The most popular fillings are cheese (queso), refried beans (frijoles), and chicharrón (seasoned pork). Many pupuserias — small restaurants or stalls that specialise only in pupusas — offer a revuelta, which means 'mixed', combining all three fillings in one. The cook presses the filling into the centre of a ball of dough, seals it up, pats it flat into a disc about the size of your hand, and slaps it onto a hot comal (a round metal griddle).
Pupusas are almost always served with curtido — a tangy, lightly fermented coleslaw made from shredded cabbage, carrots, and vinegar — and a mild tomato salsa. The curtido's crunch and tang balance the rich, soft pupusa perfectly. Salvadorans eat pupusas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and many people say that no meal feels complete without one.
Every family and every cook has their own way of making pupusas. Some press the dough thicker, some add loroco flower (a local edible flower with a rich, nutty taste), and some use ayote (squash) as a filling. Street stalls called pupuserias line every town in El Salvador, and the smell of masa cooking on a hot griddle is one of the most familiar and welcoming aromas in the country.
In 2005, El Salvador officially declared November 13th as National Pupusa Day (Día Nacional de la Pupusa). Every year on that date, Salvadorans all over the world celebrate by cooking and eating pupusas together. It is a day of genuine national pride in a dish that has fed families for over two millennia.