Lady in the Window
Patricia Salas Quesada is a 53-year-old woman, who lives next to the first bus stop from La Carpio, near the San Martin de Porras Child Care. She started her cooking business three years ago while trying to help her sister who was unemployed. They decided to start a little “Soda” and made one of the windows of her house a little bigger in order to sell the food through it. A few months after they started, her sister told her that it was too hard to work as a cook and she left her sister by herself with the business.
Mrs. Salas cooks all sorts of things, from fried eggs to full meals like “Casados” and at any time of the day. She loves to cook everything fresh, so if you want to buy something from her, you’ll have to wait at least 10 minutes to enjoy a delicious meal.
Something very unique from Mrs. Salas is that she cooks for the early risers. Many people leave to work around 4:30 am and 5:00 am and they don’t have time to cook their meals of the day, so they call her ahead of time and order what they want to eat, and then they pick it up from her window before the sun in up.
Before this pandemic, Mrs. Salas opened until 12:00 am and there would be many people coming and going and calling to order pick up, but in March when the pandemic started, she started to have fewer and fewer people. She lives with her 20-year-old son, who works and helps with money, and with her husband who works as a security guard so he helps her a little in the morning and then he has to go to sleep.
Right now, Patricia is doing much better, but not as good as before the pandemic. She believes that she will sell more food again as people get back to work.
Mrs. Salas never says “no” to a customer, even if that person doesn’t have enough money to pay. Let’s say someone comes and says he has 500 colones to buy some food, she still gives that person a whole plate. That is her way to give back to others. She is a very good person and wants to help.
Some of the delicious food you can find in her menu are:
o Casados
o Burritos and french fries
o Nachos
o Supreme Potatoes
o Gelatin with marshmallows
o Cantonese Rice
If you are around the Carpio area, Mrs. Salas will be happy to cook for you.
