EL SALVADOR Taste
Salvadoran cuisine is rooted in Mezo-American Pipil culture with staples of corn, beans, squash, tomatoes and chilies with more recent additions like cheese, onion and beef from the Spanish. The national dish is called Pupusa, a flat chunky corn tortilla with a choice of stuffings like cheese and beans or meat.
With 4 main lakes and a 307 km coastline, the fish and seafood was exceptional.
In fact, the sea and water was a big part of our experience in El Salvador. My surf lesson in the warm waters of El Salvador was pretty amazing. 28*C, out into the deep waters with my daughter and our individual instructors. They were so attentive and I was so bad. It was still amazing. No I did not stand up. But I did just bob up and down on the waves which were quite big sometimes and not freak out and instead soak up the glistening sun reflecting off the deep waters, so that felt like an achievement. We never felt not supported by the instructors of course but also there were about 30 very experienced surfers floating about in the vicinity particularly keeping an eye my daughter during the swells.
Later on we were walking up along the beach to catch a sunset, a sinewy local orange dog came over to lick my hand. Wouldn’t leave me alone. You know when they say an animal adopts you. Total connection. So cute and then I saw it the next morning with his dog friend, gleefully jumping in and out of the white water and body surfing. What a zen life.
Spread the love my little blissful surf dog.
Also, in the picturesque Lake Coatepequewe, we had the most amazing fish dishes including, Sopa de Pescado (Fish Soup) in a restaurant out on a wooden jetty surrounded by breath taking mountains and volcanoes. The sand off the shore, made up of volanic basalt, andesite, and glass was very dark and soft.
The soup was multilayered with a whole fish submerged in a thick creamy broth, prawns decoratively hanging off the side of the bowl. The glorious fish head and tail were sticking out so initially I thought yum, fish head soup (being Bangladeshi) so I was just happy with that - smacking my lips looking forward to chewing fish eyeballs. And what a pleasant surprise when I poked into the soup and the whole body was melting into it ! There were also these tiny crabs with very hard shells, which I wasn’t sure how to eat so I tried to chew them whole but ended sucking the intense soup juice out of them which was highly satisfying. Much mess was made.
My only complaint was there was very very loud music. And the adjacent restaurant had equally loud live music. I hate different music on at the same time. And I think it may have triggered turrets because when the guy started singing, I was thinking very very loudly in my head as I literally couldn’t hear myself … ‘For F*ck’s Sake’. Well I thought it was in head but then my daughter turned to me and said aloud, ‘Ýou owe me £5 for the swear jar'.
There were a few other tourists on nearby tables including a youngish group of backpackers. The guys were full of bravado stripping off, looking over to see if any females were looking and jumping into the water (it was quite a drop!). One guy who was nervous anyway (requested a life jacket) … then lost his underpants in the jump and they filmed it, probably going viral on Tik Tok right now.
We were not so brave, and instead climbed some rickety wooden steps down the side of the jetty, into the warm soft waters. It was quite deep on the other side of the restaurant but we didn’t venture too faraway from the dilapidated framework of rusty poles and nails underneath. I would recommend reef shoes.