A pupusa is made of the same hominy corn dough as a tortilla, but is much thicker, stuffed with a filling and cooked on a griddle. It is served with a vinegary cabbage slaw called curtido, and a light tomato sauce that, despite its resemblance to a Mexican salsa, is not at all spicy. Each of the accompaniments can be added to one's taste.
Unfortunately for me, Tu Casa offers only two types of pupusas, both of which had cheese (and I am lactose intolerant). Now, queso salvadoreño is one of the least known of the world's great dairy products: When shredded, it melts like mozzarella, but it has the salty tang of a good feta as well as a bit of Jarlsbergian pungency. But there were enough other tempting things on the menu that I decided not to risk the unpleasant side effects. The two options are revueltas (a mix of queso salvadoreño and ground chicharrón--pork rinds) and queso con loroco. Loroco is an edible flower with a strong herbaceous aroma and taste, very strange and totally addictive.
HL got one of each, and let me have a taste of the loroco one--which I would never decline. I paid the price for the cheese, but it was worth it. The pupusa had a good corn flavor, a decent sear. The cheese, oozy and funky, with the unforgettable perfume of loroco. The curtido was good and vinegary, setting off the flavors of the pupusa nicely. LO had her own revuelta and devoured it.
HL also got an order of fried plantain, which turned out to her chagrin to be two whole ripe plantains, each cut lengthwise--way more than she could eat. However, they served it with what tasted to me like real crema salvadoreña--like the cheese, a little known but excellent dairy product. It tastes like creme fraiche, but is just a bit thinner, perfect for dunking plantains.
As for me, I came famished and ordered big. I started out with a tamal salvadoreño de pollo, a corn tamal cooked in a banana leaf and filled with a gently seasoned stew of chicken and potatoes, then had the plato montañero. As I discovered living in Queens, just about every Latin American nation has its own variant of this: A hearty countryside all-day breakfast consisting of meat, egg, beans and starches piled high. Tu Casa's Salvadoran variant had a grilled, marinated steak, a fried egg, sliced avocado, beans, rice and half of a fried plantain. The steak was nicely seasoned, though I added some of the tomato sauce for the pupusas to good effect, and the beans savory. The starches gave no cause for complaint. Unfortunately the egg yolk was cooked hard, so the egg didn't add much to the meal other than calories.
The menu seems heavily weighted toward those Salvadoran dishes which share names and features with better known Mexican dishes (e.g. tacos, enchiladas), as well as some straight-up Mexican and Tex-Mex items added presumably for the comfort of customers unfamiliar with Salvadoran food. Missing was yuca con chicharrón, an old deep-fried favorite of mine that has been on the menu of every Salvadoran restaurant I've visited up until now, and the limited selection of pupusas was disappointing. (For example, LO had been hoping for a bean and cheese pupusa, and I might have ordered one that was filled with just chicharrón.)
Another thing that could stand some improvement was the service, though to be honest it was no worse than what we've been conditioned to expect from comparable institutions in our former hometown. Don't go if you're in a rush. But do try the pupusas.
I actually LIKE that the egg is hard-cooked on the plato montanero, for some reason. It's one of the few times where I can't imagine I would want a runny yolk.
ReplyDeleteAlso, when we go to Tu Casa, we always call ahead. You can place your order over the phone, and then still receive table service when you get there. It helps make things a little more efficient.
The problem for us didn't come on the ordering side, but in getting the check. There's a cultural reason for this: In a lot of Latin American cultures, it's considered rude to bring the customer the check until they have specifically requested it. Which would be fine... if the person who's supposed to be working the floor is paying enough attention to notice the customers' requests.
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