At 9:56 a.m. on November 19th, 2024, Los Angeles pupusería Los Molcajetes invented their “Salvi Breakfast Burrito.” It was a planned and half-happy accident, but the city of L.A. and the world are both better for it.
This innovation on the famed breakfast burritos, of purported New Mexican origins, was built with distinctly Salvadoran ingredients. Instead of hashbrowns, it has yuca frita. Instead of bacon, sausage, or ham, it is filled with chicharrón, chorizo Salvadoreño, and bacon.
What remains of the familiar is a flour tortilla, bacon, eggs, and Monterey Jack cheese. The final Salvi touch is an added curtido, the lightly pickled cabbage blend that cuts through the burrito's savory richness. It is the latest win in a city of champions.
It’s very fitting that Los Molcajetes, a Koreatown-based Salvadoran restaurant with a Mexican name, created this breakfast burrito. The original owners bought the restaurant in 1979. It was a sound business idea to keep the signage as is. In the process, founders Dona Maria Luisa and Juan Gonzalez have created a legacy now helmed by their grandchildren, owners Daniel Gold and Lorena Guzman Gold.
“The Salvi breakfast burrito is very L.A.,” Daniel Gold says, recounting the origins of their creation.
Gold is a contractor who has worked in construction for over 20 years. He says this line of work has brought him in contact with numerous breakfast burritos over the years.
“When you’re swinging a hammer, you want something quick to eat, and you can only eat so much McDonald’s before you want something home-cooked,” he says.
Gold notes that the burrito was something he has wanted to serve since they moved to their recent location on Mariposa and 3rd Street, after spending 24 years in the corner of a cramped strip mall off Hoover and 7th Street.
His worlds of construction and running restaurants have collided, as Gold has spent the last year building the new restaurant location from the ground up. This building project inspired him. He said he wanted to make a breakfast item that was mobile and, most importantly, Salvadoran.
Even though he is of Japanese and Jewish ancestry, he’s spent the last 15 years working on the family business with his wife and fellow co-owner, Lorena Guzman Gold. He eats at the restaurant every day, and on one occasion, decided to test out the Salvadoran palate through a Mexican-American tradition.
On that fateful day in November, he told his line cook, Lidia Monzòn, exactly what he wanted in a breakfast burrito: yuca frita, eggs, avocado, and Salvi cheese, with the addition of chicharrón, bacon, or salvi chorizo.
Lidia thought he meant "and" instead of "or" when it came to the meats, so she combined them all and created a masterpiece. This breakfast burrito could be called a “burrito loco” after the Salvadoran tradition of putting everything inside a pupusa and calling it a “pupusa loca.”
Lorena and Daniel are both excited about this happy accident. I am, too. Biting into it, it’s instantly recognizable and yet, totally new. It makes me wonder why no one has ever thought of this before.
Los Angeles has a plethora of classic breakfast burrito spots and just as many novel ones popping up every so often. This one feels original but without the usual gimmickry. It feels like it’s been around longer than it really has and maybe that’s due to the familiarity of its ingredients.
This breakfast burrito is genuinely “very L.A.” It reflects the time and place well, with Salvadoran cooks and a Japanese-Jewish co-creator taking on a Mexican favorite that was originally an amalgamation of Mexican and North American cuisine itself in Koreatown.
Los Angeles is ever a diverse city. This Salvi breakfast burrito is a handy and edible reminder of our cultural riches.
Los Molcajetes ~ 269 S. Mariposa Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90004
