Food part 2

So guys, the food part of the blog is gonna take longer than what I had in mind, once I started I started to remember all of my favorite food from my childhood and everything so I'll probably only take about one more post after this one.
I'll keep going with the snacks, then move on to sea food, deserts and finish with drinks. On the next post I'll talk about when each thing is served, what's it go with, and good places where to get them. Before I forget I'll also talk about the restaurants and fast food chains I didn't mentioned on the last post. So let's get started.

Now I am considering anything that is sold on a small plastic bag or on a stick as a snack.

Tostadas de platanos - This are vertical and horizontal slices of plantains (a type of banana) that are dried then roasted, after being sprinkled with salt, the person who buys a bag can choose to put lime, and/or hot sauce. You can also buy a bag from a store just like a bag if chips and like chips they say what they have in them. I personally prefer from a bender, that way you know it's fresh.

Chicharras - This are pork rinds only difference is they are made fresh, you can choose to put lime or hot sauce. Not much that I  can say but you can find them everywhere.

Jicama - This is a root, but it's better eaten raw, and like the other fruits I've mentioned its eaten with salt, lime and hot sauce (it's kinda of the Salvadorean way if you haven't noticed)

Enredos de yuca - These are like french fries, yuca that's been shredded in a way, twisted, then fried. Benders that sell them also sell papas fritas and churros Espanoles.

Churros Españoles - This are not like Mexican churros, they are bigger and you can see it's one whole thing and not individuals. But they are sweet.

Choco bananos - Delicious frozen bananas covered in chocolate, sometimes sprinkles, peanuts, coconut, or cereal it depends on the bender and what they have. There are also bender in the capital that do more then just frozen, they freeze almost everything.

Coco - Fresh coconuts, this is one of the first stands that you'll see once you arrive at the airport, you can have the whole coconut and just drink it then eat the inside with a spoon, shredded coconut with powdered sugar, or the coconut water and inside in a bag.

Now for the rest of traditional snacks or at least what my friends, cousins, and I grew up with were from this company/brand call "Boquitas Diana" or "Diana" http://www.diana.com.sv/iniciogt.html here is the link to they're website, now there are some that I've never seen so you can ask me if your not sure of something. *This page is in Spanish. *Disclaimer: I don't own or work for this company, sponsor it, or get paid for advertisement.*

Seafood, always fresh no matter where you are in the country. Mainly because the country is so small, so shipping fish and anything from the sea is fast. This is one of my favorite things because of all of the fun memories I had with my family at the beach.

Conchas - Oysters, I love them with some lime and salt, best places to get them are of course at the beach and Los Planes, liked I said before the country is small so fresh food travels quickly.

Cocteles - coctel de conchas, coctel de camarones, coctel de pulpo aka: cocktails - shrimp, oysters, and octopus. The sauce used isn't marinera sauce or anything like you might have tried before, as far as I could figure out is like a mix of ketchup, mayonnaise, and mustard with some other ingredients and spices fro the shrimp, but no idea for the oysters or octopus. Still tastes awesome though.

Conchas

Camarones
fancy*

Pulpo










Tiburon - Shark, not as popular as before because it costs more and some people feel its immoral. I personally never had it, but I'd like to. Note I couldn't find any sharks cooked but I did find the species of shark the I assume is the one being fished.

Silky Sharks












Ceviche - Ceviche de camaron, ceviche de pescado, ceviche de tiburon. So this is like the cocktails but with more vegetables chopped up and mixed in.

Ceviche de camarones

Ceviche de pescado












Arroz con calamares - Rice with octopus, in a way it's like paella but just with octopus.

Couldn't find a pic from El Salvador









Tortas - Torta de camaron, torta de pescado. Shrimp cut up and made into a hash brown ... sorta, the shrimp is mixed in an eggs batter and then fried, for the fish it's the whole fillet battered and fried.

Mariscada - camarones, langosta, pescado, jiba (crabs) so this is pretty a soup with every living creature you can find on the beach: crab, lobster, oysters, shrimp, and fish. Like gumbo.

Camarones entomatada - So shrimp in tomato sauce, nuff' said.

Drinks, these are not alcoholic drinks but traditional drinks, not gonna say too much so let's get to it.

Horchata - Rice milk with sugar and cinnamon, probably heard  of it before but unlike the Mexican version we add chocolate, that's what gives it that brownish look.

Cebada - Barley based drink with cinnamon, vanilla, and extract of strawberry, I can't describe it any other way but delicious.

Fresco de marañon - As you can see from the pic the seed on top of the fruit kinda looks like a cashew, that's because it is. Marañon is a cashew, the seed is dried and you get a cashew nut. Delicious fruit and always fresh.  

 

These is another type of marañon









Fresco de tamarindo - Tamarind, no idea how they make it to a drink, I guess they take the inside and make it into a jam then dry it to a powder and then add water.

Fresco de ensalada - This is like a fruit salad in a cup, it's apple, pineapple, pear, marañon, and lettuce. I love it and please don't judge it before you try it.

Frsco de chan con limon - It's lemonade with the chan that are like seeds that sink to the bottom.

Kolashanpan - This is our version of Coca-Cola, a soft drink that summarizes the Salvadorean life style (I know "so deep").

