Casey and I went to La Balompie, an El Salvadorean restaurant in the Mission, on 18th and Capp (a block or two past Mission if you're walking away from Valencia). We met her friends Alisha and Oneida there.

I had a corn pupusa with loroco and cheese, and a rice pupusa with beans and cheese. They mixed up my order and Casey's, and also got one of Alisha's pupusas wrong, and brought an extra order of plantains to the table (Casey said something about her plato, and the woman heard this as platanos).

I thought I'd like the corn tortilla better, but the rice pupusa was actually really nice and toasty-tasting. Cheese oozed out of both and got deliciously browned and crunchy. We had cool, crunchy, sour cabbage slaw to contrast, and a rust-colored, liquid, spicy salsa.

Casey told us about how you're supposed to eat them: cut open the top like a pita, put in some cabbage and salsa, and then eat the whole thing with your hands. The last time she was there with Colin, he had started eating his with a knife and fork, and a man at the next table said to his family, "Look, they know a different way to eat pupusas." Casey turned around and said, "Oh, he's English" and the man got really embarrassed, and then wouldn't stop talking to her in Spanish.

The plantains were nice with sour cream.

I had a glass of melon juice (cantaloupe). I wouldn't get it again--too sweet, I'm just not fond enough of melons.

I also got some disappointing empanadas. They were basically stuffed fried sweet plantains with a thick, stiff, pure white "custard" inside that looked like a hard-boiled egg. Far too dense, oily, sweet, and rich.