When Ana Iris Rodas was a child in El Salvador, she desired assisting her grandmother in a kitchen.
Ana Iris, famous as “Anita” in her family, pronounced her grandmother was obvious in their tiny town, Tacuba, for tamales, sausages and pastries she sole from a emporium in her house.
“She was always busy,” Anita remembered, “and we wanted to be subsequent to her.”
Anita took honour in a tiny tasks her grandmother assigned, that enclosed restraining tamales with fibre and adding sugarine to bread dough. Over a years, she schooled any recipe by heart.
Last summer, she followed her grandmother’s entrepreneurial suggestion and non-stop a business in Merriam. Anita’s Cuisine, 5816 Merriam Drive, serves Salvadoran and Mexican specialties.
Anita runs her friendly six-booth grill with her 27-year-old daughter, Steffanie, who takes orders, clears tables and helps in a kitchen. Anita’s husband, Hugo, and son, Brian, representation in when they’re not bustling with their other jobs.
Anita’s is open daily for breakfast and lunch from 6 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., though Steffanie says she and her mom wish to enhance with cooking after on.
The robust breakfast menu is served all day. It facilities huevos rancheros ($5.50), a tamale platter with dual eggs ($6), and chilaquiles ($6), a normal Mexican image that consists of boiled corn tortillas layered with salsa and served with refried beans, eggs and a choice of chorizo, ham, bacon or sausage.
Looking for a deal? Order a breakfast burrito ($3) and squeeze a crater of coffee, that is giveaway to business until 2 p.m.
Lunch options embody Mexican transport — tacos, tortas, enchiladas — as good as Anita’s specialty, pupusas. The thick handmade corn tortillas cost $2.25 each. They’re pressed with a customer’s choice of cheese, beans and/or shredded pig (I like all three) and served prohibited with a side of cold curtido, a slaw done of carrots, cabbage and onions.
Anita also serves homestyle dishes such as pollo empanizado ($7.99 with a drink), that pairs breaded, griddled duck breast with refried beans and rice. Anita’s Platter ($6.99 with a drink) consists of beef simmered with potatoes and tomatoes. It’s also served with rice and beans.
The grill offers daily and monthly specials. we attempted a sauteed shrimp plate, that is $8 during Lent, and devise to lapse for a platanos fritos breakfast platter ($6), boiled plantains with rice, beans, dual eggs and queso fresco. It would make a good pre-Ikea dish — a mega home store is reduction than half a mile divided from Anita’s and we can see a blue and yellow extraneous from a restaurant’s front windows.
Popular daily specials embody $1 crispy beef tacos on Tuesdays, and $5 for dual pupusas and a can of soda on Fridays.
Steffanie’s favorite menu object is panes rellenos ($6.50 with a drink, or $6 on Wednesdays). The Salvadoran duck sandwich is seasoned with spices and a spirit of chocolate and surfaced with coleslaw, cucumbers and radishes.
“We used to eat that for Thanksgiving,” Steffanie said. Now she can sequence one whenever she wants.
Steffanie left her pursuit as a medical partner to work during Anita’s Cuisine. She wanted to assistance her mom, who spent years operative prolonged days in food trucks and propagandize cafeterias, “achieve her American dream,” she said.
Anita loves cooking for her clinging unchanging customers, who frequently call her “Mom.” Often, when she’s restraining tamales or pouring sugarine to make flan, she thinks of her grandmother, who upheld down a significance of food and family.
“How we start in life is a many critical thing,” Anita said.
“I started with joy.”
Anita’s Cuisine
Location: 5816 Merriam Drive, Merriam
Phone: 913-432-5855
Hours: 6 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday
Credit cards: Yes
Parking: Free lot
Don’t miss: The Salvadoran pupusas ($2.25 each), thick corn tortillas pressed with beans, cheese and pork. If you’re there for breakfast, try a tamales platter ($6) or a platanos fritos breakfast special ($6), a image of dual boiled eggs, boiled plantains, refried beans and queso fresco.
Vegetarian: Order a pupusas with beans and cheese only. They come with a side of curtido, a slaw done of carrots, cabbage and onions.
More info: On Facebook
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