Pupusas in Red Hook

Eat It: The Brooklyn Food Blog turned one year old this past weekend and I'm celebrating with a contest! To enter, write about your favorite restaurant or meal in Brooklyn and email it to EatItBrooklyn (at) gmail (dot) com; don't forget to include photos! Two lucky winners will each receive a copy of the new book out by Andrew Coe called Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States and will have their submission published here on Eat It! Special consideration will be given to those who write about Chinese food! Contest ends August 3rd!

Great days involve great food. Great food does not have to be eaten at a fancy restaurant, or any kind of restaurant actually; it can be purchased from a truck and eaten with your hands at a wooden picnic table in the shade on a hot, muggy afternoon. That is exactly what I did yesterday and it was pure wonderfulness.

After a lazy swim at the Red Hook pool and cooling off in its crystal clear blue waters, a friend and I ambled over to the Red Hook Ball Fields at the intersection of Bay St. and Clinton St. to get some lunch from one of the vendors selling all manner of yummy food - grilled corn, flautas, tacos, chicharron, plantains and, of course, pupusas. I ordered one Bean & Cheese and one with Pork & Cheese, which are served with the tastiest pickled slaw & onions and doused with sour cream and hot sauce. Pupusas are small rounds of corn meal stuffed with a variety of fillings. The best is when some of the cheese spills out and gets toasted by the grill it's cooked on so it gets browned to a crisp. There are a few vendors that sell pupusas, I pretty much pick the one with the shortest line! This time I ordered from Soler Dominican and found them to be terrific.



I also make sure to get a big cup of juice while I'm there as well. My favorites include Cantaloupe, Watermelon, Tamarind and Horchata (made from rice, almonds & cinnamon), but you can also get lime & lemonade, pineapple juice and mango juice. So refreshing, sweet and delicious!