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El Pulgarcito

Delve into El Salvadorian cuisine

A taste of Central America is found in Lakewood seven days a week. Photo credit: Dutch Randall

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Like most towns in the South Sound, Lakewood is filled with chain restaurants that you can find just about anywhere. However, like every town as well, it has a hidden local favorite that generally only the neighborhood knows about.  Lakewood has a handful of these. El Pulgarcito on South Tacoma Way's uniqueness makes it especially important

El Pulgarcito stands alone as a Salvadorean restaurant in the middle of the fast food and Asian cuisine along South Tacoma Way.  Though similar to the Mexican food that many of us have grown accustomed to, Salvadorean food has some subtle differences, both in spice and foundation. Salvadorean food has a much heavier base in starches like corn and potatoes than most Mexican menus.  Items like yuca fritters, pupusas, black beans, and lightly seasoned rice are more common in Salvadorean cuisine.

Now, If you've never had a pupusa, then you haven't lived. And El Pulgarcito is just the place to fix this for you.  Pupusas are thick, handmade corn tortillas stuffed with meats and cheeses.  I like to call them little pockets of amazing.  They truly are this good, because El Pulgarcito's pupusas are not something that should be limited to the citizens of Lakewood ... they are worth the drive from nearly anywhere in the South Sound.

Provided you are able to move past the pupusas and onto a full meal, El Pulgarcito offers everything from soups and seafood to fajitas and full combination dishes.  On my visit, I came for the pupusas, but stayed for more than I had planned.  And after the pupusas exceeded my already high expectation, I could barely decide what to try next, so I went with the two compadres dish of carne asada and pollo asada with black beans, rice, salad and cilantro pico de gallo.  In addition to the platter, I had my choice of tortillas; flour, corn, or in-house made to order corn tortillas ... yes, I said made-to-order. This is just another absolutely successful plate for El Pulgarcito.  Both the steak and chicken were moist, tender and flavorful, and when combined with the rice, beans, pico de gallo, and of course the tortillas, pure amazing.

Simply put, the food at El Pulgarcito tastes better than food should legally be able to taste.  I am already looking forward to my next visit, and it shouldn't matter where you live, you should make this your next destination.  Seriously, go now.

El Pulgarcito, 8534 South Tacoma Way, Lakewood, 253.582.2212

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