Seafood Tacos at Elsy’s Antojitos in Buttonwillow, California – off the I-5

All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2012

Buttonwillow.  How can you NOT stop in Buttonwillow?  It is about 2 hours north of Los Angeles off the I-5.  I stopped there on a drive to San Francisco with my parents.  We were looking for somewhere to eat & the signs on the freeway indicated there was an Indian restaurant & a Taqueria – so it seemed we would have access to something other than fast food & Denny’s.  The taqueria in question was Tita’s Pupuseria.   There was some pretty decent signage leading us to it so I was surprised to discover it is really a food truck – as you can see HERE.  I love food trucks – so that didn’t throw me.  What did throw me was an apparent lack of anything meatless – except for a rather exotic-sounding “squash & cheese pupusa.”

Now – I have lived in LA for 28 years and I am not proud of the fact that I speak only Mexican restaurant menu Spanish.  I have the words for coffee, sugar & milk down, too.  And beer.  That’s about it.   This food truck taught me I knew less Spanish than I thought – even of the food related category.  Pupusa.  WTF is a pupusa?  I don’t like the sound of the word “pupusa.”  It makes me envision a chubby vulva.  I cannot explain why.

Speaking of vulvas, and I often do, if you are unaware of the erotifying vaginal scent – “Vulva – Original” – you need to correct that – immediately!  Look HERE – and be sure to watch the video at the top of the page.  HILARITY – I assure you!  And – know that I put my money where my mouth is (and that just sounds super gay – given what I am discussing) and I acquired some VULVA.  See?

This is a real crowd pleaser.  It is very satisfying to have the actual stuff to pull out after making party guests watch the ad.  To date – only one guy that I can remember seemed to think Vulva swelled at all like an “orjanic” woman.  I think it smells like vaguely rancid cooking oil or an old bike chain.  Others have their opinions.  Nobody appeared “erotified” after smelling it, though.  So – if this ad struck a chord with you – I recommend you stick to sniffing the seats on bicycles & save your $50.

Anyway – back to pupusas.  Somehow, some way – after 28 years in LA – I have no fucking idea what a pupusa is.  The only thing I could guess – and it’s what I always thought when I drove by “pupuserias” – because they obviously were not peddling chubby vulvas in there – was that it had to do with octopus.  I’d drive by & think, “Those Spanish speaking folks sure love to eat their cephalopods.”  OK.  I thought, “Those Hispanics sure eat a lot of octopus.”  And I don’t know why I thought it was octopus.  Maybe Octopussy was some subliminal influence – given my first definition of pupusa.  Then I looked up the word for octopus in Spanish – and found that it is “el pulpo.”  So – that’s what I am going with now.  I feel I must have seen octopus on the menu at – like – El 7 Mares some time in the late eighties & just walked away thinking pupusa meant octopus.  Pupusa – el pulpo?  Who can be expected to keep it straight?  They just have a different word for everything in Spanish – don’t they?  So difficult.

As an aside – check out this cutie octopus hiding under & then running with his little coconut house.   Using tools & planning for the future are signs of advanced intelligence.  Conversely – believing anything Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan say – is a sign of the opposite.

Yeah, yeah.  Cheap shot.  Moving on.

To make a long story short – I couldn’t bring myself to order the pupusa – whether it turned out to be octopus or a big twat stuffed with squash & cheese.  Funny that I was so uptight about it since what I really wanted was a fish taco.  Oh – so many vagina jokes!  I’m the next Don Rickles.

So – my parents and I pulled back out on the road & spotted another food truck, nestled in the corner of the Arco parking lot.  We decided to see if they might have a seafood option on the menu.

Here is Elsy’s Antojitos:

And guess what?  They had tacos de pescado – which I KNEW meant seafood tacos!  That’s my stepdad ordering us food.  We each got two tacos & a huge, ICE COLD Mexican Coke and I think it all cost about $15.  Nice!

While we waited for the food – and it took a surprisingly long time (which was the result of it all being made to order – a GOOD thing) – I had an epiphany & realized I could end the whole pupusa mystery by just Googling it.  Duh.  From the Elsy’s site:

Pupusas

Pupusas are basically corn tortillas stuffed with any combination of pork, cheese, beans, and a few other ingredients. They’re cooked for 8-12 minutes over a griddle by our skilled pupusa artesans.

Skilled pupusa artisans?  Is that Spanish for lesbian?

Oh – the hits!  They just keep coming.

And I’m leaving that joke alone.

So – we ordered a cheese one of these pupusas.  I will say up front – it is more like a thick stuffed pita than corn tortilla – or a really doughy quesadilla.  See HERE.

It was kinda greasy & not my thing – but I can also report – absolutely nothing like a chubby vulva.   BUT – the seafood tacos were EXCEPTIONAL!  They came with a grilled serrano pepper which was also yummy.

They were red hot & fresh & spicy & just about perfect.  Sitting outside at picnic tables on a perfect late summer day – all three of us enjoyed our meal at Elsy’s tremendously!

So – if you ever find yourself in Buttonwillow – blow off that Indian place.  Hit Elsy’s.  Or try the joynt across the street & order the squash & cheese pupusas.   I’m curious about those!!!!  Does that make me “bi-curious?”

No.  I’m not.  But I am also not – it appears – above churlish, immature vagina references.  So sue me.  🙂