From The New Orleans Menu Daily By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published October 26, 2007 Pupuseria Divino Corazon 1$ Gretna: 2300 Belle Chasse Hwy. 368-5724 Lunch and dinner continuously, Mon.-Sat. AE, DC, DS, MC, V. Salvadoran. The restaurant's curious name tells us that the owners a) have a devotion to the Sacred Heart and b) serve the stuffed tortillas called pupusas, the national dish of El Salvador. The restaurant was a ramshackle place before the storm, sharing a building with the Salmeron family's other business, a used-tire store. The storm did a lot of damage, so they rebuilt the place completely, eliminating the tires completely and opening a much larger, very pleasant new dining room. Its back wall continues its homage to a familiar image for Catholics: Jesus, pointing to his glowing heart crowned with thorns. The menu combines Central American dishes with much more familiar Mexican platters. The Mexican stuff is well made, but that's not what puts the Pupuseria on the map. What you want are the rarely-seen Salvadoran specialties, which are even better and very interesting. The pupusa is a hybrid of a tamale and a tortilla, made with masa corn meal into quarter-inch-thick disks with morsels of pork, cheese, and onions inside, then grilled. It seems to me that these have changed over the years to become plumper and more replete with the stuffings. They cost all of $2.25 each; two or three make a meal. You can get a three-way platter of pupusa with a tangy little salad made of cabbage (it's more or less a cole slaw, hold the mayo), with rice and beans, for just under ten dollars, and be completely satisfied. Even better--particularly on a first visit--is the faro del Pacifico platter. That brings you a pupusa, a chicken-and-potato-filled tamal (the very large, light, mild kind, wrapped in a banana leaf, not to be confused with Manuel's-style hot tamales), and a pastel de carne (a small fried meat pie). Every part of this is delicious, and classic Central American eating. The other entrees of note come from the grill, with a fine carne asada (a thin but tender steak with tortillas and pico de gallo) and a grilled chicken. On weekends only, the kitchen makes steak tacos, cubes of beef crusty from the grill, sent out withflour tortillas and a sort of salsa with plenty of cilantro. The Mexican side of the menu offers "burritos nortenos," stuffed with chicken and cheese and brought out with sour cream, shredded cheese, and salsa. That's a good appetizer to split at the table. The tacos rancheros are made with strips of beef with peppers and onions; they're fajitas, really, but without the razzle-dazzle, and good at that. The great dessert here is the vanilla-scented sweet corn tamale, a most unusual item the likes of which you'll not find anywhere else. Also exciting is the best tres leches cake I've ever had. Tres leches ("three milks," for the evaporated, condensed, and whole milks used in its preparation) is a yellow cake so moist that you could call it actually wet, topped with marshmallow cream. This one is perfection in flavor and texture, almost impossibly good. The service staff is much snappier than it was in the old days. That's an Americanization of this Salvadoran gem. Fortunately, that trend hasn't really affected the food, which is consistently a delight. This was a restaurant in the 2007 Top Sixty Ethnic Restaurant Countdown. To view the entire list, click here. Click here for an index of all restaurant reviews. © 2007 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com.