The Salvadorean Contribution to World Cuisine

I bet a lot of people go to eat at Salvadorean Restaurants because they may sound exotic. Sadly, the Salvadorean contribution to world cuisine, the pupusa, is a tasteless hockey puck of griddle cooked masa with cheese and pork skin that could easily be used to fill a pothole. A good pupusa is not even as good as a bad homemade tortilla! I have been to El Salvador previously, and if you are at Playa La Libertad ordering fish and lobster fresh out of the water and washing it down with cold Supremas, you are eating the very best food available in this little country. The comida tipica, which you will get at El Migueleno and most other Salvadorean restaurants however, is terribly bland and disappointing. A typical Salvadorean meal consists of lard fried plantains, refried black beans, cream, pupusas, curtido and some Pollo Campero if you are lucky. It is a nice meal, I suppose, if you have to fuel up for the day. I could go on and on about how bad the food is, and how bad it is in most of Central America in general, but at least the beer is cold and the people are wonderful.

Finally, while I jest about Salvadorean food, I feel that the people of El Salvador are fantastic and courageous and feel that Los Angeles is lucky that so many people from El Salvador have come here over the years. Overwhelmingly, the Salvadorean people that I have met are friendly, hard working, resilient, tolerant, and gracious. They are also very brave and have overcome civil war which testifies to that courage. I have visited El Salvador, and can attest that the places that I went were unforgettable. I reject any talk of racism towards my Salvadorean brothers and sisters and I am only poking gentle fun at the pupusa.