The Cuisine Of El Salvador
Annelise Kelly 2017-05-17 02:05:39
Food-savvy, adventurous diners have begun to embrace ethnic fare in all its forms.
The cuisine of El Salvador—the smallest of Central America’s seven countries—is one example.
As immigration to the U.S. from El Salvador has grown over the last three decades (Salvadorans are the country’s sixth largest immigrant group after Mexican, Filipino, Indian, Chinese, and Vietnamese foreign born, according to the Migration Policy Institute), the popularity of the distinct cuisine from this Central American country has blossomed.
And restaurants from New York to California, Texas to Oregon, and most stops in between, are introducing customers to Central American fare—sometimes on its own, more often alongside Mexican and other Latin food favorites.
TRADITIONAL INGREDIENTS, NEW FAVORITES
Salvadoran cuisine originally relied on the “three sisters”—corn, beans and squash— along with tomatoes and chiles, then incorporated European ingredients like cheese, onion and beef as the region was colonized by the Spanish. This once-obscure cuisine has earned devoted fans for its hearty, honest flavors.
Salvadoran fare shares ingredients and techniques with its giant neighbor to the north, Mexico, but expressed in Salvadoran fashion. As such, it is an excellent complement to existing Mexican menus and a comfortable fit with other Latin culinary traditions. Relying on similar or identical ingredients, Salvadoran dishes can deliver a welcome variety and a broader appeal, or they can stand alone on a purely Salvadoran menu.
The pupusa, El Salvador’s answer to the taco, is the quintessential Salvadoran dish. A smooth dough of nixtamalized corn is wrapped around a filling and rolled into a flat, thick patty, then pan grilled. Classic fillings include cheese (usually quesillo, a soft Salvadoran cheese similar to mozzarella); chicharrón; or beans. The popular pupusa revuelta is filled with all three. Another classic combines cheese with loroco, a mildly flavored green flower. Pupusas are served with curtido, a lightly fermented slaw of cabbage, carrots, onion and oregano, which offers a bright, crunchy balance.
What are other popular dishes? Chimol, a pico de gallo-like salsa with diced radish; casamiento, a side dish combining rice and beans; yuca con chicarron, fried yuca strewn with nuggets of fried pork or pork belly; platanos con crema, fried sweet plantains served with crema (a common breakfast); and tamales wrapped in banana leaves. Salvadoran horchata is sweet and delicious like Mexican horchata, but based on ground morro seeds instead of ground rice.
A COMBINATION OF AUTHENTIC AND FUSION FARE
Across the country, Salvadoran expatriates have opened restaurants showcasing the cuisine of their homeland.
In Irving, Texas, Hilcia Garcia opened El Salvador Restaurant in 2000, with a focus on Salvadoran and Mexican food, then expanded into Peruvian specialties.
“One day a customer said he was a chef in Peru and I asked him if he wanted to give it a try. People loved his food and now we have a lot of clientele from Peru,” Garcia says.
The Sopa de Mariscos con Langosta (Seafood Soup with Lobster) is the restaurant’s most popular Salvadoran dish. But the restaurant’s Peruvian options— especially ceviche, rotisserie chicken and Lomo Saltado, a stir-fry of marinated beef, onions, tomatoes and French fries influenced by the Chinese population in Peru—also have legions of devotees.
“Our authenticity makes the place special,” says Garcia, who remains loyal to her culinary heritage as well as to her restaurant staff. “We try to keep the same recipes and keep the same employees.”
One of her traditional Salvadoran recipes—one unfamiliar to many Americans— is Atol de Elote, a hot beverage made of fresh corn, sugar and milk.
“Here in America it’s hard to find the white corn so people use the yellow corn. It doesn’t taste quite the same but it’s similar. We sell a lot of it in the winter time,” says Garcia.
A similar story of fusion fare is playing out in New York at La Libertad. When José “Nelson” Hernandez opened the restaurant in Manhattan in 2012, he decided to offer Italian as well as Salvadoran cuisine.
