Salvadoran Cuisine

Hey, Oh, hey there, My name is Jeremy.

Um for my project, I decided to do salvadoran cuisine.

Um They cuisine is based a lot on corn, because

that's what they have around a lot of seafoods and

cheeses. Um So yeah, that's what I'm planning on doing.

Um why El Salvador?

Well, so I have uh some grandparents that lived there

for a couple of years on a mission for our

church. Um they loved it there, they mentioned the food

there a couple of times, but I've never had a

chance to try it, and they never taught me how

to make it, so I can't be like, oh yeah,

this would be tasty.

So I had to decide, okay, what am I gonna

do to try this?

And so when the project came up, I was like,

el Salvador, that would be really fun to try some

food from there.

So that's why I did that for my pre experience.

I really wasn't sure what it was going to be

like. They had mentioned that some of the times the

food is great.

Other times it's a little bland that the people there

can be a little rough at times, depending on how

their mood is, or how the game went, which I

thought was really funny, but sometimes their mood is determined

on whether their their team played well, but now I

think about it.

Yeah, we're all kind of like that.

I lived up in Kentucky for a little bit and

they burned couches when their team won.

So I understand things being a little strange like that.

Um when I did some research into purposes which is

like their big dish out in el Salvador, I was

like, I wasn't really sure I was excited because it's

something my grandparents loved, but it was a stuff to

make it sound like a stuffed corn tortilla and that

was just like okay.

Um as for the experience, it was really interesting.

So I went to this first restaurant um and it

was close, it was supposed to be open that day,

but it closed at three instead of seven when I

went, so I couldn't really just like go and try

the food, like I wanted to, I had to find

another place um and this one was in a little

bit of a rough part of town, so that was

interesting for me, but the food there was great.

I also kinda had to get past the language barrier.

Uh I'm glad, I really, I'm really glad I worked

in a in office because it kind of forces me

to like, you know, a little bit of spanish, so

that way I can help and understand them, they're saying,

what do you want?

I was like, oh yeah, that's what I tell everyone

on. So that was really cool.

Um for me, this is what I ate cc right

here. These are the Usa's there, like I said, they're

made out of like a masa, I don't like stuff

it and then they fry it on top is something

called partido, which is like a pickled cabbage and onion

and carrot, like mix like a slot almost.

And I was told you gotta eat it, you have

to eat it with that on there and some green

sauce. And so I was like, all right, that's what

I did.

Um They were very tasty, not quite the same as

what I was expecting, I was kind of being very

much like, it's going to be a little planned, it's

gonna need some salt, but the purposes themselves are very

tasty and the torpedo and the green sauce on top

really just added to that.

They made it even better.

Um For food in el Salvador, like I said, they

have purposes that's it's actually been like nationally recognized.

So producers are there national, one of the national foods?

Um They have a national purpose a day in el

Salvador um this year it's going to be november 14th.

Um Some other dishes they do is they fry yucca

or they boil it.

They also eat something called LaRocco, which is a vine

flower, but that's only that's native to central America.

So it's something that they've grown and raised there.

So that's why we don't see it quite as much

as we do here in the US because it's not

raised here in the U.

S. Um For the last thing, the cultural observations, um

I found as I watched the people that were in

the back of cooking, it was it was a family

shock. It wasn't as big like fancy Mcdonald's or anything

like that.

The family really ran it.

It was it was a grandparent to grandparents and then

a set of kids and their grandkids just they're running

it and I just remember watching them interact and calling

across the restaurant for different things that people have forgotten.

Um But you could tell that the food is what

kind of bound them together.

And for me like culture wise and health food is

something very important.

I my family, we always bonded over food.

It was something that we've we've always been in charge

of making.

And so when people talk about food, it's very important

to me and to and how culture works.

You could also see that the family unity was there.

And I think the family unit is a big part

of our culture because not only does that establish who

we are, but that's where we gain those beliefs and

those ideas that form our culture that say I want

to go to the doctor or I don't believe in

going into the doctor.

You need to eat this kind of food when you're

sick. I know like for me, my mom, she raised

me like if you were sick, you took a really

quick shower, it some hot sauce laying in bed next

day, you'll be fine.

And you know what, it's always been fine for me.

And so that's what I do now and my kids

when I have kids will have that same kind of

thing because that's what worked for me.

And that's how I was raised.

Um, as for their like origins and their food, the

food origins at least.

Uh, it was, it's pretty similar to the latino cuisine,

which is what I'm used to.

My mom is hispanic.

And so that's what I'm used is used to that

latino cooking where it's a bunch of corn and the

corn itself, it doesn't have very much flavor, but the

stuff with it has that flavor.

And so I really appreciated going on this experience, trying

it, trying the new foods.

I definitely be having a talk with my grandparents because

I don't know why they haven't taken us to get

purposes before because they were amazing.

So I would recommend trying them and just enjoying life.

Salvadoran Cuisine

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