By Jim Duncan CVFDude@aol.com
El Sabor
Latino
 Several
years ago, the Wall Street Journal
asked famous chefs how they deal
with people at a dinner party
who can’t eat certain foods. Julia
Child responded with unflappable
poise “simply un-invite them.”
Her answer shocked foodies who
could imagine nothing more humiliating
than being uninvited from a cherished
place at the table of the grand
dame of French cooking. Picky
eating suddenly was out of vogue.
Soon afterwards, a new breed
of chef hit celebrity status with
extreme food adventures. Tony
Bourdain consumed the beating
heart of a cobra on the Food Network
and Andrew Zimmern dedicated his
entire Travel Channel series,
“Bizarre Foods,” to outdoing Bourdain.
Lyall Watson and Fergus Henderson
wrote best sellers — at least
in Europe — about eating every
single part of an animal, with
relish.
I’ve been trying my best to
acquire new tastes. So when I
heard about Maria Ortiz’s sopa
de patas at the El Salvadoran
café El Sabor Latino, I
girded my loins and set out to
add another extreme notch to my
belt. I was served a reprieve
on my first effort. Sopa de patas
is so difficult to prepare that
Maria only makes it on Saturdays.
It’s so popular that her son-in-law
and waiter Ezekiel explained —
“It’s ready at 11 a.m. and if
you want some, you’d better be
here by 3 o’clock, because it
sells out fast.”
In Los Angeles and Central America,
sopa de patas is regarded as the
ultimate hangover cure. Also known
as “menudo-plus,” it’s a screaming
bowl of tripe and cows feet augmented
with familiar vegetables like
carrots, potatoes, cabbage cores,
onions, chilies and tomato, plus
some unfamiliar fruits and vegetables
like plantain, yucca, loroco and
hard corn. There was probably
something else I couldn’t identify.
My bowl came with a huge amount
of cow gut and ankle tendon. Alas,
I am no Andrew Zimmern. I loved
the broth and ate all my veggies,
but I didn’t even begin to get
through the generous serving of
animal parts.
El Sabor has plenty to offer
less daring diners, too. I settled
my stomach with plantain-filled
empanadas, a delightful reward
for taking one’s medicine. The
pupusa is the hamburger of El
Salvador, the dish that best represents
the national culture. Fairs and
farmers markets have familiarized
many Iowans with them, but Maria’s
will convert new believers. They
are made, like all her corn-derived
dishes (including extra thick
dinner tacos) with fresh masa
— lime soaked cornmeal paste.
Like French fries, pupusas should
be eaten fresh off the griddle,
while their outside is still hot
and fluffy and their filling (cheese,
loroco, bean or chicharron) is
molten. El Sabor’s service delivered
smoking hot pupusas with both
a hot and a cold salsa rojo (milder
than Mexican salsas) plus a jar
of “curtido,” a vinegary slaw
of cabbage, carrots and onions.
In most Mexican restaurants, chicharron
means crispy pork rinds that look
like potato chips on steroids.
El Sabor’s chicharron had more
meat on the skin and softer texture.
I also enjoyed excellent beef
stew, tamales steamed in banana
leaves and a sandwich so good
that Ezekiel made one for himself
when he prepared mine — a chicken
torta, with roasted breast meat
in sweet hot slaw on a fresh hoagie
style bun.
I saved the best news for last.
El Sabor serves breakfast anytime,
and it’s one of the best in town,
with fresh avocado and Salvadoran
(sour) cream, black bean frijoles,
fried plantains and salsa accessorizing
eggs and sausage. El Sabor serves
cane sugar soft drinks, including
home made horchata, but no alcohol.
Side dishes
Gateway Market is now selling
Lost Hills Farm’s Wagyu beef,
all at least 75 percent Wagyu
(the USDA requires only 50 percent
for the aegis) $7/pound for burger
and $60/pound for rib-eyes or
N.Y. cuts… Fred Horstman of Pleasant
Hill took first place in whole
hog and second place overall at
World Pork Expo’s BarBQlossal.
CV
Comment
on this story | Return
to top | 
