Salvadoran Food

We were planning to go to Chivito d’ Oro, a highly recommended Uruguayan restaurant in Queens but we didn’t know the address.  We took the 7 train from Grand Central and got off on 74th/Roosevelt.  It was like going to another country.  Not a single white face in sight!  But the range of cuisines in just a few blocks of walking was astounding – Indian, Mexican, Colombian, Venezuelan, Salvadoran, Bangladeshi, Filipino, Pakistani, Ecuadorian, Burmese, Tibetan, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Korean . . . Oh yes – there was also an Irish pub!

We ended up eating at Izalco, a Salvadoran restaurant named after their famous volcano.  We ordered pupusas, which are like thin stuffed pancakes, crispy on the outside with a nice filling on the inside.  For $4.50, we had three kinds of pupusas – one with frijoles, one with white cheese and another with pork.  They served it with some tomato salsa.  We were practically full when we finished the pupusas. 

It was followed by chicharrones with fried yucca.  Their chicharrones is just like our lechon kawali but with very little fat; I think it would have been better with a little Mang Tomas lechon sauce .  Their food is a little on the bland side.  I think they’re big on meat, like the Argentinians and Uruguayans. We washed it all down with horchata, a nice cool drink made of ground almonds, rice, and cinnamon.

On the way home on the 7 train, we finally got to see some white people – obviously not “native” New Yorkers, but visitors to the US Open.  Tomorrow, we hope to hit the Red Hook Ball Fields . . .