In the world of trying new things, I’m a sucker when it comes to food. Traveling through the grocery stores, yes plural, I generally take my time. I recognize how my palate has changed since being a full on vegetarian. I would say that only thing that’s a bummer while at the grocery stores – I can’t open the bottles to breath in the fragrance. With that only challenge, it’s a different story when I walk into a new restaurant. Either you can smell the spices or you can’t. I got the best sensory delight just the other day.

Since my husband and I had a little down time we decided YES! to trying Pupuseria La Paz. This is an El Salvadorian restaurant, clearly visible from the road, but may or may not be considered “a hole in the wall”. You’d actually never know if the place was open or closed due to the different color scheme; a blue open sign, with the sun shinning so bright, it’s questionable if the sign is on. (Could be a habitual program thing to looking for the red open sign. Perspective!) Either way, we were not disappointed. I had the Loroco pupusa, as the young miss described it, “is like spinach.” Oh my. Really now? Then I was shown the vegetable via the picture they keep handy for folks. I was already going to order it, but what the hell, pretty picture. Then I ordered the Spinach pupusa for comparison. She was right, it was close. Then I added their “hot” sauce to each, along with a little of the husband’s fresh salsa. The food was alive. An even better part of the meal was how they prepared the cabbage side dish…cracked pepper, hint of a red vinegar, and something else I couldn’t nail down, ummm, something very close to the dried Thai chili. Wow! My husband had a meat pupusa. He didn’t say much, which means it was good.

Remember to explore with childlike wonderment. I know I missed the authentic foods of South America for a minute. Umm, explore…explore… Cheers! and Arigato!

UPDATE! They started painting the building – exactly as the flag shows. Blue – White – Blue; that’s interesting. OOOOOO….