A late night, an early morning appointment and a fogged brain. This called for a serious restorative, like two big mugs of steaming Colombian coffee and a plate of empanadas de platano.
The empanadas weren't the usual pastry turnovers. Instead of flour dough, the wrappers were made of mashed platanos (plantains). The fillng was a tiny bit of thickened milk. Fried golden brown and sprinkled with sugar, they were heavenly.
The place where I had them was Merendero Salvadoreno, near downtown Los Angeles. This small, neighborly Salvadoran restaurant takes its name from the Spanish word "merendar," which means to snack, have tea or light food between meals.
The menu offers hearty combinations of meat, rice, beans, salad and tortillas, but I prefer to merendar when I go there, choosing from a list of Salvadoran "antojitos" (snacks).
These include Salvadoran tamales--silky, soft tamales wrapped in banana leaves and filled with a strip of chicken (or pork), bell pepper, potato and a couple of green olives.
Even better are tamales de chipilin, the dough riddled with a nutrient-rich leafy green that is known as chipilin in Central America and as chepil in Oaxaca, where I bought similar tamales for a couple of pesos.
Merendero fills them with a delicious soft bean puree. They're not on the printed menu, but a sign on the wall one day announced that they were available.
Of course Merendero has pupusas. To say that about a Salvadoran restaurant is like saying that a hamburger stand has hamburgers.
The same spicy, vinegary cabbage relish (curtido) that accompanies pupusas also comes with pasteles de carne, which are turnovers filled with ground pork, potato, tomato and bell pepper.
After eating a couple of snacks on one visit, I ordered chilate con nuegados de yuca y dulce de platano simply to find out what it was. Huge and starchy, I found out, but I liked it anyway.
Nuegados are chewy fried fritters made from the root yuca (cassava). They're not sweet, but the syrupy. dark banana mixture in which they sit makes up for that.
Chilate is a hot thick corn drink that contains whole black peppercorns. You can buy mixes for that drink, peppercorns included, in markets in the neighborhood.
There is only one part of Merendero's menu that I would avoid. And that is the "American Fast Food" section, which includes just two items, hamburgers and cheeseburgers. I'd choose empanadas de platano over those any day.
Empanadas de plantano are two for $2.50 at Merendero Salvadoreno, 1621 W. 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90017. Tel: (213) 483-3460. Open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
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