Il Primo Uomo

Pupusas

What food do you associate with Washington, D.C.?

Ben’s? Cupcakes? Empanadas?

Because DCist thinks pupusas are also very D.C.:

Given their ubiquity, pupusas are arguably one of the unofficial dishes of Washington, D.C., somewhere behind the half-smoke and ahead of an overpriced steak.

What is a pupusa?

For the uninitiated, pupusas are a typical Salvadoran street food consisting of a corn tortilla filled with either cheese, pork, beans (or some combination thereof) and cooked on a hot grill. Pupusas are typically served with curtido, a vinegary cabbage slaw, and a thin tomato sauce, which serves to cut the grease from the grill. Bad pupusas are kind of like thick, gummy hockey pucks — but a good pupusa is a crispy, cheese-y delight. In other words, it’s El Salvador’s answer to comfort food.

According to this WaPo article, there are half-a-million Salvadorans in the region. No wonder pupusas are ubiquitous!