Salvadoran

Pipil and Lenca corn cooking is the base: filled masa cakes, tamales and tortillas thicker than Mexico's. Spanish settlement brought pork, cattle and dairy, and the western highlands became cheese country, producing the quesillo, queso duro and salted crema that define the table. Coffee in the nineteenth century and civil war in the twentieth reshaped who cooked where; the diaspora turned the pupusería into a fixture of Los Angeles and Washington and sent back ingredients and habits. The cuisine is compact, confident and built around a handful of things done daily.

Thick hand-patted masa, red silk beans, fresh and dry cheeses, and sour crema. Heat is mild and on the side. Vinegar-pickled cabbage and a thin cooked tomato salsa accompany almost everything fried or griddled. Yuca and plantain stand beside corn. Sweets are cheesy and sesame-topped rather than chocolatey. Portions are generous and prices low.