In need of a horizon expansion? Sure, you could register for a non-western perspective class next semester -- that might do the trick. But wouldn't it be easier if you could revitalize your outlook simply by grabbing dinner?
Wonder no more.
Pupusa Crazy Restaurant and Bar offers a multicultural dining experience with the most diverse Latin American menu in town. Drawing on influences from both Central and South American cuisine, the management of Pupusa Crazy crafts a unique dining experience for anyone with a curiosity.
Located in a small shopping center on Rt. 29 North across from Sam's Club, Pupusa Crazy is an ideal location for a change of pace.
Charlottesville is filled with plenty of burger joints, sandwich shops, Mexican restaurants and Chinese buffets, but only one Pupusa Crazy.
The atmosphere is simple but pleasant. Since it's a small storefront property, the dining room is quite small, but not too small. The kitchen is visible from the tables, while a small bar sits to the right of the cuisine's creation space.
The lively background music inevitably will attract your attention.Occasionally we found ourselves not talking and instead just listening to the vibrant Latin tunes.
While the building itself isn't particularly memorable, the food is.
Deciding what to order can take a fair amount of time. We had to ask the waitress to come back twice because we still were wading through the menu. It's not that the layout is disorganized, there's just a good deal of information for the uninitiated diner to process.
Going along with the restaurant's namesake, you might as well try some pupusas. An El Salvadoran treat, a pupusa is a corn tortilla stuffed with shredded pork and cheese, griddled and served with pickled cabbage and fire-roasted tomato.
The menu offers four varieties of pupusas, from the basic Revueltas ($2) to the Loroco y Queso ($2.25), a vegetarian pupusa stuffed with mozzarella and a Salvadorian edible blossom. That one sounds interesting, but the taste was disappointingly bitter.
We recommend you avoid this pupusa and opt for the more pleasant Cangrejo y Queso ($2.95), a crab-stuffed delight, or the regular pork pupusa.
These pupusas are small, so consider them as appetizers. If you're not bold enough to start with something new, try the tamales. Wrapped in cornhusks or banana leaves, these inexpensive, tasty dishes cost $2 or less. Stuffings include chicken, pork and green corn. We tried the chicken and pork tamales, and they were both extremely moist and delicious.
Pupusas are interesting for their novelty, but the entrees are tastiest.
The Quesadilla de Pollo ($8.50) is a recommended dish. Stuffed with chicken breast and mozzarella cheese, these quesadillas are bursting with flavor. The real stars of this choice, however, are the toppings that come along with it.
The guacamole is the best we've tasted in this city, and the innovative mango salsa proved to be a worthy complement to the chicken's flavor.
We recommend you try an entree from the "Platos Tipicos" section of the menu. This section offers dishes unique to nations from Peru to Honduras to Nicaragua. These are the items you won't easily find elsewhere.
Initially, we were worried about the Mariscada Houndurena ($9.95). Any seafood stew featuring coconut milk and plantains is not a staple of our diets. We were pleasantly taken aback. Containing fish, shrimp, mussels, plantains, starchy Central American potatoes and thick-cut carrots, this delicious dish from Honduras was perfectly prepared. The sweetness of the coconut milk made the broth the best part of the dish by keeping the seafood taste in check.
If you want to try a variety of foods, order the Bandeja Paisa ($9.95), a Colombian dish that has a range of ingredients, including grilled beef, fried egg, fried plantains and pork skin served with corn arepa, a fried cornmeal cake. The flavors in this dish overpower, especially the sausage, so those with a weak stomach might want to steer clear of this choice. But we still think the variety of tastes may be worth it.
There are a number of other dishes we wish we could have tried ranging from Peruvian Chicken ($9.50), served with fried Yucca and avocado salad, to the Ropa Vieja con Casamiento ($8.95), a Nicaraguan selection featuring shredded beef, rice, beans and plantains.
Many of the desserts were both attractive and better tasting. The Tres Leches ($4.75) is very tasty, albeit quite expensive for a small piece of sponge cake.
Other dessert options include the Buden de Pan con Chocolate ($3.95), a white chocolate bread pudding with vanilla sauce and the Nieve de Coco ($3.95), vanilla ice cream rolled in toasted coconut and drizzled with coconut sauce.
Pupusa Crazy offers a huge range of exotic dishes that will challenge your previous conceptions of Latin American food. While its location leaves something to be desired, the price is reasonable and the food is beyond reproach.
We recommend Pupusa Crazy for any occasion. No matter who you're with, if the conversation dies, you always can fall back on talking about the menu items. Or listening to the background music.
You don't have to study abroad or -- get this -- open a book to gain insights into other cultures. You just have to be hungry.
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