To talk about El Salvadoran cuisine, we must refer to the culinary roots of El Salvador, tracing back to the beginnings of Mesoamerican, pre-Hispanic civilizations and their historical development; because this way, it is possible to find the origins of what we now consume and to understand the richness of the ingredients and various traditional preparations inherited from ancestors.
The regions of El Salvador
Within each region of El Salvador, there are dishes that define it; they may be the same, but prepared differently.
For example, how atol shuco is prepared: salty in the western part of the country, while it is sweet in the east.
Las pupusas, a quintessential Salvadoran dish, are stuffed with meat in the central region, but in coastal areas, they are made with seafood.
In the east
In the eastern regions, it is common to have iguana in somehete; the iguana is slaughtered, the skin is removed after charring, then the eggs are taken out to enjoy the meat.
In the central part of the country, yuca pupusas, known as Nahuizalco, are popular; while in the eastern regions, pupusas are served with black salsa and cabbage, especially made for the San Miguel festival.
Today, Salvadoran cuisine is a rich mix of inherited flavors and techniques, thanks to cultural exchanges over the centuries, preserving ancestral techniques alongside sophisticated European methods.
