Of the numerous nations of Central America, the cuisine of El Salvador is the easiest to find here in Southern California — pupuserias are everywhere, and a good thing it is, too. After that, there’s a sharp decline in culinary representation of the cooking of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Belize, Panama and Honduras.
Which is not to say that we’re without. And when it comes to the tasty chow of Honduras, there are several options — including the Honduras Restaurant in Reseda, Honduras House over on Vermont, Rincon Hondureno on West Adams, Dona Bibi’s downtown — and right off the 405 on Burbank Boulevard, the lively El Katracho, which is notable not just for its tasty chow, but for being open till 2 in the morning on weekends.
With its Caribbean coast (Honduras doesn’t touch the Atlantic), the cooking of Tegucigalpa and environs is a tasty mix of Latino and Afro-Cuban, with perhaps a touch of Puerto Rican tossed in just for the fun of it. The defining dish — and there’s always a defining dish — is the baleada, a thick, soft, very tasty tortilla equivalent, folded over fried beans, melted cheese, a cream sauce and whatever protein you ask for (chopped meat, egg and avocado, chopped meat and egg). It’s like a quesadilla, but not fried and sealed. It’s pretty big, and looks daunting. And it vanishes fast, especially with a squirt of the house hot sauce, L’Olanche from Honduras.
El Katracho, notable for a large sign overhead, easy to see going to or from the freeway, attracts lots of families with small children. Children who were fascinated by the Honduran TV shows playing on the overhead big screens, which were a bit hard to parse.
If you’re a beer aficionado, there are a pair of Honduran brews on the menu — Port Royal and Salva, which you can add to your bucket list of tasting all the beers of the world. But if you really want to sip on a bit of exotica, try the refrescos naturales — which include the juice of a citrusy berry called nance fruit, an addiction in the making. There’s maracuya as well, which is passion fruit. And, of course, tamarind, lemon, guava and horchata — good stuff that made me feel as if I was lounging in a tropical resort.
El Katracho opens early in the morning, serving a breakfast menu of eggs with ham, fried beans, cheese, cream, avocado, fried plantains and those thick, soft flour tortillas. There are several variations on that particular theme. But there are also a trio of plantain breakfasts — sweet fried plantains, and green fried plantains, with eggs and without. If baleadas are the defining dish, then plantains are the defining ingredient. Chances are good you’ll get some, no matter what you order.
There are several shrimp dishes on the menu, which I was leaning toward — until an order of mojarra frita came wafting by for another table. And mojarra frita it was — a flat whole fish, fried to the point of being a fish chip, with a skin so crunchy you can eat it like a side dish, and not as much meat as you might expect, amidst a forest of small bones — care needs to be taken. But it’s worth it; when I was finished, the fish looked like something out of a Loony Toons cartoon.
Less demanding, by far, was the grilled beef steak (with plantains), the fried chicken (with plantains), the fried plantains with shredded beef, the fried plantains with pork skin. There’s a large selection of very substantial soups, many of which are a reminder of the waters off the coast — conch soup, shrimp soup, Seven Seas soup. Should you be wondering, mondongo soup is tripe. There’s no plantain soup. Though probably not for lack of trying.
Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Send him email at mreats@aol.com.
El Katracho
Rating: 2 stars.
Address: 14838 Burbank Blvd., Sherman Oaks.
Information: 818-780-7044.
Cuisine: Honduran.
When: Breakfast, lunch and dinner, every day.
Details: Beer and wine; reservations helpful.
Atmosphere: Like a cafe on a side street in Tegucigalpa.
Prices: About $15 per person.
Suggested dishes: Breakfast ($7.50-$10), appetizers ($2-$9.50), soups ($9.50-$20), Baleadas ($2.50-$9), seafood ($11.50-$14).
Cards: MC, V.