CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — As we continue our journey through Latino cuisine this Hispanic Heritage Month, we made a pit stop off Doddridge to discover some Salvadoran food.
Florida transplant Monica Mendieta is finding her footing in the Coastal Bend -- heating things up in her food truck: The Latin Calzone.
"It's so hot and it can be so rushed, sometimes, but it's a lot of fun,” she said. “Honestly, I enjoy it better than being in an office."
Mendieta left her job as a probation officer to risk it all and follow her passion: making food.
"I grew up cooking Salvadoran food because my godmother was Salvadoran,” she said. “She always took care of us, and so she was always making pupusas."
And that is what brings visitors to her truck: pupusa. El Salvador's national dish -- a thick griddle cake or flatbread.
"You fill it with meat; I have shredded pork and shredded chicken,” she said. “I put the meat first, or I add beans or jalapeños, if you want it spicy, and then cheese on top. And then, with your hands, mold it into a nice patty. I tell people it's like a stuffed tortilla."
Three pupusas come to an order. They’re a little bigger than some may expect, and they’re topped off with a pickled coleslaw, with a homemade salsa.
Mendieta herself is Nicaraguan but said this is the food she was raised on.
She also whips up arepas, another handheld food, but this time from Colombia and Venezuela. where she has cousins.
Arepas, as we learned when we visited Ora’s Kitchen in September, are made of ground corn, and she stuffs those with whatever you want, too.
"That's the only difference between my pupusas and arepas -- the dough that I use and the salsa, (the) sides that I serve them with," she said.
The Latin Calzone can be found on Facebook.