Puente Guanaco

EL SALVADOR 🇸🇻

If you have ever driven around Long Island, you know there are no shortages of pizza joints and small town seafood restaurants near the water to satisfy your hunger. The interior of the middle third of the island is also blessed with many people from Central America, El Salvador in particular, and because of that many restaurants serving the foods these recent transplants miss from back home.

While Hempstead is probably the western end of this axis, with a large amount of people surrounding the city, Central Islip and Brentwood form the major population center of the east. A bureaucratic visit to some government offices nearby recently afforded the opportunity for a hearty Central American breakfast at Puente Guanaco.

It was hard to resist a pupusa before breakfast though, this pupusa de queso y frijol ($2, above) was priced well for a working class clientele. In reality, there may be no food more undervalued as a pupusa around the world, but that is a larger argument. It pulled apart nicely with melted cheese and a thick layer of beans, beautiful in every way. A tupperware container of curtido, the pickled cabbage topping, was brought to the table with the plate, a mark of the real deal.

Puente Guanaco has plenty of good breakfast options, including the desayuno salvadoreño ($11.50, below), which serves eggs scrambled with bell peppers and chorizo, fried beans, a block of queso fresco, avocado, and sweet plantains swimming in a luxurious sweet cream. Two thick freshly made tortillas come alongside to do with as you see fit.

If you have ever traveled in El Salvador, like its neighbors, you know that the foods involved are never flashy. Most everything is what is locally available and cooked with plenty of tradition. In addition to the items found on a plate like this, you would also eat tropical fruits like mango and sweet bananas alongside everything.

These tastes might seem simple to an outsider, but they are deeply familiar and desired by the people who have relocated elsewhere in the world. A plate like this will fill you up for the rest of the day, and that is part of the idea as well.

There are enough Hondurans in the area that the restaurant has added a few typical items you would find in this neighboring country as well. The flour tortilla made fresh for the baleadas con carne ($7.95, above) are thinner than most you will find, but still very tasty.

Each folded baleada contains an enormous amount of meat, beans, cheese and cream that tries to find its way out each end on every bite. Honestly, it should not be any other way.

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CENTRAL ISLIP Long Island

189 Calebs Path

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