La Cacerola......a little local Honduran cuisine

Sep 18

Sep 18 La Cacerola......a little local Honduran cuisine

A.W.

I was in the mood for pupusas. Anyone who has read me frequently knows, I have to be in a mood to find something I’m willing to eat. A journey me and the SO went on many a time, not always with the best endings and sometimes fraught with much “discussion.” But when I had a craving we usually struck out, particularly as my window for want could sometimes be small so take advantage while we could became the motto since they were always up for food of most any kind.

Turns out there are a handful of spots offering them up and fortunately for me in my pupusa moment, I did not have to go far to find them—because it’s hot. Google said their was a spot just a couple blocks over and it is an easy flat walk with only minimal sweating. The place in question is La Cacerola, which says they serve up “authentic Honduran cuisine,” and evidently, pupusas are part of that. Who knew? Probably lots of people as it does span the breadth of variations of Hispanic and Latin American cuisine.

Turns out it is a small spot in sort of a truncated strip mall type place that also included a mini mart, la peluqueria (barber/beauty shop), nail salon and a Latin American grocery mart. Kind of a theme going. It is a cute little place inside with a handful of tables, a glass case selling tourist gifts of Honduras and a big tv mounted high showing soccer. The kind of off the beaten track, hole in the wall place I glom onto when I travel.

Walking in, I am the only person there and I pick up a paper menu to peruse and see what else they got. I see some of the regulars like tacos, chilaquiles, nachos, enchiladas, etc. But there are a few offerings that seem interesting and different enough to add on to my pupusa order. Of course, I wasn’t going to do this all in one take away. They are close enough, if the masa is good, I decided I was coming back.

At $3 a pop, I am definitely getting two. Ordering was a bit of a point and my rudimentary Spanish but I can order from a menu, though I think he thought I could speak it well too and asked me questions and I sort of gave that deer in headlights stare as I think I caught the word bebida or maybe bebir? Pretty sure he was asking if I wanted a drink so I just said no. For the food it was easier to say un queso (cheese) y un chicharron (fried pork) pupusa. At least I was trying!

Everything evidently is made to order and seems to take about veinte minutos (20 minutes), so I hung out and watched a random soccer match. Since it was to go, when I got home, the above is what I got. Yowza, they were huge! I mean seriously big, they filled up the whole container like pancakes on top of each other. And they come with the great tangy slaw too.

They were still warm from the griddle and the cheese inside was all melty and gooey. The cheese one was like a corn grilled cheese sandwich. You know, stuff in bread kind of thing. The chicharron was cheesy too, but the meat inside was more ground up than pulled like some I had in the Mission. It kind of got lost and really tasted like the cheese one. Which in the end was fine as I did quite enjoy them. Especially when you add in the vinegary slaw for some bite to off set the richness of the cheese and a drop or two of hot salsa to spice it up a bit, which I like. I got two meals out of this, they were that big. Which is why I went back again to see what the second time around would be.

This time around I was prepared for the Spanish, though as you can see, the pupusas were more of what I was used to seeing around SF. Still for $6 total, it is a filling meal. Plus, I will say, there was a different woman in the kitchen cooking this time so maybe that made a difference? Here I went with queso y pollo (cheese and chicken). The chicken was of the pulled meat variety so you could taste it along with the cheese. Add in the tangy slaw and a sauce which had more kick than previous and I was having flashbacks to Panchita’s Pupueria in the Mission, one of my favorites. So I know I will go back for these, but what about other stuff?

These pastelitos intrigued me from their menu description. “Made from scratch, stuffed with ground beef, topped with cabbage salad, tomato sauce and grated cheese.” Seriously, how can I pass these up. They were like tiny versions of empanadas made from corn instead of flour. I was thinking like a hand held fried cheeseburger pie or something.

Well, they were a decent size for something they listed on the menu as a snack. And $8 for an order of three isn’t too bad considering what you get. I had one real problem with these. When I opened the container, there was a smell that was unpleasant at best and kind noxious at worst. I couldn’t tell if they had been deep fried in bad oil or if the sauce, which was supposed to be tomato, was the culprit. It was some kind of cream thing and the whole order was giving off the oder of spoiled milk. It was literally smelling up my whole apartment. I tried scraping some of the stuff off to at least try them but it was hard as it was so overpowering. I few bites in I can say they are quite stuffed with ground beef but, honestly, the smell seem to have pervaded through the whole thing so much I just couldn’t do it anymore.

A shame really as they looked good and were something right up my alley. I kind of want to try them again but I’m not sure if they will come out the same again or trying to explain the smell. Maybe ask for no sauce or cheese? I might one day, but the lingering scent is still such a vivid memory, it isn’t going to be right away.

On another visit I seemed to be drawn to the yuca con chicharron dish, because, you know, fried pork and stuff. Or maybe I was just in the mood for something fried which is basically this dish. Deep fried yuca (seems you can also get them steamed, but seriously, why?) and with a slab of fried pork on top, cabbage salad, tomato sauce (yes it is lightly there) pickled veggies (really just the purple cabbage), cheese and something they called chismol, which I learned is a veggie salsa thing. This big plate for $10.

Yuca is kind of like a potato but more fibrous and this dish was kind of like a variation of nacho fries. Cooked to order you get a fresh crispy dish which, straight up, I liked. Initially when I saw it I thought I could get two meals out of this too, which, I probably could have, but seems I was hungry and ate this all in one sitting. (The fattening people!)

The chicharron here was like a cross between a pork rib and fatback (pork belly, salt pork, or whatever you want to call it). It had a nice little crisp char on the outside yet was a tender bit meat and charred fat. While it might look like it in the pic, there wasn’t actually a bone, just all meat and fat. Because that is how we do it in the South and apparently, Honduras.,

All the lettuce and pickled cabbage at least give me some form of a veggie on this dish as it is a hearty meat and kind of potato dish. I like yuca, but usually only deep fried like a French fry. They were suitably crunchy outside and soft inside. I do wish I had a sauce to dip them in and found myself reaching in the fridge for some ketchup. While they were tasty, they just needed a little something since yuca in and of itself is rather plain. Still, I did eat all of it.

Pastelitos notwithstanding, I did enjoy my other options at La Cacerola, enough so that I will go back and it is super handy they are in my hood. When you move to a new place you have to try the spots within short walking distance to find those hidden neighborhood gems. Not sure I will go that far, but tasty enough options, reasonable prices and close enough to satisfy my occasional craving for pupusas, it’s all I can ask for. Well, for now at least.