A good thing: Yarling’s Pupuseria serves up classic Salvadoran pupusas and more

Immigration to the United States from El Salvador, the small nation on the Pacific coast of Central America, climbed significantly during the first two decades of this century. A combination of civil war, crime and economic deprivation sent the number of Salvadoran immigrants to the U.S. soaring 250% between 2000 and 2021, according to Pew Research.

When immigrants arrive, restaurants follow, and that certainly has been the case in Albuquerque. Pupuseria Y Restaurant El Salvadoreño, one of the city’s first Salvadoran restaurants, opened in 2005. Gobble This followed in Old Town in 2015, and a year later came El Papaturro in the North Valley.

A good thing: Yarling’s Pupuseria serves up classic Salvadoran pupusas and more

Like the cuisine of New Mexico, Salvadoran food blends Indigenous traditions and ingredients with those of the later-arriving Spanish — a phenomenon exemplified by the pupusa, El Salvador’s national dish. Named after a Nahuatl word for “fluffy thing,” the stuffed corn pancake dates back some 2,000 years. The Indigenous people of the region once filled them with mushrooms and herbs; after the Spanish arrived, meat and cheese were added to the mix.

Yarling’s Pupuseria, the latest arrival on the local Salvadoran food scene, is a celebration of this much-loved dish. The restaurant’s menu offers 15 varieties of pupusas; some filled with meat, some with vegetables, some with a combination of the two. They are hefty, hearty and, at $3.99 each, inexpensive.

Named for its owner, Yarling’s first established its reputation as a food truck. The bright orange truck still makes a regular circuit at brewpubs around the city. Its success spurred the move to a brick-and-mortar location in the North Valley that opened late last year.

The restaurant sits in a strip mall on the west side of Fourth Street just south of the intersection with Griegos Road NW — a stretch of road busy with small restaurants and parking lots ringed by chain-link fences topped with coils of barbed wire.

Set between a nail salon and a paleteria, Yarling’s offers a bright, clean space for dining in. A few booths covered in watermelon-pink upholstery line one side of the dining room, while a couple of tables occupy space in front of the counter. Artwork adorns the walls and the new flooring gleams. A large copy of the menu hangs behind the front counter.

During a recent weekday lunch hour, two wall-mounted TVs — one turned into CNN, the other to a telenovela — competed for attention. Otherwise, the place was pretty drowsy. There was one other party inside and an occasional solo diner dropping in for takeout. The young man working the dining room was prompt and attentive and knew the menu well.

Speaking of the menu, it’s a manageable assortment of Salvadoran classics presented on a big laminated page adorned with pictures of various items. The most expensive dish is $16.99 and there are numerous items available for less than $5. Outside of a couple of breakfast plates, everything is suitable for lunch or dinner.

The meal began with a complimentary bowl of chips with red salsa. The chips were thin and crispy, not greasy, and the salsa was electric.

Among the few appetizers was a Twinkie-sized Corn Tamal ($3.99) served with a cup of sweet cream that had the consistency of ranch dressing. Wrapped in a corn husk, the tamal was a dense, bland cylinder of steamed masa (dough). It picked up a welcome balance of flavor from the cream that was, despite its name, much more sour than sweet.

The Fried Plantains ($3.99) also came with sweet cream. The three sweet and starchy pieces carried a slightly bitter caramelized coating that paired well with the cream.

I ordered what the server said were the most popular pupusas: the so-called Mix containing pork, beans and cheese, and the Beef Asada with cheese. Both were terrific, with enough bulk that one would have sufficed as a lunch. Crisp blooms of melted cheese extended out from the rim of the leopard-spotted cakes. The edge here went to the mixed version based on the fact that the shredded pork was uniformly tender, while the asada had a few tough pieces. Both paired very well with the heat of the red salsa and the tangy crunch of the traditional Salvadoran pickled cabbage slaw called curtido.

Perhaps the most unusual item on the menu is Pan con Pollo ($12.99) a sandwich filled with shredded chicken cooked in a tomato sauce and finished on the grill. It’s a popular Salvadoran street food that is not easy to find in these parts. In Yarling’s version, the chicken filling was smothered in a fiery red salsa and served on a bolillo (roll) with lettuce and sliced beets and cucumbers for added crunch. I loved the shredded chicken filling, a mix of white and dark meat with crisp edges from the grill. It didn’t work as a sandwich, though, because the bread underneath it was very soggy. Better to eat it with a knife and fork. The fries that accompanied the dish were hot and fluffy, but the outside shell lacked crispness.

Other menu choices include tacos (four for $13.99) and a garlic shrimp dish. Served with rice and tortillas, the two traditional Salvadoran soups — Sopa de Res ($15.99) with beef and vegetables and Sopa de Pollo ($15.99) — are substantial enough to serve as a meal. There were no desserts listed, but the Fried Plantains appetizer serves the sweet tooth, and there is a paleteria next door.

Drinks include coconut water and the Mexican soft drink Jarritos. There were three aguas frescas available but not listed on the menu. I had a glass of Tamarind ($3) that was the color of apple cider. Sour and acidic, it’s a bit of an acquired taste that nevertheless stands up strongly to the spicy food.

It took some work to find Yarling’s back when it was just a food truck. There are no such problems now. Its new home, close to both interstates, is an inviting space from which to try what are some of the best pupusas in town.