Pupuseria El Salvador

Central American in Chi
-El Salvador

Its almost spring and before you know it, summer will be here. So to start this marathon of must stop eating spots that I will bring to you as the days go by and summer turns to fall, we'll also introduce a new series-Central American in Chicago. Its the part of the globe that separates North from South America and consists of seven different countries, all of which have restaurants with their respective cuisines available around Chicagoland. Our first visit in this series is to Pupuseria El Salvador, one of my favorite eating stops in Chicago. The number of Salvadoran restaurants in Chicago is pretty good and they all have similar menus and they all serve pupusas. The thick masa harina cakes are stuffed with cheese and or meats and are popular throughout Central America but particularly so in El Salvador. If you don't think you'll be making it there anytime soon then you need to head to the Eastside and one of my favorite neighborhoods in Chicago-Hegewisch. Its here where the treasure that is Pupuseria El Salvador resides over on east 106th street. Lets check out this super (mostly) unknown.


In Chicago's Hegewisch neighborhood

Just like all the other spots in the neighborhood Pupuseria El Salvador is in an old building. In fact its in the basement of an apartment building at the corner of 106th and Avenue L. Its a small spot that you step down some stairs into and open the door as if you were going over to somebody's house for lunch. When you get inside there are maybe three or four tables and a kitchen that takes up the rest of the area. There is a small TV with some Spanish language stuff on and a payphone as well. I know, I don't even see payphones at 7/11 or gas stations anymore.


View from our table, to the left not in the picture is the open kitchen

When me and my boy went in there we were greeted by a guy watching the tele and reading a newspaper. The menu is simple but has most of the countries standards including typical Salvadoran breakfast served 'til 10:30a. The guy behind the counter in the kitchen was really helpful and took our order and gave us a couple of bottles of Kolashanpan when I told him I wanted what the locals drink in El Salvador. Its an apple/bubble gum tasting pop that tasted so familiar I'm sure many different Caribbean and South American sodas taste the same. Since it reminded me so much of something from my youth I was an instant fan. When I looked this stuff up on google my first result was this guys site who is on a lifelong quest to find some here in the states. Yo guy! I got you covered. We took our seats with our bottles of pop and sat down at a table where each one has a red and green hot sauce bottle and a large jar of very tasty and refreshing curtido, a pickled cabbage salad with strong notes of vinegar and peppers in the housemade version. The stuff goes great with everything.


The hot green salsa, Kolashanpan and the mild red salsa


Curtido (Salvadoran cabbage salad) goes great with pupusas

The man running the show was nice as could be and brought us the food as it was ready. I knew it was going to be great when after we put in our order he yelled in the backroom and out came an older lady who got down to business making the pupusas and the rest of the goodies and I do mean goodies. It was obvious that this lady making the pupusas had made 100o's and 1000's in her lifetime. Its a pretty simple recipe but one of those things that some people just got a niche for, like Salvadoran grandmas for instance. I was here about a month ago and its the best lunch I have had this year so far. With warm weather around the corner I cant think of a better place to rec on a nice spring day for lunch. Its a quick drive down Lakshore Drive. You get a scenic route and an amazing lunch all in an afternoons swoop. Here's what we ate.


Salvadoran Platanos with housemade crema

^These plantains were cooked perfectly and must of been sugar coated because they were sweetly addicting and perfectly caramelized as you can see in the pic above. But what put them over the top as some of the best fried plantains I've had was the homemade crema that we ordered them with them. The crema worked great with everything but really well with these.


Salvadoran Tamale

^If your a regular reader you know I'm a tamale guy and I love to try the regional variations of them. I was happy to try my first Salvadoran tamale which was another winner. Still haven't found any tamales I don't enjoy. The masa on these was looser than a Mexican tamale and on the insides were chicken, potato, carrot and other veggies made a nice flavor combo.

Salvadoran Pupusa's


A Plate of Pupusas, El Salvador's favorite street food

If your Pupuseria El Salvador and I'm dining at your place, I'm eating pupusas. On the outside of the building is a banner advertising the popular handmade corn pancake like treats that are stuffed with meats, veggies and cheese. At $1.25 each they are a steal and you always order a few. In El Salvador pupusas are also basically their version of tortillas but with filling. These insanely addicting snacks are made fresh to order by the ladies who work the kitchen and they have perfected the art of doing them. Items available inside the pupusas are zucchini, cheese, refried beans and refried pork meat. Also available is the granddaddy of them all refried pork, beans and cheese. According to the thesaurus the words for these are delectable, divine, delicious, luscious and so on. You gotta love how the cheese oozes out of the side and gets burnt and turns crispy on the cheese filled ones too.


Zucchini Pupusa


Cheese Pupusa


The insides of a refried pork meat, beans and cheese pupusa

I had heard about this place from some knowledgeable peops in the food game and they had said good things about the housemade chorizo. In case you were wondering, there's not much that isn't made in the little kitchen there. El Salvadoran chorizo is different from Mexican and more like the Spanish version. The links are tied off with corn husks and there is a chili presence along with some other amazing flavors that make one hell of a flavor combo for sausage. They were served on top of a Salvadoran tortilla which as mentioned above is a pupusa with no fillings.


Pupuseria El Salvador's housemade chorizo links


Salvadoran Tortilla


Get in me belly!

To finish out our meal we ordered what is basically the best desert item I have had in sometime. I'm not big on sweets but I know anyone would love the platano frito o crema. This was simply divine and I'm starting to realize that I say I'm not big on sweets alot but always seem to enjoy them. Well now I wont be able to like much else because these were oh so special. Its a ball of plantain dough filled with crema then fried and dusted in sugar. You see what I'm saying?


