$0--&$5*7*5 r$0..6/*5: ‘‘RINCONCITO’’ BRINGS PUPUSAS TO A BUSY EMBRUN INTERSECTION
ANDREW COPPOLINO andrewcoppolino@gmail.com
The intersection of Notre-Dame Street and St-Jacques Road in Embrun, just north of the Castor River, is a very busy one dominated by the glorious Église Saint-Jacques d'Embrun. The shadow of the massive and beautiful Catholic church, built in 1891, connects this long-established culture with a tiny “table” that’s kitty-corner to the towering silver neo-Baroque spire: that is, the Latin Table Restaurant, Authentic Mexican and Latin American Cuisine, which opened a few years ago. Enter the restaurant off busy Notre-Dame and you have a choice: turn left up the tight terra cotta stairs to the kitchen and the take-away counter, or right up the stairs to a small dining area with a handful of tables and chairs. Simply decorated with vibrant paintings depicting Central American village life, and assorted tchotchkes, overlooking the space is a poster of Frida Kahlo, the Mexican pain- ter whose folk art-style work drew inspiration from her country’s pop culture. Wooden tables hold salt and pepper sha- kers, the classic stainless steel fold napkin dispenser, bottles of McIlhenny Tabasco, and the restaurant’s house-made chili-oil sauce – which is quite delicious. In the kitchen of the small family-run “little corner,” a rinconcito you might say, is chef-owner Elena Monterrosa who opened the restaurant in 2019. Her daughter, Abby, explains that the family came to the Ottawa area as refugees from El Salvador in the 1990s. With no professional cooking background, and having not been involved in a restaurant or food operation before, Monterrosa is that somewhat rare cook and restaurateur who takes the leap of faith into the industry through a passion for sharing food with others. “It’s been a long-time dream of my mom’s,” Abby Monterrosa says. “She raised her children – we’re adults now – and so it seemed to be the right time and a good opportunity.” It was a bold entrepreneurial move that takes a steadfastness and a good amount of hard work. As they so often do in the industry, the Mexican and Latin American dishes Monter- rosa cooks come from her family heritage. “The recipes and techniques have been passed down to her. She cooks with fresh, good quality ingredients,” according to Abby, “and does it with what she’s been taught by her mom and grandmother.” The menu includes traditional North American breakfasts and their more inte- resting Salvadoran versions served with fried plantain and “casamiento” beans and rice,
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Elena Monterrosa, réfugiée salvadorienne devenue restauratrice, sert des pupusas et des curtido bien chauds dans son resto situé à l’angle de la rue Notre-Dame et du chemin St-Jacques à Embrun. (Andrew Coppolino)
their flavours “married” together. Lunches and dinners include enchiladas, tamales and tostones and fried yucca chips, along with quite good flautas – tortillas rolled and stuffed with a seasoned meat and fried crispy before being garnished with cheese, sour cream and fresh shredded iceberg lettuce – and an oven-baked Burrito Azteca with green and red sauces and pico de gallo. There are several vegetarian options, and other notable Central American items that are traditions are the horchata, a beverage made from rice, cinnamon and other spices, and aqua de flor de Jamaica (hibiscus iced tea), a variety of aquas frescas that is non- alcoholic and made with fruits, cereals or seeds, sugar and water. “These drinks are made from scratch, including the hibiscus flowers, using ingre- dients native to El Salvador,” Abby says.” But I had entered under the church spire’s shadow for perhaps my favourite Salvadoran dish: pupusas, a dish not easily found in the area, says Abby. Essentially a thick pancake made from a cornmeal flour, the pupusa is, for me, a pure delight to eat. Often termed the national dish of El Salavador, the pupusa is stuffed and fried on a hot flat-top griddle and served with some sort of salsa and a curtido, a slaw whose acidity nicely tempers the often rich corn cake. Stuffed variously with cheese, refried
beans, chicken, pork or loroco – a climbing vine with edible flowers that is native to Central American – pupusas come off of Monterrosa’s griddle piping hot, crispy on the outside and moist inside. The rich morsels are gluten-free – and you can eat them by hand (when they cool). Pupusas are formed by hand, starting with an indentation into which ingredients, like the beans are stuffed, and the pancake then flattened by patting down the ball as it is rotated between the cook’s palms. “It’s quite an artform and not as easy as it seems,” says Abby. “Pupusas are eaten at all times of the day. They’re a hearty dish that fill you.” In the shaping of a humble corn-flour pancake to make a pupusa, and in cooking other menu items that are family recipes, Monterrosa is forming a connection with the neighbourhoods and residents around her with food. “It’s a lot of pride for her to be able to share this part of her culture, and her skills, with this community,” Abby says. Munching a trio of piping hot stuffed pupusas with some curtido and a sip of horchata is testament to that. Food writer Andrew Coppolino lives in Rockland. He is the author of “Farm to Table” and co-author of “Cooking with Shakespeare.” Follow him on Instagram @ andrewcoppolino.
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