My favorite source of burritos and pupusas

Many San Franciscans consider the Mission (Dolores) District the birthplace of the burrito, a steamed flour tortilla filled with chopped meat, salsa and beans (pinto, refried or black) and rolled up like bedrolls carried on donkeys (burros). Still other connoisseurs suggest that Mexican farm workers in the vicinity of Delano in the California Central Valley invented the burrito.

Regardless, everyone has their personal preference on where the best burrito -- and pupusas, a treat from El Salvador -- can be found.

For me, the salsa verde (pork with green salsa) burrito from La Paz on Potrero Avenue, across from San Francisco General Hospital, is among the very best. The Salvadorean/Mexican also has wonderful pupusas.

I don't know if pupusas are the national dish of El Salvador, never having been to the country, but it is a distinctive dish in San Francisco Salvadorean restaurants, and less expensive even than burritos, a traditional low-budget staple in the Mission district.

A pupusa is a hand-made corn patty masa harina (generally the Maseca brand) typically stuffed with cheese (soft cheese called quesillo that does not really melt), or cheese and pre-cooked ground pork (called chicharrón, though different from the deep-fried pork rind called chicharrón in Mexico), or both, combined with beans. In every place serving pupusas to which I've been in San Francisco, a minimum order is two, though they need not have the same fillings. Pupusas are served with a fermented cabbage and vinegar dish called curtido and a chileless tomato salsa.

Local "best of" lists generally favor Balompié Cafe on 18^th Street (there are other locations on Seventh Street and in the outer Mission), a sports bar and restaurant that has more different kinds of pupusa fillings than any other place I've been. However, I recently ordered shrimp and cheese ones that did not seem to have any shrimp, or even the taste of ground shrimp shells.

I didn't think that the regular pupusas at Balompié were in any way superior to those at La Paz. The ones at Balompié cost $2.50 each (the specialty ones $3.50), whereas they are two for $3 at La Paz. Similarly super burritos are $5.50 at La Paz.

La Taqueria on Mission and 25th also has good burritos, although La Paz is still better. Plain ones are about $6.50. Though people are often divided about whether there should be Spanish rice in their burritos, that's not a problem at La Taqueria, where rice is not included. Avocado, cheese and sour cream are options.

The service is slow, but friendly, at both La Paz and Balompié. There is no table service at La Taqueria.

La Paz Restaurant/Pupueria
1028 Potrero Ave.
(415) 550-8313

La Taqueria
2889 Mission St.
(415) 285-7117‎

Balompie Cafe
3349 18th St.
(415) 648-9199