"Best Pupuseria"

Dalila Flores came to the United States from El Salvador in 1982. After working for others for 18 years, she decided to open her own business.

“I was working at the Plainfield Health Center,” she said. “I was thinking, I’m going to be here all day …let me see what I can do.”

She opened her first restaurant, “Mi Ranchito I,” in 2001 on West Front Street. Four years later, she opened “Mi Ranchito II” on East Front Street.

When I saw her sign, “pupuseria,” I just had to stop and get a couple of the thick, filled tortillas that are the Salvadoran national dish. I asked for pupusas with loroco, an edible flower bud.

While the pupusas were being prepared, Flores said she worked 18 years at the Plainfield health center and Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center as an outreach worker, “helping the Hispanic community to grow up into the United States.”

Helping the community is still her favorite thing and people ask her advice on where to go for jobs, housing, and medical care.

“I’m still helping,” she said.

Meanwhile, she said, not only does she have the best pupusas in Plainfield, in all varieties, she also serves up charcoal-grilled steaks and seafood.

For more information on Salvadoran cuisine, click here.

Mi Ranchito I is located at 210 West Front Street and Mi Ranchito II is at 330 East Front Street, next to the site where 63 condos and a new senior center will be built.

--Bernice Paglia