Salvadoran cuisine
Salvadoran cuisine is a style of cooking derived from the nation of El Salvador. The indigenous foods consist of a mix of Amerindian cuisine from groups such as the Lenca, Pipil, Maya Poqomam, Maya Chʼortiʼ, Alaguilac and Cacaopera peoples and some African influences. Many of the dishes are made with maize. There is also heavy use of pork and seafood. European ingredients were incorporated after the Spanish conquest.
El Salvador's most notable dish is the pupusa, a thick handmade, tortilla-like corn flour or rice flour flatbread stuffed with cheese, chicharrón, refried beans or loroco. There are also vegetarian options, often with ayote, mora, or garlic. Some restaurants even offer pupusas stuffed with shrimp or spinach which are served with salsa roja, a cooked tomato sauce, often served with curtido.
Pollo encebollado is another popular Salvadoran dish that contains chicken braised with onions. Salvadoran cheeses queso duro, queso fresco, and cuajada are also eaten with meals.
Two other typical Salvadoran dishes are yuca frita and panes rellenos. Yuca frita is deep-fried cassava root served with curtido and chicharron with pepesca. The yuca is sometimes served boiled instead of fried. Panes rellenos are warm submarine sandwiches. The turkey or chicken is marinated and then roasted with Pipil spices and hand-pulled. This sandwich is traditionally served with turkey or chicken, tomato, and watercress along with cucumber and cabbage.
Other well-known Salvadoran dishes include carne guisada, lomo entomatado, carne asada, pasteles de carne, pollo guisado con hongos, pacaya planta, pavo salvadoreño, ceviche de camarones, and pescado empanizado. Salvadorean chorizo is short, fresh and tied into twin sausages.
Types of tamales
El Salvador is known for different types of tamales, which are usually wrapped in plantain leaves. These tamales include:Tamales de elote Tamales pisques Tamales de pollo- ''Ticucos''
Soups
Soups are popular among Salvadorans of every social level.Sopa de pata is a soup made from the tripe of a cow, plantain, corn, tomatoes, cabbage and spices, locally a delicacy.
Sopa de res is a soup made from beef shank, beef bone with meat, carrots, plantain, corn, potatoes, zucchini, and many other ingredients.
Gallo en chicha is a soup made with rooster, corn, dulce de tapa, and sometimes other things.
Sopa de pescado is a soup made out of fish or seafood with corn flour, tomatoes, green peppers, cumin, achiote and other ingredients, commonly eaten for the Christian holiday of Good Friday.
Sopa de pollo is a chicken stew with tomatoes, green peppers, guisquil, carrots, potatoes, consommé, and other ingredients.
Sopa de gallina india is a chicken broth with vegetables. Some people add lorocos and cream.
Sopa de frijoles is a red bean soup.
Sopa de chipilin is a chicken soup with chipilin leaves and vegetables.
Salpicón de res
Salpicón or picadillo is a dish made with minced beef, mint and onions. Some people add rice.Panes rellenos
Panes rellenos are warm sandwiches, often made with chicken, carne asada, or turkey. The chicken or turkey is marinated and then roasted with Pipil spices and hand-pulled. This sandwich is traditionally served with tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, and watercress.Desserts
A variety of pan dulces, or pastries, are popular.Salvadoran desserts include: Semita de piña, pineapple preserves sandwiched between layers of pastry Quesadilla salvadoreña, a pound cake made with rice flour and queso duro blando and topped with sesame seeds ; Torta de yema, a pound cake made with wheat flour and flavoured with cinnamonMarquesote, a sponge cake flavoured with cinnamon and sometimes anise, served in long rectangular slicesSalpores, cookies made from rice flour and flavoured with cinnamon, with a short texture Poleada or manjar de leche, a white pudding made from milk, cornstarch and sugar, flavoured with vanilla
- Arroz con leche, rice pudding flavoured with anise seed, star anise, or raisinsEmpanadas de platano, torpedo-shaped dumplings of dough made from very ripe plantains, filled with vanilla custard, fried, then rolled in sugar
Fruits are widely consumed, the most popular being mangoes, coconuts, papayas, and bananas. Sometimes fruit with ice cream and cinnamon sprinkled on top is served.
Beverages
Teenagers usually drink cocas like Coca-Cola, while young and old alike drink coffee, El Salvador's top export. Viejitas, "little old ladies", are biscuits dipped in morning coffee.A popular soda that originated in El Salvador is Kolashanpan, which is a soda with sugar cane flavor. Minutas, shaved ice flavored with fruit-flavored syrup, and horchata, a beverage made from rice milk and a mix of spices such as cinnamon, peanut beverage, ajonjolí and morro, are popular throughout the country and enjoyed on a hot day.
Licuados are like minutas with added fresh fruit and milk. Frescos refer to lemonades or other sweetened fruit drinks. Other drinks include arrayán, chuco and chilate. Another popular beverage is ensalada, made of pineapple juice with finely chopped fruits, usually apples, marañón, mamey, and watercress.
Tamarindo juice is consumed in all of El Salvador. Coconuts are sold at roadside estansas throughout the country. Typically, they are chopped with machetes and a straw is inserted so that the coconut water can be consumed. Adults drink coconut milk, mixed with vodka, as an aperitif. Vinagre de piña is a drink of trimmed pineapples mixed with panela and water and set aside to ferment for a few weeks or even months.
Alcoholic beverages
The most common alcoholic beverage in El Salvador is beer. Popular beers are made by Industrias La Constancia. Established in 2004, with their first bottling in 2015, Ron Cihuatán is El Salvador's only rum distiller.The national liquor of El Salvador is Tic Tack, a sugar cane distillate. Tick Tack has similar flavors to cachaça.
Seafood
Salvadorans eat a large variety of seafood. Salvadoran ceviches are made with clams, oysters, fish, shrimp, snails, octopus, squid, and a type of black clam called conchas by locals. Cocktails and ceviches are prepared with a type of tomato and chopped onion sauce or Worcestershire sauce, locally called "Salsa Inglesa" or Salsa Perring after the Lea & Perrins brand, and both are sprinkled with lemon juice.Salvadorans also eat fried crabs and lobsters or fried fish with garlic and lemon. Shrimps are also eaten roasted, al ajillo, or in butter. There is also a type of seafood soup called mariscada, which contains fish, clams, octopus, squid, shrimp, and crab.