El Salvador

It's National Grilled Cheese Month, and while I've made my fair share with two slices of bread, I wanted to celebrate with a traditional Salvadoran dish, the pupusa. Essentially a pancake-like corn cake, pupusas are stuffed with a thin layer of cheese, beans, or pork. I was a little nervous, but preparing the masa is easy — you just add water and stir.

I tried a couple of different techniques to get the perfect pupusa and found the best way was to use my hands. I lightly oiled them, flattened the masa ball, placed the shredded cheese in the center of the masa, and pulled the edges up around the cheese. Once the masa sealed the cheese, I patted it into a small, flat disk.

With this process, the pupusa doesn't crack or let the cheese leak out while cooking. Serve these cheese-filled corn cakes hot topped with spicy slaw and a touch of sour cream. Now that I have the method down, I can't wait to make pork- and cheese-filled pupusas. To skip taco night and surprise your family with pupusas, keep reading for the recipe.

A craving for Central American and Caribbean food as of late has meant I've scoured the streets of Miami for a decent cubano, as well as the colorful corners of San Francisco's Mission district for authentic Salvadoran pupusas.

Think of the pupusa as a more glorious quesadilla. The people of El Salvador flatten balls of corn dough (made of masa that's been treated with an alkaline solution) into flat filled cakes, each hiding a sliver of refried beans, pork, vegetables, and, more often than not, melted cheese, then heated until warm on the griddle. The end result's served piping hot with piquant curtido (pickled cabbage) and a thin red tomato-based salsa.

On a recent excursion to Balompie Café, the best pupusa I tried was a traditional version filled with cheese and loroco, a Central American flower bud that tasted a bit like bell peppers. If you love Latin flavors and have never laid eyes on the pupusa, it's a Salvadoran street food worth seeking out.