Ever tried a cheese-filled corn cake? My first was in New York city where a Puerto Rican street vendor served one up from his hot sidewalk grill. Part tamale, part grilled cheese sandwich – it was simply delicious. Since then, I’ve been on a quest to find something similar here on the west coast. Eureka! Lajamaya in La Puente makes them fresh.
This Salvadorian café is reminiscent of a surfer’s hangout, complete with straw canopies over the tables – which is an appropriate décor for a country that boasts a hundreds of miles of wave-crashing coastline. Several Latin countries offer varieties of this corn cake. The buttery, dense, sweet cake I’d eaten on the east coast was Caribbean influenced and called Arepas. The Salvadorian Papusa I found less sweet and slightly thinner and flatter – my taste buds thought I was eating a soft, thick quesadilla with a pronounced corn flavor. I ordered the traditional cheese filling. Donna tried the chicken filling. Both were excellent. Our delightful waitress recommended we eat them with a condiment called curtido – sort of a cole slaw – which was, surprisingly a perfect compliment. We also enjoyed fried plantains, deep fried yucca, pastelitos de carne (meat pies), and tamales Salvadorenos. Another real pleasant surprise was the casamiento - black beans and rice that had an outstanding flavor (our eyes were rolling it was that good), so much that that we ordered a quart to take home with us. I have never been to Central America, but visiting a place like Lajamaya made me feel one step closer. If the food is this good and the people are this friendly, I can’t wait to get down there. Visit lajamayarestaurant.com.
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