We ate at a great little El Salvadoran restaurant called El Rincon Salvadoreno, tonight. It's a bit outside of town at 17 Old South Road, but very, very much worth the trip if you're looking for non-Gringo food that's well made, authentic and well priced.
We had:
- chicken enchilada appetizer
- Caesar salad (I know, I know... this was the SO's order)
- two platos typicos
- two margaritas
The meal didn't start all that auspiciously. They brought out a basket of chips and salsa -- which was a very nice gesture, but the chips were very stale and unsalted, the salsa from a jar. Both appetizers were forgettable. Caesar salad came with bad lettuce, gloppy bottled dressing and of course no anchovies. The Salvadoran style enchilada was similar to a Mexican tostada, with a single, fried tortilla topped with somewhat bland chicken, lettuce and tomato.
But the meal took a distinct turn for the better when our entrees made their appearance. The plato typico--which came with a pupusa, a pastele, a tamale, sweet plantain and a bit of slaw--was absolutely delicious. The tamale was filled with a piece of bone-in chicken and peas and gorgeously textured, creamy and mild. The pupusa was WONDERFUL. In part, I'm enamoured with them for their relative novelty (I don't get to eat these all that often), but these were also genuinely well made, with thin, tender skin and a creamy, meaty filling I couldn't identify. I could've eaten about five more of these without losing interest in the taste. Pasteles were good, not remarkable, well fried, with a thin crust and run of the mill potato filling. They were probably from the freezer, but by nature, pretty hard not to like. Plantains were also well cooked and not at all greasy.
With the margaritas (made from a mix and not something I would order again) and prior to tax and tip, the bill came to $50, an all-out bargain for dinner out on Nantucket. The food was a very welcome change of pace from all the seafood and Italian in town. Not everything on the menu is wonderful, but before I leave the island, I plan to order a big stack of pupusas to eat on the ferry. They really were that good.
We had:
- chicken enchilada appetizer
- Caesar salad (I know, I know... this was the SO's order)
- two platos typicos
- two margaritas
The meal didn't start all that auspiciously. They brought out a basket of chips and salsa -- which was a very nice gesture, but the chips were very stale and unsalted, the salsa from a jar. Both appetizers were forgettable. Caesar salad came with bad lettuce, gloppy bottled dressing and of course no anchovies. The Salvadoran style enchilada was similar to a Mexican tostada, with a single, fried tortilla topped with somewhat bland chicken, lettuce and tomato.
But the meal took a distinct turn for the better when our entrees made their appearance. The plato typico--which came with a pupusa, a pastele, a tamale, sweet plantain and a bit of slaw--was absolutely delicious. The tamale was filled with a piece of bone-in chicken and peas and gorgeously textured, creamy and mild. The pupusa was WONDERFUL. In part, I'm enamoured with them for their relative novelty (I don't get to eat these all that often), but these were also genuinely well made, with thin, tender skin and a creamy, meaty filling I couldn't identify. I could've eaten about five more of these without losing interest in the taste. Pasteles were good, not remarkable, well fried, with a thin crust and run of the mill potato filling. They were probably from the freezer, but by nature, pretty hard not to like. Plantains were also well cooked and not at all greasy.
With the margaritas (made from a mix and not something I would order again) and prior to tax and tip, the bill came to $50, an all-out bargain for dinner out on Nantucket. The food was a very welcome change of pace from all the seafood and Italian in town. Not everything on the menu is wonderful, but before I leave the island, I plan to order a big stack of pupusas to eat on the ferry. They really were that good.
