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Showing posts with label El Salvador. Show all posts
Showing posts with label El Salvador. Show all posts

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Sampling Salvadoran Food with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget




Sampling Salvadoran Food with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget


One day when I driving my daughter Florence home her charter Waldorf School in Pacific Grove, California, I noticed that the Migeuleño Restaurant on Broadway Avenue (doubly listed as Obama Way) had a Salvadoran Restaurant on it.

I had always thought Migueleño was a Mexican Restaurant.  I did some research on the food and saw that the cuisine is very different from Mexican food.

I called my editor at the Monterey County Weekly (Circulation: 100, 000) and asked if I could do a review of Migueleño with its new-to-Monterey cuisine.  The editor said this sounded like a fun article and assigned me to do the following article.   I took Florence along with me and Laurent to Migueleño:

Hold the Fire: Papusas and Fried Yucca are just two Salvadoran Treats at Migueleño

The map of El Salvador pointed on the outside wall of the Migueleño Restaurant on Broadway Avenue in Seaside, California made visions of tamales decked out in banana leaves swim before my eyes.

The fact that most people are unfamiliar with Salvadoran cuisine probably explains why Migueleño serves Mexican and Salvadoran food along with 11 different seafood entrées in order to keep the business going for 18 years.

I picked up some new vocabulary words as I ordered two Salvadoran meals – papusas, chicken tamales, fried yucca with chicharron, and fried plantains.

The pudgy papusa was four inches wide.  This round, tortilla-like confection was stuffed with a mixture of ground beef, corn, and cheese much like a grilled cheese sandwich, except much tastier.

The papusa came with its own mild, cheese dipping sauce.
The chicken tamale was wider and much lighter than its typical Mexican cousin.  A generous dose of rendered lard no doubt accounts for this lightness just like it does in the best flaky piecrusts.  What really struck me was how moist it was, including the chicken breast meat.

Most tamales are a little dry in restaurants, because they are frozen in large quantities and make them steamed to order.

This sweet-tasting papusa almost had a corn-pudding consistency.   Migueleño serves nice side dishes such as vinegary, cabbage and carrot coleslaw that has a hint of chili bit to it.

Migueleño’s refried bean, which do not fill half the plate, taste of pork, which I like.  I suspect the cooks used some pork bits along with good rendered lard in these beans.  I have eaten refried beans without getting fat for years.

Since my dining companions had opted for Mexican food, I started my second Salvadoran dish of fried yucca and chicharron.  I must admit that I had no idea of what yucca was when I bit into my first deep-fried morsel.

It reminded me of very light, slightly sour potatoes.  I squirted some lemon juice on the rest of the yucca.  It tasted even better that way along with some salt.

On top of the yucca pieces was a mound of chicharrom, the savory remains of deep-fried pork rinds.  The rich chicharron-fried yucca combination was balanced out by another generous helping of tangy coleslaw.

I wonder if yucca and pork is the equivalent of fish ‘n’ chips in El Salvador.  It certainly merits undivided attention – eat it on your second trip to Migueleño.

The beverage list offered a few items to discover as well.  Negra Modelo from El Salvador was advertised, but my husband Laurent tried another amber beer brewed in El Salvador called Regeia.

Neither of us expected to see a 32-ounce bottle on the table.  Described as smooth lager on the label, Regeia reminded me of a thirst-quenching Budweiser.  It tasted great with the yucca and chicharron.

I tried fried plantains for dessert along with a generous helping of sour cream.  The brown exteriors revealed yellow, tangy interiors tasting like green, verging on yellow bananas.

Palm oil must have given the plantains the fried-in-batter taste that felt even more decadent when I dipped them in sour cream.

Florence said the carne asada she ordered tasted too much of lime, but I liked that taste with the charred steak.  Migueleño marinates carne asada in lime juice with salt and pepper before grilling it, so the citrus flavor melds with the charred meat.

American families and Salvadorans filled the restaurant’s tables and bar.  Each glass-topped table had a vase with fresh flowers in it and under the glass was a lace-trimmed cloth touting “Best Beach in Central America – El Cuco, located on the Pacific Ocean.”

El Salvador’s third largest city, San Miguel, is home to this beach.  The residents call themselves “Migueleños.”

It was fun to try tropical cuisine without having to get on a plane.

End of Article

Migueleño’s in Seaside, California is still open.  It is on Broadway Avenue (Obama Way).  The street has been torn up for two years, but it is worth the wandering around to get to the restaurant.

There is another Salvadoran Restaurant on Del Monte Avenue in Marina, California called El Salavadoreño Pupuseria.  I have not been there yet, but obviously Salvadoran food is gaining in popularity.

Products for making Salvadoran food at home can be purchased at El Rancho in Marina, Mi Tierra in Seaside, and Mi Pueblo in Seaside.


By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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