Food Part 3

    So part three, geez this took longer than I thought it would, so guys I think this will be the last part for food ... for now. I'll probably remember more stuff later. Ok enough beating around the bush, I'll be telling you today about restaurants, fast food chains, when food is served, and the deserts I forgot to post on the last blog (my bad).

    I'll start with deserts, restaurants, fast food chains and finish with when the food is served.

Deserts everything sweet hot and cold.

Empanadas - Are plantains that are mashed and mixed flour, that are then filled with cream or re-fried beans, then deep fried and sprinkled with sugar. Now I know what you're probably thinking "How is this a desert if it has re-fried beans in it?" I can't say if being turned away from it is cultural or just personal, but please don't judge them before you try them. The beans give a salty taste, but it compliments the plantains. Think of them like the Salvadorean version of chocolate covered pretzels, sweet but yet salty.

Cream filled

Bean filled








Paletas - The Salvadorean version of pop sickles (by the way when I say "version of" I'm compering it to the American version of things) the difference is this is natural, I'm not like saying you should eat it. When I say natural for something back home, I really meant it, El Salvador is a small country so production of food for the country is at a level were steroids and chemicals are not needed and/or massed produced. Back to topic so it's like frozen juice, with fruit in it sometime. The list of flavors is ALL of them.\

The fruit in the pic is called zapote, I'm not sure how to explain how it taste like nut it's good.








Minutas - This is shaved ice, but we took it to a whole new level, natural syrups that are loaded with sugar, then you can choose as many as you want, fruit, and caramel or a cream, not whipped cream but like more like condensed milk. It's good don't judge.

Arroz con leche - Milk pudding, I don't understand how this makes sense in English but whatever. So this is boiled rice with condensed milk and cinnamon. Can be served cold or hot.

Tres leche - Is a cake that has tree types of milk: condensed, evaporated, and half and half. This is use for as topping then soaks the cake, making it super sweet and moist, and sometimes topped with cherries.

Semitas - A pastry filled with fruit jam, of different types of fruits like pineapple, guava, and dulce de atado or panela if you're familiar with that term. Now dulce de atado is refined cane sugar that is boiled then harden. The pastry it self is sweet and flat, in a way it's like a strudel, sometimes it's also covered with sugar on top.

 

Torrejas - This is a dish that is served during Easter, El Salvador like most of Central America is mostly Catholic so different holidays have spacial food like any culture. Torrejas are a from of simple tasting French toast, covered with a syrup made from the dulce de atado, that I mentioned on the semitas part, and cinnamon.

Nuegados - They can be made from yuca: these are soft and need to be eaten hot, corn flour ones are toasted, or egg that are big and soft, they all have to be eaten with the syrup, that is made from dulce de panela/atado

This is nuegados with chilate: a corn based drink, that has no flavor but balances out the sweetness of the syrup.






Hojuelas - Is a large but thin and light fried dough made from grain flour, when it's fried air bubbles are made. They are covered in syrup, that is made from cinnamon. These are mostly served during the Day of the Dead in El Salvador November 1st, this day is like Halloween in the USA.

Orejas - These are a flaky crust type of pastry that is covered with sugar, the best ones are when the sugar caramelizes on the crust. Orejas in Spanish means ear and that explains the odd shape of the pastry.

Espumillas - Eggs yolks whipped with sugar and cinnamon, that's dried and harden.

Quesadillas - These are not like Mexican quesadillas, these are our version of corn bread but more sweet, and covered in sesames seeds.

Budin de pan, budin de banana - Is bread and banana pudding and if you haven't tasted one ever, I feel bad for ya. But back to food there's no big difference from other types of pudding ... so yeah.

Flan - Most people know what it is, and I have no idea how to describe it.

Poleadas - Milk with eggs, cinnamon, and maizena: a corn powder, sometimes raisins. A hot desert that's served in the afternoon.

Frutas tronadas -

Suspiros - These are like our version of wafers but sweeter, I know cause I've tried them and suspiros are sweeter whether they're manufactured or freshly baked.

**Disclaimer I do not work for, own, sponsor, or get paid for talking about these restaurants and fast food chains. This blog is only to talk about things that are in El Salvador.**
 
When I talk about restaurants I'm talking about places that are only in El Salvador and/or Central America.

Pollo Campero - Our version of KFC, so fried chicken, french fries and coleslaw, one of my favorite restaurants back home. If you live in the US there are some places where there are Pollo Campero, but it doesn't taste the same as in El Salvador.

Mister Donut - This place is a doughnut place, but also serves breakfast, lunch and dinner that uses dishes from El Salvador and if you go to other countries in Central America they'll use that county's foods.

Fun fact: this pic is From El Salvador, the building on the right hand corner is the Stadium Cuscatlan.

The green frosted ones are my favorite.






Los Cebollines - A Mexican food chain, really good tacos.

Biggest - A bugger place, really good chicken sandwiches and curly fries.

La Neveria - Is an ice-cream shop with everything and anything on ice cream that you can think of.

Pollo Real - Roasted chicken and other things, sorry guys I don't really like this place but everyone else I know likes it.

sorry for no food pics.





Lido - Is a bakery with a lot of manufactured products. This is the one place I know it's only in El Salvador.

Fast food chains, just insuring the obvious here also I'm sure some people are scared to try new things so this part is just to let you know that you can find a little bit of the usual in a different place. You can find them everywhere.

McDonald's, KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Domino's, Little Caesars, Wendy's, China Wok and  there are probably more since I've been there.


Now when what is served, this is just to let you guys know what you can find at most restaurants.

Pupusa: All day long, you can have them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Pasteles de carne: lunch and dinner
Tamales: dinner and breakfast, but you can have it for lunch too
Sopas: lunch only
Yuca: lunch only
Panes con chumpe: Most places will only serve them for lunch, maybe dinner, but there are places that served them all day long.

and that's all I have for now, sorry guys that it took me a month to finish this hope you like it and I'll see you this Sunday with places around the capital that are must sees.

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