The Guanaquita

I can’t contextualize Guanaquita Restaurant’s space as much as I’d like to. It’s a hodge-podge of South American culture. I think. It’s a static space of South American otherness. El Salvadorian otherness, actually. It’s a deep lofty dining hall where one could easily have lived. Today, I interpreted it as a room of micro-table culture. At one end, before its discoteca, it manifests itself as a veranda where diners can look out onto the city. Beyond that, before its bar, exists those reminiscent place settings of thin framed chairs, multi-layered tablecloths that echo some transferred Mediterranean place settings, all before it phlebotomizes into a warmer, more well lit stucco dining area where booths with protruding wooden columns have orbs of light resting on each one of them. After that, it becomes Appadurai’s ‘bazaar of thingness,’ full of obsolescent items used to decorate the space, proliferating in excess with photos of piers, books on shelves: space fillers. My dining companion likened it to Narnia meeting Dawson’s Creek. It was poignant. For a humble El Salvadorian restaurant starting out, it was on the mark. If its walls could talk, they wouldn’t ask for admiration, only mouths to come in try some good, honest food. 

Not too renowned in this city, El Salvadorian cuisine rests in some quiet corners and begs for dabbling mouths. Simple tapas make each restaurant more than any meals that could be served, and what makes a place like Guanaquita Restaurant so enjoyable is the fun you can have with food. If it’s your first time, and it’s not breakfast, give traditional dishes like pupusas, tamals, enchiladas, and pastelitos your tongues. It’s these dishes that make El Salvadorian cuisine such a treat. But if it is breakfast, definitely have it at a place like Guanaquita. In all my experiences, El Salvidorian breakfasts have been some with the most finesse. Inexpensive and hardy, they include not only typical choices, but odds and ends pertinent to the cuisine, like fried plantains or beans, without, believe it or not, all of the oily residuals greasy spoons leave with us.

More than affordable, Guanaquita’s menu comes with many options, appetizers, entrees, and desserts. But I say forgo all that in favour of every single tapas on the menu, offered by way of the restaurant’s own Guanaquita Platter: a visually sparse looking plate of pupusas, tamales, enchiladas, and pastelitos, but a powerfully filling thing paired with tomato sauce and my absolutely loved Salvadorian relish: a simple coleslaw; its mild, tart flavor is accented by the oregano used to give it a cool, earthy quality I can never get enough of. The pupusa was, and always is, however, my favourite. A thick, pancake like tortilla stuffed with pork, cheese, and green peppers, its playful texture and charred aroma make it, in my mind, a holy trinity of El Salvidore’s cuisine.
 
The tamal was another first for me. A corn dough mixed with chickpea, pickled jalepeno, potato, and olives made for a thing of complex flavor, busy flavours, complicated even more by the leaf it’s steamed in. Texturally reminiscent of polenta, the vegetative flavor from the leaf added a whole other, brave, element of flavor.

And if you want the play of culinary tourism to hit home, treat yourself to a thrifty glass of Horchata: a percolated glass of rice milk flavoured with cinnamon and sugar that tickles the back of your throat with its smooth, yet chalky peculiarity. And if its sweetness still isn’t enough, go for any and all desserts. Everything’s so well priced you can eat a lot for under twenty dollars and still have your fill, like the plantain patties: deep fried fist sized dumplings stuffed with plantain and custard that oozes out as you shatter a caramelized exterior, dusted with sugar and harmonized by the meaty fruit’s tartness and the custard’s creaminess. Did I mention how inexpensive everything was?


Guanaquita Restaurant
273 King St. West UPPER
Kitchener, Ontario n2g 1b1
 

Tue - Fri:  10:00 am- 9:00 pm
Sat:          9:00 am- 10:00 pm
Sun:        10:00 am- 8:00 pm

ANY PAYMENT

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