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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