DC may have the best pupusa scene outside of El Salvador, the homeland of the thick, stuffed tortilla. This weekend, a team of Salvadoran American chefs is trying to earn our city a spot in the pupusa history books: they’ll be attempting to make the world’s largest pupusa.
If all goes according to plan, the griddled, cheese-stuffed corn cake will reach 20 feet in diameter— beating the previous Guiness record, an 18-foot pupusa made in El Salvador. The Mega Pupusa will all come together on Pennsylvania Avenue, in the shadow of the Capitol and the National Archives.
For Iris Veronica Jimenez, chef at La Casita Pupuseria and one of the project’s leaders, the record attempt is a celebration of the DMV’s well-established Salvadoran diaspora.
“The pupusa is so symbolic of our community,” Jimenez says. It’s this beautiful simple-complex dish.”
The pupusa project is hosted by Fiesta DC, a festival and parade honoring Latino culture, which recruited several local pupuserias to take part. In total, between 80 and 100 cooks are collaborating, Jimenez says. “Obviously you need more than one pupuseria to be able to do something this massive,” she says.
Pupusa record-setting is apparently a friendly competition: a few of the 40 cooks who made the current title-holder in Olocuilta—El Salvador’s pupusa capital—will be present and helping out on Saturday.
Although it’s a celebration, making the world’s largest pupusa is a serious undertaking. Maria Patricia Corrales, president of Fiesta DC, has a background in construction, and helped plan the various stages of the project.
First, the crew commissioned a made-to-order oversized comal, or griddle, built in four pieces that will be transported and then assembled on Pennsylvania Avenue on Saturday morning.
Dozens of pupusa cooks will then begin assembling the pupusa in about 200 separate sections in the pan, using already-prepped ingredients: 200 pounds of cheese, 400 pounds of masa (corn dough), 80 pounds of chicharron, and 50 pounds of loroco, an edible flower bud that’s a common pupusa filling.
The underside of the grill will be hooked up to huge propane tanks, which will also connect to a kind of broiler contraption that can cook the top side of the pupusa (it will be too huge to flip in the pan).
The craziest part? A mobile metal bridge that the cooks will wheel out over the center of the griddle so that they can access the middle of the 20-foot-wide pupusa.
The whole process should take about four hours, with around 45 minutes of actual cooking time.
Needless to say, there will be plenty of pupusa to go around, but show up by 11 AM to be sure of securing your ticket for a piece of the project. And don’t forget to add tomato salsa and curtido, the pickled cabbage slaw that’s an essential accompaniment—Jimenez says the team will have about 200 pounds of the stuff.
Jimenez is excited for Guinness World Records to give DC’s pupuseras (pupusa makers) a moment in the spotlight.
“You don’t hear about all these amazing pupuseras who are really creating beautiful meals for our community every single day,” she says. “The pupusera is a star.”
