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By Christine Fillat
Annapolis is home to a variety of world cuisine restaurants, reflecting the diversity of this area. Caliente Grill serves Salvadorian, Peruvian, and Mexican dishes. The bar is a busy meeting place where neighborhood locals stop by and engage in pleasant banter with Claudia, the affable server, as they pick up to-go orders on their way home from work.
It was there at the bar where I first witnessed someone drinking a Michelada. It looks like a Bloody Mary but is made with beer instead of vodka. A bottle of Corona is perched upside down on the rim like an amusing science experiment sipped through a straw. This drink must be seen to be appreciated. Other drinks at the Grill are a very lemony lemonade (definitely homemade), a substantial margarita, a spicy margarita with jalapeño slices, and a magnificent Mezcalita de Piña: mezcal, pineapple, jalapeño, and lime juice served in a spice-rimmed pineapple cup.
The dish that captured our hearts and our taste buds is the pupusa, considered the national dish of El Salvador. Each pupusa is made to order in the kitchen. The chef flattens a ball of dough in the palm of his hand (dough of either flour or cornmeal), then encloses a mound of filling within the dough. The filling could consist of such things as zucchini and ayote (squash), chicken, or beans, but it always includes cheese. Then, the chef flattens the mixture by hand, patting it into a pancake shape, and fries the resulting flattened-filled dough on the grill. This is a somewhat time-consuming sequence, but the results are quite delicious. There is something to be said for a dish entirely constructed by hand.
The pupusa platter is served with a fermented cabbage salad, a house-made red salsa, and a choice of sides. My dining partner chose fried plantain, which was delicious. It is the marriage of all these components that makes the pupusa such a satisfying dish: the creamy pancake, the crunchy freshness of the salad, and the spicy richness of the salsa. Really, one pupusa is plenty filling. This could be your entire meal.
But then other choices call to us from the menu. The Peruvian Ceviche Mixto is a citrusy mixture of fresh seafood: tilapia, shrimp, octopus, and calamari, with onion, tiger’s milk, corn, and sweet potato. We liked the ceviche for its light freshness.
The Mariscada seafood soup is recommended to us as a popular dish. Composed with a selection of seafood, this soup has a wonderful, earthy broth. While most of the seafood was lovely, the crab lacked the lightness we would have enjoyed.
Pan Salvadoreño is a chicken sandwich. But not just any old chicken sandwich. This is the sort of chicken sandwich we dream of. The juicy chicken breast is layered with lettuce, tomato, escabeche (pickled vegetables), radish, beets, and lots of mayo, all on toasted French bread.
The guacamole is homemade and tastes like it. It is chunky, spicy, and completely lovely.
Mar y Tierra is a dish of grilled flank steak with chicken, shrimp, and grilled onions and peppers. Served with delicious homemade tortillas, this dish lacked the verve to make it really memorable. The steak is tough. And while the chicken is quite good, the shrimp is unremarkable.
We have churros for dessert. With a chocolate dipping sauce, this is the perfect ending for an interesting meal.
Decorated with earnest artworks, the Grill’s modest but festive interior is spacious enough to accommodate special events when the place seriously rocks, as it does on salsa night and family night.
This place is something special. Many of the choices on the menu bid us to return sometime, like the Chile Rellenos and the Costillas de Cerdo, a slow-cooked Creole pork rib dish. The service may be slow at times, but be patient. The food is worth the wait.
CALIENTE GRILL
907 Bay Ridge Road, Annapolis, MD 21403 | 410.626.1444 | calientegrillannapolis.com
Hours of Operation:
M-Th 11:00 am – 9:00 pm
F-Sat 11:00 am – 11:00 pm
© Annapolis Home Magazine
Vol. 15, No. 5 2024