Papusa for my tummy

Pupuseria Salvadorena
340 Welch Road
Nashville, TN
615-293-0437

the sign

How you find this place is go to the street just north of the Walmart on the corner of Harding and Nolensville Rd, and turn onto Welch Street, and there it is. There is not much back there besides the pupusaria and the back side of the Walmart, so you should not have a problem spotting this restaurant.

papusa queso con loroco

Again, Fire Eater brought me to pupusa heaven! Fire Eater calls me up and said that I needed to meet her, her family and friends at an evening social, then we had to go to this pupusaria afterwards. Dumb me, I ate the pizza at the social event, and wasn't completely hungry going to the pupusaria, next time I know better. Fire Eater got another friend who is fluent in Spanish and to come with us. Good thing because this place is not dumbed down for the gringos, the menu is completely written in Spanish, and I believe the food served here is of old world family recipes. Fluent knew almost everything on the menu, and she was very helpful with ordering.

papusa yam and sugar dessert

I got a pupusa queso con loroco, some sort of aqua fresca of a fruit I do not know, and some sort of yam dessert with a carmelized sugar sauce. A loroco is a large flower bud, like a squash blossom, that is grown in El Salvador, and it is illegal to import these flowers into the USA. There is a lot of food like mangos (all but one stringy lack luster mango until mid-2007) that are illegal to import or bring into the USA, and the loroco is one of those foods. Loroco can come into the USA frozen or jarred. I believe the jarred lorocos may be pickled and salted. I did not taste sour or salt, so I am guessing the Pupusaria used frozen loroco in my pupusa. The loroco was minced into green pieces and mixed with cheese, then stuffed in the masa pupusa, then skillet or griddle fried to crispy goodness. The loroco tastes similarly to an artichoke, a flavor I like a lot. Our fluent friend, she ordered some sort of agua fresca of some fruit that does not grow around here either, and I do not recall the name of it, but I got the same as she was having. It was sweetened with cane sugar. The other upswing about the meal is that this pupusaria sells Mexican Coca Cola made with real cane sugar, not the domestic HFCS stuff. And lastly, Fluent ordered a pupusa dessert for the table that may or may not have been on the menu. I believe she said it was pounded yam that is smashed flat, fried, and then drizzled with carmelized sugar syrup.

Oh, these pupausas are so dang good! They are smaller than the other joint I have been to in town, so I wasn't overly stuffed, but just right eating one. They are only $2, so a pupusa, a drink and a tip is only $5 total. Amazing huh! That is right, lunch with tip is less than $5.

What other thing I noticed is that Pupuseria has mostly patrons who look like they are of South or Central American decent. I noticed that some of them ordered pupusas, and some of them ordered soup that came in huge bowls. The spied the soup to have a lovely orange broth and there were pieces of corn on the cob in the soup. Piping hot torillas were also served with the soup. I will have to go back and try the soup. I don't read or speak Spanish, so I don't know what menu item the soup was on the menu.

Last thing about my favorite new Pupuseria, is that this is a family owned business. It it possible that 3 generations work here. I believe the elder generation was working in the kitchen. The younger generation working the front of house speaks English as well as anyone, and she is willing to help describe the menu items I did not understand. I love restaurants like this, with a 2 or 3 generations working at the family restaurant. This is the same heart warming story that has played out for last century in the USA. Many immigrant families have come to the USA trying to make a living, and they decide to do what they do best, cook their family recipes. Italians, Greeks, Chinese, Koreans, Vietnames, and El Salvadorans are examples of this. I love it, and it makes for a delicious landscape.