The secret is out.
Ray’s BBQ, one of L.A.’s de facto authorities in Texas-style smoked meats, also makes pupusas packed with tender brisket.
The pupusas are only offered on Saturdays at the Huntington Park restaurant and can only be made by the hands of Anabell Ramirez, matriarch of the family-run business, which she launched in 2014 with her late husband, Rene Ramirez.
“This is a special item that we kind of gate-kept,” says Sebastian Ramirez, the family’s eldest son, who now runs the business alongside his mom and brother, Raul. “At the moment, only she knows how to do it because it's not as easy as it may seem to make pupusas. The consistency, the ingredient ratio, all matters. You just can't really go out anywhere and get a good pupusa.”
These fat frisbees of Masaeca-based masa have a thin, crisp outer shell, splitting easily into an extremely hot mess of stretchy mozzarella, creamy Salvadoran frijoles de seda, soft corn dough, and hand-chopped brisket that’s been smoked for 16-18 hours on post oak in the bellies of Ray’s two behemoth J&R Smoke-Masters.