We all have our culinary obsessions. There are those who build their lives around the hunt for the best pizza. There are those for whom the taco is the sine qua non of food. Or the burrito, or the tamale. I know of fans who have visited every ballpark in America — not for baseball, but for the hot dogs. People sing the gospel of bageldom.
Acolytes almost come to blows debating the perfection of corned beef versus pastrami. And for those waiting in line at Los Cheros Pupuseria (16502 S. Main St., Gardena; 310-515-0107), situated in an industrial strip that’s just darkness at night, it’s the pupusa that demands allegiance. For at Los Cheros, pupusas are all there is.
The search for great pupusas leads us deep into the easy to overlook world of Central American cooking in the South Bay. It’s a thick griddle cake from El Salvador and Honduras, usually made with cornmeal — an iconic bit of street food that’s been officially declared the national dish of El Salvador. It comes stuffed with sundry ingredients — though mostly cheese, beans and pork, especially chicharron pork rinds. It always comes with tasty curtido slaw.
Its following is so obsessed, it’s been named the Best Street Food in New York. No, not the hot dog … the pupusa.
On a Saturday night, that love of pupusas is on full display at Los Cheros. The line stretches out in the mini-mall parking lot, with a handful of fans seated at one of the few tables, gobbling their pupusas out of Styrofoam containers.
The Los Cheros model is thick and puffy, with a browned edge, and a basic selection of fillings. For me, the best option is the Revuelta — the full monty of pork, beans and cheese, very nicely melted.
As for other versions, there also are chicharron and cheese, beans and cheese, cheese alone, cheese with the edible flower called loroco, cheese with calabaza squash — and one variation made with plantain, another with rice flour. The cornmeal pupusas are replicated with rice meal as well.
And though there’s more to the takeout menu, it’s the pupusas that dominate the ordering — and the hearts of Los Cheros’ true believers.
Some distance to the south, Pupuseria La Quebrada (1111 W. Pacific Coast Hwy., Harbor City; 424-250-9775) has a menu of five soups, five antojitos and 11 comidas, including some wonderful salpicons.
But it’s the pupusas of the name that bring me in, nine of them, including one model of spinach with cheese. Otherwise, this is a destination in a large horseshoe mall packed with restaurants representing many of our local cuisines — including, of course, a sushi bar. It doesn’t get the line of Los Cheros, but it has a loyal following, who can’t pass on a proper pupusa — a taste of the homeland, in a world far away.
And then, there’s La Esperanza (22832 S. Western Ave., Torrance; 310-626-6578, www.laesperanzarestaurants.com), which features a good-sized attached bakery, with racks of tasty pastries, baked in-house — and a menu that makes the place a bit of a culinary Organization of American States.
The toughest part is … where to begin. Though, of course, the place to begin … is at the beginning, with the appetizers. Which are annotated as to where they arrived from. Thus, there’s a Guatemalan chile relleno, served with a Guatemalan tomato sauce. The mini fried corn tortillas called garnachas come with crunchy Guatemalan slaw. There are Guatemalan enchiladas and a Guatemalan salsa. There are Guatemalan taquitos. And Guatemalan black beans.
There are dishes on the menu at La Esperanza that you have to go to the neighborhoods of Guatemala City to find. This is, in classic terms, for the local Central American population, a taste of home. And a very tasty one, too.
Show up for breakfast, which is a fine alternative to American breakfasts, and you can dive into the Salvadoran breakfast of fried plantains with the thick sour cream found all over the region, and Guatemalan black beans. Or perhaps a 6-ounce steak served with two eggs and Guatemalan ranchero sauce.
From Mexico, they’ve got much-loved chilaquiles, a dish I never tire of, tortilla bits with eggs and a choice of red or green salsa. Along with rice, beans and Salvadoran chorizo.
As an extra nod to Central American cooking, all breakfast plates come with fried plantains, and the local mix of rice and beans called casamiento. Which adds up to a complete protein, if memory serves me right. Tasty … and good for you, too.
And of course there are pupusas — revuelta with chicharron, beans and cheese; chicken with vegetables; shrimp and cheese; and vegetables alone (spinach, zucchini, onions and tomatoes). You can get a Plato de Pupusas, of two different models, served with rice and beans on the side.
And for a taste of authenticity, look for the word “chipilin” here and there on the menu, as in the case of the tamal de chipilin. Chipilin is not a place, and it’s not a person. Rather, it’s a Central American herb, added to the tamale dough for both color and flavor, though the flavor is mostly green vegetable flavor, rather than a distinctly memorable taste.
At La Esperanza, you’ll find it under the tamale section, along with banana leaf-wrapped Guatemalan tamales, potato-filled tamales called paches, corn tamales called cuchitos, and sweet corn tamales, which are as much a dessert as an entrée.
Speaking of dessert, there are two flavors of flan — the chocolate is amazing. As is the tres leches cake. And the coffee is Central American — which means thick, strong and memorable after a culinary tour.
Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Email mreats@aol.com.