New Latin Foodscape: A Central American Gateway at La Casita
Alongside pupusas, what La Casita is known for, are Salvadoran, Honduran and Mexican dishes, the tastes of Central America gathered in Waipahu.
Editor’s note: This is part three of a five-part story from HONOLULU’s April issue exploring Honolulu’s new wave of Latin restaurants.
Peruvian Corner | Guaiqueri | La Casita | San Paolo Pizza & Wine | Mercado de la Raza
Photo: Courtney Mau
Tucked between Arby’s and Elena’s Home of Finest Filipino Foods, La Casita is O‘ahu’s best gateway to Central America. The menu is an abbreviated tour of a region whose seven countries cram an isthmus of 1,140 miles, about the distance from Seattle to Los Angeles. Pupusas headline the menu, El Salvador’s griddle-cooked cornmeal cakes filled with permutations of pork, beans and cheese. Also from El Salvador are yuca con chicharron, chunks of deep-fried pork shoulder piled on thick-cut cassava fries with a side of sauerkrautlike curtido, while the baleadas—whisper-thin flour tortillas folded around beans, cheese and sour cream—are Honduran. The tacos, taquitos and quesadillas are Mexican.
“What about the pescado frito whole fried fish?” I ask. “Where’s that from?”
“Many countries,” chef Gladys Najera says with a shrug. Najera is from Honduras; her grandfather was Salvadoran. She cooked in Latin kitchens across the United States before arriving in Waipahu, where she and daughter Yosselyn de Abreu launched their pupuseria in 2019. “This food is from around Central America. If you’re from Guatemala, you eat similar. If you’re from Honduras, you eat similar,” she says. “We have the same language, same culture. We use the same seasonings. We’re very close in the way we live.”
SEE ALSO: Pupusas, Pastelitos And Other Salvadoran Eats Are in Waipahu
The same-same-but-different effect shows in La Casita’s tamales. “In most countries, they’re similar, but some places make it with pork, vegetables,” Najera says. “Some people put olives, green peppers, even peas, because it’s to enjoy at home.”
She boils her tamales Salvadoreños twice—first just the masa, then, wrapped in banana leaves and foil, masa with fillings inside. The steaming cornmeal comes out improbably fluffy and the potatoes, tucked inside with shredded chicken and rice tinged with salsa, take up the flavors and melt like a hug on the palate.
94-866 Moloalo St., D-11A, Waipahu, (808) 676-6987, @lacasitahawaii