Salvadoran desert-Plaintain dough filled with crema then fried and sugar coated

This is a spot that was on my "to get to" list for a very long time and that's a damn shame. I'm really glad I finally made it here because its in my city favorites already as you can see. I have 100's of spots waiting to be posted about on here and this place jumped alot of them. I'm not sure how business is but we were the only people in there during our visit and I didn't like that, it was so good and cheap too. I hope they can stick around for a long time and encourage anyone who thinks this place looks great to get on over. The two of us there ate as much as we could (alot) and each had a drink and left a $2 tip and walked out spending $24. If I had to compile a spot of ten places that are my favorite (very hard to do) I don't see this place not making that list. Get at it.


Hot Damn!

Pupuseria El Salvador
3557 E 106th St
Chicago, IL 60617
773-374-0490

Henry's Drive In

-In Chicago: Every Dog Has it's Day

The next stop on the Chicago Hot Dog Stand Tour is to Henry's Drive In on Ogden ave, aka Route 66, in the Chicago suburb of Cicero. If you've ever taken a drive down the start of US Route 66 on Ogden ave then you have seen Henry's. Out of all the 1950's era neon signs in Chicagoland-Henry's reigns supreme with me. This classic Chicagoland hot dog stand was started in the 50's by a guy whose surname was Henry. He originally started off with a hot dog wagon on Austin just north of Ogden. When Route 66 was getting going, Henry then built and opened up his own place where it stills stands today. Luckily for the fans of Route 66 and all the neon signs that were built to be displayed along it, Henry's sign is still alive and well. If Henry's were to ever close, I'd pay top dollar for the neon. It shows a hot dog with toppings and fries on top which is how they're served at Henry's and then has a neon arrow pointing towards it proclaiming their slogan "It's a meal in itself" Its classic signage.


A familiar face along Route 66 in Cicero, IL

I'm sure you could find anyone who grew up in Cicero to give you their story of Henry's and recollect when they used to hang out there in high school but I read an interesting piece of info on it over at LTHforum. It seems as though back when Henry's Hamburgers was an up and coming chain (read about my story on it here) they tried to open a location at the corner of Ogden and Austin right by Henry's Drive In which was already there. The poster at LTH who went to high school with Mr. Henry's sons went onto explain that "One of the two parties sued, and Mr. Henry won, primarily, as I understood it at the time, based on the fact that his business bore his actual surname, whereas the chain was using a corporate identifier" The business was then taken over by one of Mr. Henry's boys and has since been sold to a family from the area.


Henry's has some relics on the walls from when Rt. 66 was BIG

So what about the dogs? Well they aren't bad. I would call them your typical Chicago hot dog stand hot dog (better than most places outside Chicagoland, not as great as the best in the city) but since this place has so much history, its a cool spot to visit and I would recommend doing so if your ever in the area. If your doing Route 66 from Cali to Chicago, you'll know your close to the city when you see the sign. The dogs are Vienna Beef skinless (not my style) and come dressed with mustard, onions, relish, sport peppers and a pickle spear. When they wrap the hot dog up they throw the fries (which are frozen but not bad) on top just like so many other Chicago hot dog stands do nowadays. I don't think Henry's started this trend but its obvious from their sign they've been doing it this way since the 50's.


Hot Dog from Henry's fresh out the wrapping


a well known hot dog in Chicagoland

Just like the rest of the hot dog stands around the city, Henry's serves up hot dog stand tamales. If your from Chicago then you should of had one or two in your day and if you haven't you've definitely seen them. Its thought that when the blues musicians of the Mississippi delta came north to Chicago to get out of the south, they brought with them their Delta style tamales. Eventually before you even knew it the city had at least three companies that mass produced the cornmeal based tubes filled with mystery meats that can now be found all over town. In fact it was Iltaco, the creator of Pizza Puffs, who started off selling just tamales. Illinois Tamale Company as Iltaco is short for would eventually cease all making of tamales and stick to their popular pizza puffs. Over at Henry's they serve Tom-Tom tamales and you can have them a few ways.


Serving Chicago since 1937...Tom Tom Tamales

There are a few popular ways of eating Chicago hot dog stand tamales aside from straight up. The most popular way is probably in a bowl of chili. Some places will take the tamale out of the wax paper and break it in half and throw it in a cup and then some chili on top. Its something that Chicagoans have been eating for decades.


Tamale in a bowl of chili

It doesn't end with the chili tamales. If you saw the "No Reservations" Chicago episode then you might remember the "Mother In Law" which is one of these tamales stuffed in a bun and smothered with chili, cheese and onions. Also at Henry's you can get a tamale dog which is just a tamale replacing the wiener in the bun with mustard, onions, pickle and sport peppers.


Henry's Tamale Dog

Lets just say that the "Chicago Style tamale" was my first and last try of one of these things. Something about the pickle spear and tamale didn't make for a pleasant texture or taste. I love a tamale in chili and feel like the tamale often makes most hot dog places below average bowls of chili a little better. They also still carry BBQ beef sandwiches with pickles on top which I remember loving as a youngin' in my youth and ordering often. But rarely see it on the menu of spots these days.


The insides


Henry's Classic Roadfood Sign during daytime (Pic from Rt 66 Pool on Flickr by Flickr-Nickk)

Henry's Drive In
6031 West Ogden Avenue
Cicero, IL 60804-3742
(708) 656-9344