Around Vancouver in 52 Restaurants > Americas > El Salvador
Skipping down the coast to El Salvador, I swap tacos for pupusas. Like a pocket full of love, it’s a tortilla (of sorts) stuffed with refried beans, cheese, chicharrón (pork), or a mixed bag of ingredients, then fried. In Vancouver the place to get them is at El Rinconcito Salvadoreno on Commercial Drive. After 4 PM, they start making them en masse and you just tell them how many you want. That’s all there is to it. They come stacked like pancakes and served with a vinegary coleslaw and hot sauce. If you’re smart you order a cerveza to wash it down too. For years my standby has been two bean and cheese and two pork pupusas (and a beer, of course) but there’s a full menu of Mexican-style dishes. The fish tacos are good and the carne asada is nothing to shake a stick at either.
Travelling through Central America, you’re not going to find a lot of gourmet dishes. What appears so often as to become tiresome is beans and rice, rice and beans, beans and cheese, etc… Always something carby and comforting and inexpensive to make and served up simply. Pupusas feel like that kind of fare to me – deliciously uncomplicated.
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Rinconcito Salvadoreno
2062 Commercial Drive, Vancouver
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Around Vancouver in 52 Restaurants
7 responses so far ↓
KimHo // February 19, 2010 at 12:05 AM |
While I won’t blame yout for saying it (due to the lack of almost anything Central American here in Vancouver, Rinconcito Salvadoreño aside), it is unfortunate those are your thoughts of Central American food (i.e., beans and rice, beans, rice, cheese etc.). It is true Central American consume a lot of carbs; however, there are historical reasons behind it, specially that of they being a cheap combination that will provide all required nutrients.
Next time you go to a Latin restaurant (and I will exclude Nuevo Latino type cooking), may I suggest you ask for dishes you won’t usually see, like mondongo (or its soup equivalent, sopa de mondongo), sopa de pata, ceviche, pescado frito (or, at times, mojarra), tamal de olla, et al. True, not gourmet, but, if the appropriate ingredients can be found, it beats a lot of so-called gourmet dishes you will find in North America.
degan // February 19, 2010 at 7:46 AM |
I would love to try those! is there anywhere local that serves them? I thought I’d been to every Latin place in town.
KimHo // February 19, 2010 at 10:21 AM |
For sopa de pata (literally, foot’s soup), you can find it in El Pulgarcito, in East Hastings, near Nanaimo. They also have tamal but it was average at best.
For mondongo (tripe) and ceviche, my suggestion is El Inka Deli, near Burnaby General Hospital.
For fried fish (pescado frito), El Caracol Cafe should do the trick (El Inka Deli has it as well). Be prepared to fight with bones, though, as the fish is fried whole!
degan // February 19, 2010 at 11:12 AM |
great! el inca is actually on my list to visit but i think i might check out el caracol this weekend. thanks!\\
Cotebrune // February 19, 2010 at 7:56 PM |
El caracole excellent. Compare the pupusas an the seafood soup. El caracolito good too.
Dorian Taylor // February 19, 2010 at 8:36 PM |
YES pupusas. Also their tortilla soup is pretty tasty.
El Caracol Central American Cafe « Ethnic Eats – Sampling the World’s Cuisine Without Leaving Vancouver // March 13, 2010 at 11:28 PM |
[...] I posted about El Rinconcito, Kim had a couple more places for me to try, so as soon as the Olympics were over, I headed over to [...]