Silvia Pupuseria (National City)

Here we are, less than a week before Christmas (and maybe a short week for those who are using up vacation time before the end of the year), at mmm-yoso!!! Cathy is writing today's post.

Long story short, The Mister and I were driving around looking for businesses giving away 2020 calendars as advertising, (as we do every year) and there were crowds, so we started driving in another area, looking for a quick meal before continuing on our trek. 

I had to stop at a signal light and saw the signage for businesses in the mall...and, well, we had been talking about pupusas for the past few weeks.  We had to. 

 You can walk in and order to go, or have a seat and a menu (without prices) as well as chips and salsa are brought out to you. Yes, the menus are written only in Spanish, but I understood it all.  The waitresses understood my ordering in English. The house made salsas, red and green, are both hot, in a good way.  No dumbing down here.  
The two storefronts are joined and open to accommodate about 50 seats with tables and booths and a beautiful mural on the 'kitchen' side.   Since this is a Pupuseria, I ordered two ($2.25 each). There are ten flavors on the menu. You can hear the dough being slapped in the kitchen when preparing the order.  The one in front is chicharron with cheese, the other one is bean and cheese- black beans with cheese.  What wonderful, fresh, filling and large/heavy pupusas! Such fresh flavors!  A wonderful meal by themselves.  The accompanying fresh made curtido and tomato sauce were very complimentary to all the flavors.  The curtido was so fresh, with the cabbage, carrots, Mexican oregano and just enough jalapeño with a light fermentation that we did finish the bowl brought out, some of it with food and some of it just plain.  There were several 'Breakfasts' on the for here menu and the choice of plantains with creama and beans or plantains with eggs looked interesting.  Plantains with beans, crema, a piece of cheese and eggs scrambled with a fresh house made salsa turned out to be the order ($9.99) (we were not asked how to have the eggs prepared).  The fried plantains with just a bit of the crema were sweet and hearty.  The refried beans (not black beans like in the pupusa) were wonderful.  The scrambled eggs with the tomatoes, onion and cilantro, were really good, with flavor in every bite.  

We noticed other tables that asked for coffee were given a cup of hot water and a jar of instant Nescafe (the table behind us got decaf).  Nescafe is one of few instant coffees that I like; this is a great alternative to possibly getting stale, bitter coffee from a pot.  Next time.  Also next time, a bowl of soup, definitely, along with maybe a mushroom pupusa.

Kirk was here in 2016!

Silvia's Pupuseria 916 East Eighth Street, Suit 106 National City, CA 91950 (619)534-2037 Open Daily 9:30 a.m.- 9 p.m.

Comments

[caninecologne]

Is this the corner of that building block? I wonder if that was the old Point Point Joint (Turo Turo). Looking forward to trying this place during my winter break. I haven't had a good pupusa in a long time (my favorite flavor is revuelta, since everything is in it).

[kat]

everything sounded great!

[Cathy]

Not the corner, cc, but closer to Eighth Street. There are two sets of storefronts, sort of "L" shaped. We were overwhelmed with pupusa choices and will definitely drop in over Lent this year-spinach or fish pupusa!
Everything was really good, Kat.

[Soo]

Looks good. I've never tried a pupusa before.

[Cathy]

Oh, gosh, Soo, you must try one (did you see we even tried one at the County Fair?). Click onto the 'Salvadoran Restaurants' link and pick a place! Such a great meal.