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.