Pupusa World

Bright, colorful and kitschy.


And right here in Ogden.

You've no doubt seen the place on your way to Macey's grocery store. It looks like a dumpy little tacqueria, barely bigger than the taco stands downtown, and I must have driven by it more times than I can count before I read the sign calling it a pupuseria. I LOVE PUPUSAS! How come I didn't know we could get them in Utah? Probably because I didn't read the sign until a couple of years ago.

Here's the real story, though:

Not a quesadilla, at all. Not even a Gordito, as much as it might resemble one. Made with masa flour and something like farmer's cheese, these gems are mucho-muy delicioso. Emphasis on mucho-muy delicioso. (Hey, if Latin restaurants can be kitschy, I can coin corny adjectives with their lingua.) Hot and greasy, too. Of course, that's coming from someone who revels in the ambrosial flavor of grease sandwiches.

Only a couple of bucks, too.

The fillings are not just cheese. We have two choices here in Ogden:

1. Cicharones or bacon-like fried pork bits, very salty and surprisingly tender,

and as with everything I tout, there is a little surprise thrown in...

2. Loroco. See the green bits in the picture above? Not onions or peppers, but chopped vine flower buds.

Woa, huh?

These are my favorites for a couple of reasons:

I like the way the sound rolls off your tongue:

Con loroco.

Con chicharones is pretty fun to say, too, but it just doesn't sound as lilty and lyrical.

And although I like salty and intense, the pupusas con chicharone at El Nueva Almanecer are just a tad too that.

Not to worry, though, because they come served with a fresh cabbage slaw that refreshes almost as much as the horchata or the piña, or in my case, the Diet Coke.

And the third of my couple of reasons for prefering the flower-filled pupusa is because it's a flower filling. Because that's just cool.