It had been a while since I had a pupusa, quite a while actually. And for some reason I was craving some. So I decided to revisit El Salvador on University.
It had been nearly three years since I'd last been here and the exterior….of what was I'm fairly certain a Pizza Hut once upon a time. The place still looks a bit rough around the edges, though much nicer than when we first visited back in 2005.
I placed my order and things started with the same basic mild and thin hot sauce and nondescript chips. Save that hot sauce; you might need them for the pupusas.
I ordered three pupusas, no pacayas this time around. It took a good 25 minutes for my pupusas to get to the table. Though it looked like other folks were waiting even longer for stuff.
As always, curtido, what is supposed to be lightly fermented cabbage, was delivered to the table.
I say "supposed" because this tasted basically like coleslaw mix with some cilantro and a touch of dressing. This was a far cry from what the curtido used to be like here. This was plain terrible.
The pupusas arrived scalding hot to the table.
I loved the "crust" on these pupusas, though I couldn't put my finger on it, the texture seemed different than what I've had here before. The chichrron and potato and cheese versions were really salty. Usually the pickled flavor of the curtido would help cut the salt and in the case of the chicharron also the grease, but in this case it was no help. Eating those was not very pleasant.
The queso en loroco, made up of the edible bud of the Fernaldia Pandurata and cheese was the best of the bunch. To me loroco has a pungent-artichoke flavor and the milkiness of the cheese really helped move it along without cancelling it out. It was the best of the bunch.
I'm not sure what happened here. It's been a while since I've been here, so perhaps an ownership change? Whatever the reason, things just didn't seem quite right.
El Salvador Pupuseria y Restaurante
3824 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105