The nuegados at Mi Comalito are straight from El Salvador: six patties of queso dura (hard white cheese) and yucca, deep fried and resting in a pool of sweet syrup made from boiled sugar cane, with a pleasantly burnt flavor reminiscent of low grade maple syrup. Late last year, owner/chef Wilson Gutierrez, a native of El Salvador, leased a tiny spot in Charles Village—an area he found devoid of Central American food—painted the walls bright yellow and red and started making recipes he had learned in his home country. Gutierrez also prepares food from Mexico and Honduras, fresh and inexpensive, accompanied by soft, chewy handmade corn tortillas. Rivaling anything we’ve tried in the Upper Fells/Patterson Park area known as Little Mexico, we enjoyed Plato Típico Salvadoreño, shrimp and chicken in a tomato-tinged cream sauce with thin slices of steak, rice and salad, and the Mariscada seafood soup bursting with lobster, shrimp and clams. BYOB. 2101 N. Charles St., 410-837-6033.