“We tried to make a combined menu so we could get some other customers because in our area there are not many Salvadoran people. We thought if we had more choices like Italian and Salvadoran we could make a better business,” Hernandez recalls.
La Libertad’s most popular dish is El Volcan, a grilled hanger steak served with casamiento and chimol. Other Salvadoran options include the Tamal de Gallina stuffed with chicken, potato and green olives; Mariscada, a seafood stew with shellfish, yuca and coconut milk; and pupusas. They broaden their audience with choices like Fettuccine Alfredo; Shaved Kale Salad; Calamari Frito with lemon mayonnaise; and burgers.
Other operators depart from the classics, bringing an inventive touch to their Salvadoran-focused menus. Anthology, a Salvadoran food cart in Portland, Ore., offers pupusa fillings including grasshoppers, portabella mushrooms, smoked artichoke and chipilin leaf.
At Jaraguá in East Hollywood, Calif., owners Ana and Milton Fuentes partnered with the neighboring bar to supply innovative craft co*cktails. While the menu is largely traditional, their Salvadoran Poutine is perfect bar food: crispy fried yuca is bathed in Carne Guisada (beef stewed with carrots and onions) and Salvadoran queso fresco.
For some restaurants, sticking with tradition is no guarantee of success. La Libertad used to offer Empanadas de Platano (a dessert empanada with plantains and sweet custard) and chan (a drink with a soaked chia-like seeds). “But most of our customers are not Salvadoran. They didn’t sell, so we took them off the menu,” Hernandez says.
The majority of ingredients for Salvadoran food are easily procured, but some are hard to source. Garcia relies on cheese from El Salvador to make her pupusas authentic, and Hernandez notes that fresh loroco is hard to find. “You have to make a relationship with a company that supplies it,” he says.
While many customers aren’t familiar with Salvadoran cuisine at first glance, they easily become fans once they sample this ethnic fare, which relies on many ingredients beloved by Mexican food lovers: corn and corn meal, slow cooked meats, gooey cheese and a variety of salsas. Whether strategically offered alongside familiar Mexican dishes or creatively altered to entice adventurous eaters, Salvadoran cuisine has enduring appeal.
Pupusas, empanadas and tamales are among the Salvadoran foods most familiar to U.S. diners. Other lesser-known but just as delicious dishes to consider adding to your menu—perhaps as specials that will spur customers to sample something new—include:
CASAMIENTO. Salvadoran version of rice and beans; popular as a side dish, or as a breakfast dish served with scrambled eggs, fried plantains, queso fresco and tortillas
CHIMOL. A pico de gallo-like salsa with diced radish
CURTIDO. A spicy, vinegar-based condiment made from cabbage, carrots and other veggies that is similar to sauerkraut
PACALLA. Palm flowers breaded in cornmeal, fried and served with tomato sauce
PASTELITOS. Pastry turnovers, stuff ed with sweets like custard, jam or caramelized fruit
PLATANOS FRITOS. Deep-fried plantains
SEMITA. Coff ee cake with guava or pineapple jam
SOPA DE PATA. A popular Salvadoran soup of corn, plantains, tripe and cows’ feet —Source: gocentralamerica.about.com
FUN FACTS About Salvadoran Cuisine
The pupusa is El Salvador’s national food…and it is so popular that the Salvadoran government has declared the second Sunday of every November the National Day of the Pupusa.
Pupusas, also known as Pupisio, were first created by the Pipil tribes, which dwelled in the territory now known as El Salvador. Cooking implements for their preparation have been found in Joya de Cerén (“El Salvador’s Pompeii”), the site of a native village that was buried by ashes from a volcano explosion, and where foodstuffs were preserved as they were being cooked almost two thousand years ago. The instruments for their preparation have also been found in other archaeological sites in El Salvador. —Source: Arizona Pupusa Festival (azpupusasfestival.com)
Annelise Kelly is a Portland, Ore.-based freelance writer and a frequent contributor to el Restaurante.
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