El Salvador’s national dish, a thick corn tortilla stuffed with cheese and beans, is the pupusa.
A pupusa is a handmade, griddle-cooked flatbread formed from corn masa or rice flour and filled before cooking. Popular fillings include cheese, refried beans, chicharrón, loroco, and squash. Pupusas are usually served with curtido, a lightly pickled cabbage slaw, and a mild tomato salsa.
The dish has pre-Columbian Mesoamerican roots and is strongly associated with El Salvador, though related traditions and longstanding claims also connect pupusas with neighboring Honduras. El Salvador officially celebrates National Pupusa Day on the second Sunday of November, a recognition of the food’s cultural importance.
Pupusas are often confused with gorditas and arepas because all can involve round, filled corn-based breads. The preparation differs: a pupusa is stuffed inside the dough and cooked as a thick disk, while a gordita is commonly split or opened after cooking, and arepas belong primarily to Colombian and Venezuelan culinary traditions.