corn flour) dough around cheese or other fillings, flattened, then cooked all at once together. The cheese is enclosed within the pupusa.
The recipe for pupusas is not complicated, but it’s so much more fun to go to Con Sabor Club Tropical in LA, an El Salvadorean restaurant in West L.A. where you can refresh your energy with drinks from the full bar and pupusas autenticas when you’re taking a break from the dance floor that’s pulsating with Latin music.
Con Sabor Club Tropical
8641 Washington Boulevard, Culver City, CA 90323
(310) 559-1127 www.consaborclubtropical.com
Note: Don't forget to DIGG grilled cheese day!
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