Rincon Centroamericano, an offshoot of the Pupusa Loca chain, spent ten years at 163rd Street in the Bronx until one day its rickety building was condemned and it was forced out without notice. Owner Regina Ayala, a native of El Salvador’s La Liberdad region, had trouble finding cheap rent even in the BX, but luckily her sister, who lived an hour away in Rockaway Park, clued her into the former home of a Jamaican restaurant, and the restaurant has now reopened under the name La Joya de Ceren (after an ancient farming village preserved by volcanic ash). Heck, we might just travel from the Bronx to Rockaway just to try the seviche (see it for yourself in our slideshow) — to say nothing of the pupusas, a relative rarity in this taco-mad city.
As for the space, the front bar is waiting for its license to sell Gallo beers (in the meantime, horchata as well as cashew, barley, and a variety of other juices are fit to be toted a couple of blocks to the beach), and the gigantic fireplace in the side room will eventually be powered with gas. Here’s the menu, pending some tweaks. Interestingly enough, the paper version includes calorie counts, so you know your pupusa with loroco flower and cheese is 400 calories while the tripe soup is 306 (don’t worry — nothing’s over 1,000).
Appetizers
1. Mexican quesadilla - chicken or beef - $4.95
2. Pupusas with cheese and red beans - $1.75
3. Pupusas with cheese mixed with pork rinds - $1.75
4. Pupusa with loroco - $2.25
5. Pupusa f rice f bor - $2.50
6. Eggs, beans, sour cream with two tortillas - $5
7. Sweet banana with sour cream - $3
8. Fried yucca with pork rinds - $4.50
9. Fried yucca with fish - $4.50
10. Corn tamal - $2
11. Fried corn tamal - $2
12. Pork tamal - $2
13. Chicken tamal - $2
14. Meat pastries - $2
15. Tacos with fried chicken and beef - $2
16. Clam cocktail - $7
17. Shrimp cocktail - $9
18. Ceviche of octopus, clam, shrimp, snail, and crab - $12
19. Mixed ceviche - $8.50
20. Shrimp ceviche - $9
21. Typical Salvadorian plate - $7
22. Clams in tomato sauce - $7
23. Clams in white sauce - $7
24. Clams ½ doz - $6
25. Salvadorian breakfast - $7
Soups
1. Seafood soup - $7.50
2. Chicken soup - $6.50
3. Meat soup - $6.50
4. Fish soup - $6.50
5. Crab soup - $6.50
6. Tripe soup - $6
7. Shrimp soup - $7.50
8. Special seafood soup - $13
9. Snail soup - $13
10. Poultry hen soup - $10
Chicken
1. Chicken with onions - $7.50
2. Chicken breast in white wine sauce - $10
3. Chicken breast in tomato sauce - $10
4. Breaded chicken breast - $10
5. Chicken breast stuffed with ham and cheese in white wine sauce - $11
6. Broiled chicken in garlic sauce - $7.50
7. Sauteed chicken breast with peppers and onions - $9
Salads
1. Avocado - $3
2. Mixed Salad - $2.50
3. Tomatoes and red onion salad - $2.50
4. Cheese, tomatoes and red onion salad - $4
Meats
1. Broiled pork chops and beef - $10
2. Churrasco (special tender thin beef) - $13
3. Broiled steak - $10
4. Combination of beef and chicken - $10
5. Salted beef steak - $10
6. Beef in tomato sauce - $10
7. Beef with onions - $10
8. Beef stuffed with ham and cheese in mushroom sauce - $12
9. Broiled sirloin steak - $12
10. Sirloin steak in tomato sauce - $14.50
11. Broiled filet mignon - $14.95
12. Parillada (comb, chicken, sausage, pork and beef) - $14
13. Filet mignon in tomato sauce - $14.95
14. Sea and earth - $14
Pork
1. Seasoned pork - $10
2. Broiled pork chops - $10
3. Fried pork chops - $10
4. Pork chops in tomato sauce - $10
5. Boneless pork steak broiled - $10
6. Boneless pork steak in tomato sauce - $10
Seafood
1. Filet of fish in white wine - $12.25
2. Broiled filet of fish - $12.25
3. Filet of fish in tomato sauce - $12.25
4. Fried filet of fish - $12
5. Red snapper stuffed with shrimp - $15
6. Fried shrimp - $13.75
7. Shrimp with chili sauce - $13.75
8. Shrimp in white wine sauce - $13.75
9. Shrimp scampi - $13.75
10. Breaded shrimp - $13.75
11. Shrimp in garlic sauce - $13.75
12. Fried red snapper - $15
13. Red snapper in tomato sauce - $15
14. Red snapper with onions - $15
15. Fried porgy - $14.50
16. Porgy with onions - $14.50
17. Broiled slice of fish - $8
18. Fried slice of fish - $8
19. Slice of fish in tomato sauce - $8.25
20. Slice of fish in white wine sauce - $8.25
21. Combination fish and shrimp - $14.75
Desserts
1. Chilate con Nuegado - $4
2. Quesadilla - $3.50
3. Empanadas de pina - $1
4. Empanadas de platano - $2
5. Semita Salvadorian - $5.50
6. Semita Hondurena - $6
7. Special Salvadorian baby corn dessert - $3
La Joya de Ceren Restaurante, 112–16 Rockaway Beach Blvd., nr. 112th St., Rockaway Park; 718-318-1820
