Ana’s more like a tent on the sidewalk where pupusas are made. I passed by it a couple of times in the evening, wanted to try, but both times I already ate. Finally the third time I needed dinner and its a great chance to stop by.
I first stopped by the credit union ATM nearby to get cash. This was my bank account for a specific purpose so I only had $116 in it that day. I decided to withdraw $100. Didn’t think much when the ATM asked how I’d like my notes.
Well, the machine spat out a big fat $100 bill. Now, what do you do in this situation? I can’t go back to the ATM to get more cash, since there’s only $16 left. May be I can try depositing the bill back in and withdraw again, but I don’t know if they put a hold on the deposit. So I clutched my bill, put on a brave face and headed to the tent.
There were 4 or 5 people surrounding the tent waiting for their orders There wasn’t really a place or way to order per se. So I just walked up to the tent and waited while the senoras cooked. They didn’t turn around. Some neighbors took pity on me and told them a gringo wanted to order. So I just went with the flow and called out my revueltas order which they acknowledged from the griddle. I wasn’t even sure if there were even choices.
A few minutes later, they handed me my three pupusas. I sheepishly handed over my $100 bill expected to be told what’s wrong with you gringo, but the senora was too nice to do that. She did have some trouble scouring for changes and took like 2 minutes to find enough. I got $90 back, and of course, quite embarrassed the whole time for putting her through this ordeal.
I started eating the pupusas a few minutes later. The hot masa tasted soooooo aromatic. It was particularly satisfying in a cold winter evening. The masa was griddled just crispy enough on the outside to give it a great texture. The tomato sauce went really well with it. The pupusas also came with a bag of curtido.
Ana’s are probably my favorite pupusas from the last decade. Second place was from a kitchen inside a pool place, also in Redwood City, closed down long ago.
I finished all my pupusas in a few minutes. It wasn’t quite enough for dinner. So this time I headed back and tried to get some more. She’s about to shut down shop for the evening when I arrived at ~7:30. I asked for three more. She said she only had two and i said i would take them.
She gave me the two, and then insisted they were free. I felt of course very bad because I already caused her enough hassle earlier, and I was about to become a freeloader. I protested and insisted on paying, but to no avail. Not really going to convince the senora with my limited vocab I just thanked her, drove home, and enjoyed my two pupusas.
There are no entries for Ana’s on Yelp or Google Map. They were at the corner of Dumbarton Ave/ Middlefield on Monday evenings. There’s road construction on Middlefield at night so there may be road closures/ detour around that stretch. Not sure what their days/ hours are. They don’t speak English so learn how to order pupusas before you go, e.g. 'Cinco pupusas por favor." “Loroco/ revuelta” “gracias”.
Btw, I didn’t write this because they gave me free pupusas. I wrote it because the pupusas were good.
