Tres Pupusas: Pupusas Outside on a Sunday

The end of the summer is fast approaching and I have yet to make mention of any Farmer's markets. In the past I have joked ad nauseam about the "Farmer" part of the name, as it seems like today's markets have been taken over by stands of prepared food vendors, soap makers and insurance salesmen--I have even seen a cooking demo pitching some unnecessary kitchen gadget (I can't remember as I turned my eyes away in shame). I didn't make the rounds this summer to all of Denver's weekend summer markets as I often do, but I did spend a lot of time in the East High Esplanade. It was there, over the pretentious hum of a single food truck generator (somehow even their generators seem snobby), I felt a peaceful calm, as for what seems like the first time in a couple years there might have been as many farm stands as there were prepared food stands.

This is of course my highly biased and decidedly unscientific observation, but of course the main benefit of having a blog is being able to be able to pretty much write anything one wants without the nuisance of fact-checking or the complexity of truth. But I digress. Among the food vendors gone this year is the El Caribe food stand, which is now the Quiero Arepas food truck and has moved South to the Pearl St. Market I think. More or less in its place now is a food stand selling what is essentially the Salvadorean version of the arepa: the pupusa. 

I've had three or four nourishing breakfasts from Boulder-based Tres Pupusas this summer, each as good as the last. The pupusas there are just what I would expect in a pupusa: thick fried corn masa stuffed with cheese (but not too much) and things like beans and meat (though they do have other Boulder-like ingredient options like leeks and mushrooms). You can also get a fried egg on top or avocado (I did both) to make your breakfast more wholesome. And of course they have the traditional Salvadorean slaw bathed in the ubiquitous sweet red salsa, which ups the good-for-you factor another notch with all those veggies. 

Tres Pupusas is taking a solid version of a typical Salvadorean cuisine to the City Park area. In doing so it has admittedly ran up the price a little for what can be had for much cheaper on many corners of Colfax just a couple miles East. That being said, while I am not adverse to the eating my greasy meats and grilled dough on a stark sun-drenched and culturally diverse patio on the corner of say, Colfax and Yosemite; on a Sunday morning it is worth a buck or two more to lay out on the grass under the shade of a tall tree and listen to the fountain spray while I enjoy my pupusa. Either that, or this whole life with babies is making me soft. Probably a lot of the latter, but either way, Tres Pupusas is worth checking out.