THENEWYORKER,SEPTEMBER21, 2020 9
PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVEN MOLINA CONTRERAS FOR THE NEW YORKER; ILLUSTRATION BY JOOST SWARTE
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TABLESFORTWO
Pupusas Ridgewood
71-20 Fresh Pond Road, Queens
Mirna’s Pupuseria
1350 Flatbush Ave., Brooklyn
The cashew is a remarkably versatile in-
gredient. It’s as delicious treated simply—
raw or roasted, with or without salt—as
it is soaked and processed and used to
mimic cheese, butter, and cream, some-
times with astonishing success. My fa-
vorite thing about it is how it grows: each
nut, encased in a hard, kidney-shaped
shell, hangs from the end of a bulbous,
shiny-skinned fruit, which turns red or
yellow when ripe and could be easily
mistaken for an apple or a bell pepper.
In countries across Asia and Latin
America, this fruit is used to make a
spectacular juice, with a sweet, tart
flavor that’s as recognizable yet as con-
foundingly complex as Coca-Cola. In
El Salvador, where the fruit is known as
marañón, the juice is ubiquitous. In the
U.S., you have to hunt for it, so I’m de-
lighted to report a new source: a restau-
rant called Pupusas Ridgewood, where
you can order a plastic cup of it to go.
At a moment when travel is fraught, if
not out of the question, it feels especially
miraculous to partake of a distinctive
touchstone of another place, to shift
perspective with a sip.
The griddled masa cake known as the
pupusa is also a touchstone of El Salva-
dor, where it’s considered the national
dish, and where, in 2005, a yearly holiday
was instituted in its honor. Adjacent to
the taco and the arepa, the pupusa is
harder to find in the U.S. than either
of those, although it was here that Pu-
pusas Ridgewood’s owner, Guillermina
Ramírez, who was born and raised in
Mexico, became infatuated with the dish.
After she moved to New York, pupusas
were the first food she ordered from a
restaurant. Her menu offers little else,
beyond a few other fresh juices, including
a cucumber lemonade, and treats such as
candied squash topped with pumpkin
seeds and a three-tiered parfait of jello.
Undeterred by the pandemic, Ramírez
opened her tiny pupusería—which would
have fulfilled mostly to-go orders any-
how—in July. The other day, she presided
over the cash register while, behind her, a
chef named Yolanda Rosales, who is from
El Salvador, tossed palmfuls of salt into a
huge metal bowl of masa, hand-mixing
the dough until it was thick and sticky,
then molding it into saucer-size disks.
Each pupusa encases some combina-
tion of mozzarella cheese, refried beans,
stewed pork (called chicharrón in El Sal-
vador) or chicken, and vegetables, includ-
ing loroco, an earthy-tasting flowering
vine that grows in El Salvador. They’re
seared on a flattop and come with the tra-
ditional accompaniments of a thin, mild
tomato salsa and a tangle of curtido, a tart
Salvadoran slaw of supple shredded cab-
bage, carrot, jalapeño, and dried oregano.
Pupusas, you may discover, can be
habit-forming. At Mirna’s, which opened
in Flatbush in August of last year, you
can try a slightly different iteration,
smaller and served two per order, also
with salsa and curtido. Here, the menu
is more expansive. A Salvadoran break-
fast platter comes with scrambled eggs,
fried plantain, refried beans, crumbly
duro blando cheese, and thick crema.
Mashed plantain is used in place of
dough to form empanadas, stuffed with
beans or crema, their browned exteriors
caramelized to the point where they’re
almost sweet enough for dessert—as are
the wonderfully rich fresh-corn tamales.
At Mirna’s, whose married propri-
etors, Mirna Elisabeth Marroquin and
Lorenzo Garcia, hail from El Salvador
and Mexico, respectively, you will find
both jugo de marañón and atol de piña,
a warm, drinkable porridge made from
masa and pineapple simmered in water.
You’ll also find a quesadilla, a word that
for most Americans conjures the Mex-
ican dish comprising a tortilla folded
around cheese and other fillings. In El
Salvador, a quesadilla is a sweet and sa-
vory rice-flour poundcake with cheese
mixed into the batter. It’s perfect with
morning coffee, and a tantalizing re-
minder of the possibilities of places near
and far. (Pupusas Ridgewood, pupusas $3.
Mirna’s Pupuseria, pupusas start at $2.25.)
—Hannah Goldfield
