Serving up one of the authentic dishes from El Salvador, the Guanaco Pupusa truck has hit the streets in this new round of food carts approved by the City of Vancouver to work the booming street food scene.
The truck has only been working downtown Vancouver (Seymour and Georgia) since May 1st, 2012 and it’s become and instant hit with locals and visitors to the city. I’ve had pupusa’s before in East van on Commercial Drive so I was familiar and hooked already. There extremely labor intensive to make and restaurants usually have someone dedicated to making the pupusa’s-each one has to be hand formed from corn masa, filled and then fried on a flat top grill and this is all done to order.
The menu offers 3 different variety’s of pupusa’s, some delish appys and a couple of dessert selections.
A variety of homemade drinks are available as well. They have the traditional horchata as well as a tamarind fruit, a pink beverage made from barley and colored with crushed seeds. I had the barley drink and it was flavored nicely with cinnamon. If you like horchata then you’ll like this as well seeing they taste very similar.
I made my first visit on opening day after their lunch rush but it was still packed. All pupusa’s are served with curtido (picked slaw) and salsa de tomate (fresh tomato sauce) and yuca frita, they ran out of yuca by the time I got there so they gave me a Pasteles to try.
The Curtido is a bit spicy but very refreshing and cuts the richness of the pupusa.
There salsa de tomate is bright and not spicy, when eaten with the pupusa it definitely brightened the flavor.
The Pasteles was a nice treat. It’s a deep-fried maize pocket stuffed with beef or chicken, cheese and vegetables. This had a lot of the flavor combinations I like, cheesy goodness, a nice crisp deep-fried crust and flavorful beef. I’d definitely order this again seeing it’s perfect for eating on the go.
On another visit I managed to get some of the Yuca Frita. I think I like these more than fries. The yuca is really crisp on the outside and it’s light and very airy on the inside-great for dipping in the salsa de tomate.
The 1st pupusa I had Revueltas pupusa for $8.50. It has a filling of seasoned pork with vegetables, cheese and refried black beans. This is the pupusa that I wold recommend to anyone trying the Guanaco truck for the first time. The meat was nicely seasoned and very flavorful without being blow your mouth off hot. The pupusa’s here are a bit bigger than I’ve had other places, getting one is a nice lunch that will fill you up. On another visit I had the Queso Y Frijoles pupusa and while I found it good flavor wise I still preferred the Revuleltas only because I’m a meat eater.
The Guanaco truck is a welcome to the amazing line up of food carts and trucks we have on the scene. I’d recommend them to anyone looking for something different street eat wise. They take cash or credit cards and you can find them on the Eat St app or the Street food app depending on your preference.
I was joined by 
The next item on the menu for me was the Kebab Burger with 1/2 fries and 1/2 salad.
My kebab burger was made from juicy heritage beef and mixed with herbs and spices. The toppings on this bad boy were the typical shawarma toppings-humus, lettuce and tabouleh. The humus was something that I have never had on a burger and was totally delicious. That’s not ketchup on my burger by the way-it’s Sriracha chili sauce, it added a nice zip to the flavorful toppings and kebab meat.
The new Cactus Club Cafe at English Bay has not only become known for its amazing view but it’s also a place where you could find a 90 minute or more wait for a table at dinner. I made my visit on a lunch hour so I was able to get a table on the patio without a problem.
The feature drink of the night was appropriately named Dragon’s Breath. It was there Basil and Lychee Lemonade spiked with vodka, it was completely refreshing and went down real easy.
