Forecasting the Pupusa Trend

Sometimes a good plate of food is just what you need. Sometimes I’m crème fraîche-ed out and over the infusions, when I don’t care about hints and touches. I usually reach this point on Sunday night, craving a good, solid, satisfying plate of food. That’s when I get dinner from La Cabaña Salvadoreña and pretend that I have my own abuelita spoiling me with her delicious tamales.

The storefront doesn’t look like anything special with a no-frills sign and vertical blinds obscuring the view into the front window. However, the interior is warm and cozy, and the place is usually packed with groups of people who have caught on to this hidden gem. Enormous jars of curtido—shredded cabbage, onions and carrots—sit on each table for the taking.

The menu is filled with familiar sounding foods like tacos and tamales, but the preparations are distinctly El Salvadorian. Tamales are filled with green olives and chickpeas. Tacos are fried and rolled, and enchiladas are open-faced. Among the best dinner plates are the beef stew and the pepper steak. My favorite is the plato tipico, composed of a piece of marinated steak, a tamale, a tomato salad, and a pupusa—a handmade, corn biscuit-like tortilla stuffed with cheese, pork, beef, or chicken. Nothing on the menu is more than $12, and most dishes are much less.

Mark my words: pupusas have the potential to be the next big thing in food. They’re simple enough so that there’s plenty of room for improvisation, and simple and compact enough to become your favorite food at a baseball game or on-the-go at the airport. (Think a really good, savory, and rich Hot Pocket.) It’s not uncommon to see pupuserias—restaurants devoted to nothing but pupusas—in Latin neighborhoods in the Bronx and Queens. I remember seeing at least a dozen of them in downtown Los Angeles, and if you look on Chowhound, you’ll notice a pupuseria in almost every major city in the country.

Recently, I noticed what seemed to be a high-end pupuseria getting ready to open in north Harlem. La Cabaña has a full menu of pupusas for as little as $1.50 each, as well as a giant plate of pupusas perfect for a group. Get in on the trend early, and make the schlep up Broadway now.

La Cabaña Salvadoreña, 4384 Broadway, New York. 212-928-7872.