Chilateada in Izalco - Easter Monday

Is Easter Monday a thing? I don't think it is but I'm making it into a thing. It's certainly treated as one here in Izalco, El Salvador where the Monday of the Easter week is the last day during the whole Easter festivities extravaganza when chilate is made and served to the hungry pilgrims traveling long distances to pay their respects to Christ. If you don't know what chilate is see previous posts. Today, a pick-up load of SS city dwellers, aka myself and some others including my abuela, made the journey to Izalco to observe our pious duties. And there we were, inside this little white and purple church listening to a wailing rendition of Ave María being blasted from some old speakers, stomachs rumbling, mouths watering and eyes burning from the combination of pine incense for the deities and wood fires used to prepare the chilate for us mortals. I think we got the better end of the deal.

It is customary to pay your respects to Christ i.e. make a donation to the church, before approaching the food area. Once this is done and you have received proof of payment in the form of a sticky coconut palm flower, you can casually make your way over to the kitchen area and observe, maybe even participate in, the cooking process. I had never seen this being done so I was intrigued to see the whole process of grinding, pounding, soaking, straining, flavoring and finally cooking. It was impressive to see the sheer quantity of maize flour that was being moved from one station to the next. Once the maize has been ground and pounded, it is soaked in water to produce a milk-like liquid. This is then strained using cheese cloth or muslin and the liquid is cooked in large pots over an open fire. When the liquid is finally of cooked and thick enough, you can exchange your stick coconut palm flower for a portion of delicious goodness. Chilate is served hot in little bowls with a serving of local sweets. You can get an idea of what the preparation process looks like below:

Straining the 'corn milk'

Heating and stirring. These are not a tiny women.

Unfortunately for us the chilate was not ready when we arrived and even after walking around Izalco, we were not patient enough to wait another hour. Attempts at chasing the Easter processions were unsuccessful and a Salvadoran democratic decision was made (interpret this as you like). We made our way to Sonsonate wanderlusting after food and more adventure. It's always nice to visit the little towns and view the sites. It is sometimes very easy to forget the beauty of the changing landscapes, lava fields, sprouting sugar cane, volcanoes and colonial churches given the current social situation, and it is nice to be reminded.

Main Izalco church and the Volcan de Izalco in the background.

Sunday - Market day

Previous Sundays have consisted of attending Catholic mass, weekend trips to the beach or country, or visiting family. Today though, we did something old, something we used to do when I was but a wee chipilín, munching happily on raw sugar cane.

We went to the market. Grandma had a hankering for a bowl full of chilate, a rather tasteless broth or atol, served with a side of sweet syrupy buñuelos or nuegados. Previous experience had taught me I was not the biggest fan of this afternoon snack. But in the food's defense, I had based my harsh judgement on samples provided to me by Mister Donuts - if you have never heard of Mister Donuts click here, but it is basically an antique American fast breakfast food franchise from the 50s that has remained popular in El Salvador. How wrong was I to dismiss this local dish based on Mister Donuts' cold, bland and chunky interpretation.

So what is chilate? It is a water-based broth made out of toasted maize flour, whole peppercorns and ginger, thickened slightly with corn starch. In Mexico, it is very common to add chili and cocoa beans which is where the name comes from, but in El Salvador, the broth is not condimented too heavily so as to better compliment the side of buñuelos and/or nuegados. To me, a bowl of chilate is nothing without its sweet syrupy counterparts and vice versa. The term nuegados means nuggets and refers to sugared plantain or sweet potato chunks. Sugared pumpkin on the other hand is prepared with cinamon and brown sugar loaf and is called ayote. If you go to one of the popular food chains which sell local food (e.g. Mister Donuts or Typicos de Margoth) buñuelos are large male fist-sized profiteroles, deep fried and covered in sugar and brown sugar loaf syrup. They are made out of egg and wheat flour, usually slightly hard and stale and far too big and sweet to be consumed by one person. You are better off visiting a local market, or keeping an eye out for street vendors pushing around their chilate cart between 3-4 in the afternoon. Their approach is often marked by the echoing sounds of "chiilaaaaaaaate...."

Today, in a market close to Santa Tecla, the chilate lady had plenty of options on offer. The drink itself is always the same, served piping hot in a gourd with the occasional floating peppercorn. The sides are a different matter with various choices crispy yet chewy egg or yucca buñuelos, and flavorsome plantain, sweet potato or pumpkin nuegados.  I had a serving of nugget sized yucca buñuelos and ayote candy with syrup, the perfect contrast to the peppery broth on a cool afternoon.