Cafe - Coffee fresh grounded, nothing beats this, not too strong like Cuban, but as rich in flavor as Bolivian.

This is what the beans look like before roasting.
















Chocolate caliente - Hot chocolate, now forget everything you know about chocolate. Don't think you know what actual, fresh chocolate tastes like, the only thing you probably tasted is processed chocolate. Switzerland don't know anything about natural chocolate, only how to process it and add sugar. Central American countries are the ones were the best chocolate is grown because it's fresh. Hot chocolate is drank for breakfast and dinner when it's cooler and it can warm you up.

Both with chocolate and coffee are drank with bread, like pastries or just French bread.








Jugo de jamaica - It's made from a flower, has a really sweet/ slightly bitter after taste, still good.

Jugo de arrayan - No idea on how to describe it, but its awesome.

I wanna apologize for taking like two to three weeks to finish this, took way longer than I thought. Sorry guys.

Last note Chiky was the best cookie of my childhood

FOOD!!!!!!!!!!

Hey guys sorry for not blogging the past few weeks, finals at my school and didn't really have time for anything. So let's talk about some of the traditional food of El Salvador. First up the national dish of the 'Land of Fire' (this is another name for El Salvador, it's called that because of all the active volcanoes that were in the area when the conquistadors came, don't  worry most are dead or dormant) Back to topic...

Pupusas - this are tortillas filled with cheese, meet, fried beans, loroco (a type of flower seed), and ayote a type of squash.The dough can be made of rice flour or corn flour, and there not like Mexican tortillas that are thin and flat but thick spilling one or all of the ingredients mentioned. Pupusas are the traditional meal for all Salvadoreans, they are eaten hot right from the grill, with tomato sauce, texture and thickness varies from cook to cook, and relish (curtido) the color also varies but not the ingredients which are shredded cabbage but not thin or small slices, carrots, beets, red/purple onions, garlic and red or green chili pepper.One important thing to remember, pupusas are eaten with fingers. NO EATING UTENSILS. You  can ask for them but people will lose respect for you and it's just not natural.
Now my favorite place to eat at is up in Los Planes, I think I mentioned it before if not it's in the capital on  the side of the volcano, the restaurant was named La Pati but it's been going form owner to owner in the past few years so I don't know what it's called right now. But if any of you ever go to El Salvador I'll give you the directions to get there.
      


them but people will lose respect for you and it's just not natural.



Here is also some pics of what the sauce and curtido looks like. Yum!







Tamales - If you don't know a tamal looks like, the only way that I can think of describing it is a corn flour dough filled with meat like chicken, pork or beef, garbanzos, boiled eggs, green beans, and chilies (all optional) that is boiled for a few hours. Normally eaten with tomato sauce or sour cream. Tamales can be eaten with forks.

The green wrap you see are plantain leafs. DON'T EAT THEM.


Pasteles de Carne - Deep fried corn dough filled with meat, diced potatoes, carrots, and green beans. Good ones are soft but crunchy. Eaten like pupusas, with the sauce, relish, and no forks.

  

Yuca - It can be fried or boiled, served with meat, relish and sauce. it can be eaten how you like with forks or fingers. Now yuca is like a root, not sure how else to explain it.

 

Panes con Chumpe - This is pretty much a turkey sandwich with our own Salvadorean twist on it. First the fresh baked bread, if it's not out of the oven then it's toasted, cooked turkey with a tomato base sauce ,this is different from  the other sauces, then there's lettuce, tomato slices, radishes, cucumbers, and onions, and finally it's covered in a thick sauce made from the rest of the turkey that has been pureed and and boiled. Some places add relish or you can ask for it.   

Sopa de pata - Soup with corn, ayote, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions, plantains and pork most likely on the bone, there's also chicken soup, just vegetable soup. Any kind of soup is normally eaten with lime, avocado and tortillas. Bean soup with beef is normally eaten with cheese, avocado, and tortillas.

   Sopa de pata 

Sopa de pollo

   Sopa de vegetales

Sopa de frijoles 

Salpicon - Lean beef mixed with cilantro, parsley, and chopped radishes. I personally love it with a lot of lime and some salt.

Snacks: these are everywhere, sold day and night by street benders all over the country. Most of them are fresh fruits and vegetables or dried drowned in hot sauce, lime, salt and alguashte (powder made from pumpkin seeds). Then you got the more manufactured snacks, I'll also mentioned some awesome restaurants.

Papas fritas - French fries but with a Salvadorean twist, shredded cheese. Most people think it doesn't I call those people dead wrong.

Elote loco - Corn on the cob covered in mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, black sauce (not sure about ingredients) and cheese. 

 This is true it says "a Salvadorean without elote loco is not Salvadorean"

Mangos - Mangos verdes, and mangos maduros so green mangoes and normal mangoes, always fresh,and juicy, with hot sauce, lime, salt, black sauce, and alguashte a powder made from pumpkin seeds. Now green mangoes are smaller and more sour, they're usually picked to make them more sour, then cut in half and put in a plastic bag, then you put in as much as the ingredients. The more popular mangoes are sweeter, they're normally cut in pieces in the cities and cut into flowers at the beach, you can also get them in strings (makes more sense with the picture).  Most people don't eat the skin.