Beans

I like to think of El Salvador as the land of beans. The bean, particularly the Salvadoran red bean, is a very important staple in traditional Salvadoran food. It is a food which can be served as a side, a main, a dessert, and even a condiment to the ever popular pupusa. So the local saying goes "you can take away a poor man's meat but you can't take away his beans". At a first glance the trusty bean can even be said to be part of our national flag, the centre of Salvadoran peace and glory, the epitome of much love and adoration which has been bestowed on this staple food:

There it is, the heralded red bean, highlighted by the glow of the setting sun, underneath the pro-gay rainbow of peace. This however is just my personal interpretation. In reality this "bean" cap is actually the gorro frijio (not frijol), a Phrygian cap also known as the cap of liberty represented in Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, and more popularly worn by the smurfs. Yes, a smurf cap features at the centre of my country's national shield. I prefer to think of the cap as a liberty bean. The bean that fed and supported the leftist guerilla movement 30 years ago. But let's not get political here.

Over the past month I have eaten green beans, white beans, black beans and best of all red beans. I have had them stewed, boiled, fried and blended, for breakfast, lunch and dinner in soups, tacos, rice, pies and salads. The abundance of beans in this country and its great nutritional value is one of the main reasons why the population remains so well fed and rotund. And my favorite bean combo to date? Bean puree fried with garlic and coriander served with a side of plantain. Trust me, it's delicious.

Death of a Moth

One of the things that I find particularly interesting about the people and culture here is how superstitious they are. Everyone I speak to has their own personal encounter to relate, whether it be with a ghost, a spirit, the devil or a shape shifter. Normally I would say this is all a bunch of tosh, but I think in this case Roque Dalton may have a point with his reference to the indigenous massacre of 1932.

Ser salvadoreño es ser medio muerto, eso que se mueve es la mitad de la vida que nos dejaron
"To be salvadoran is to be half dead, all that moves is half the life that we were left with"

It's almost natural that a population which has suffered from so much death, such as the civil war (1979-1992) and the mass genocide (1932), should claim such proximity with supernatural beings. Even I have had my own personal 'encounters' with spirits here being the non-believer that I am. This is leaving me decidedly suspicious of the supernatural world.

The most common sightings are those of cadejos, old women in lace, and moths. Depending on the circumstances, a visit from any of these in the dead of the night can be considered as an omen or a promise of good things to come, but they communicate a message to the 'half dead' of what is to come. Bearing in mind that this is not your regular closet moth, it is common belief here that moths are bad omens being the reincarnated spirits of the dead. If a moth visits your home in the night it is a sign that bad luck will soon come a'knocking. If someone close to you is severely ill, the visit of a moth indicates the proximity of their death. The moth in question is the Black Witch moth, dark brown with a pale leafy pattern, large enough to be mistaken for a bat.

Cadejos in contrast play the role of the guardian angel/demon in the form of a dog. There are many different versions of the role they play in various myths and legends, but from what I can gather, there seem to be two differnt kinds. The white cadejo is good, and if you encounter him deep in the forest he will accompany you and lead you to safety. The black cadejo however is bad and likes to play tricks on people and will lure the unsuspecting down the wrong path to their unfortunate death.

Finally the old woman in lace seems to represent all of those who have since passed. She wanders alone in the dead of the night lamenting the violence and the suffering of her people. She is often seen sitting and waiting, although nobody seems to know what it is she is waiting for.

I leave you with the rest of Roque Dalton's poem:

"Unámonos medio muertos que somos la patria
para hijos suyos podernos llamar
en nombre de los asesinados
unámonos contra los asesinos de todos
contra los asesinos de los muertos y los mediomuertos."

Let us unite half-dead as we are
So that our children can call us
In the name of the dead
Let us unite against our assassins
Against the assassins of the dead and half-dead. - Own Translation

Pupusas, empanadas, and quesadilla

I love food and I harbor a deep mistrust for anyone who doesn't love or even appreciate food. How can you be dismissive of the very substance that feeds your body? So on that note here's a blog about Salvadoran food. Please excuse the phonetic nerdiness, it's been too long since I've had the chance to use my phonetic keyboard.

Tortilla - [tortiʝa] Corn is the foundation of Salvadoran cuisine and it is most consumed in the form of a tortilla. This is not the same as a an American or Mexican tortilla who given the popularity of TexMex (American-Mexican fusion) have switched over to the over-sized, bland flour tortilla found in most supermarkets today. Traditionally Mexican tortillas are small, thin, yellow, unleavened flatcakes made out of a mixture of yellow maize flour, water and salt, usually about the size of a tea saucer. Salvadoran tortillas on the other hand are made out of white maize flour, are still about the size of a tea saucer but much thicker, at just under a cm. They are usually eaten on the side with beans and plantain, or on their own with a dollop of fresh cottage cheese. Funnily enough, they taste just like white corn.

Pupusas - [pupusas] A bit of a boring word phonetically but it is the most typical Salvadoran dish, so tasty and delicious other Central American countries have tried to claim it as their own. Colombians and Venezuelans have something similar which they call arepas [aɾepas], but these are by far (at least in my opinion) inferior to our cheese stuffed tortillas. Even calling them calling them mere 'cheese stuffed tortillas' is a travesty on its own. Their most popular flavour is cheese and loroco, but other flavors include, red bean, pork, plain cheese, ayote (acorn squash), or a mixture of any of the above. For those with corn allergies, rice flour pupusas are also an option.

Shuco - [ʃuko] Another corn based food, this is an atol - a smooth, thick drink/soup. Shuko is generally made out of fermented black corn which gives this drink an unappetizing muddy purple appearance and as a result is often called chuco, the salvadoran word for 'dirty'. I won't lie, this is not a dish which I particularly like, but I have been told that it is one of those foods that taste better the more of it you eat/drink. It is usually drank out of a calabash bowl with a side of white bread to mop up the sour, fermented broth.

Empanadas - [eɱpanaðas] A bit of phonetics first, the [ð] = 'th' as in 'the'. Unlike its South American counterparts, Salvadoran empanadas are not pastries filled with beef, chicken or vegetables. Rather, they are more like plantain sausages stuffed with refried beans or custard. Delicious, but incredibly rich.

Poleada - [poliaða] Whereas empanadas can be considered as both a side and desert, poleada is definitely a dessert. It is made out of cinnamon and vanilla infused thickened milk and eggs. Once set, it is sprinkled with raisins and cinnamon and best eaten when still warm. This of it as a sweet but surprisingly light, vanilla-cinnamon mousse.

Quesadilla - [kesaðiʝa] Finally! something you recognize, but this is not the world-famous Mexican quesadilla which is basically a Mexican version of a grilled cheese sandwich. In El Salvador, quesadilla is a dessert, a sweet cheesy cake with sesame seeds, not to be confused with the American cheese cake. The quesadilla is sponge made out of a combination of parmesan, sour cream, eggs, sugar and flour and best enjoyed fresh out of the oven with a cup of strong coffee.

Día de los Muertos - China Style

So my current adventure of interest is to celebrate Day of the Dead with my Chinese relatives. This usually involves 8-9 of my chinese relatives all crammed into a pickup truck from six or seven in the morning touring the various cemeteries where our recently (or not so recently) deceased are buried. Whiskey is handed out freely and either drunk or sprinkled on the graves of our ancestors, cigarettes smoked, and incense and paper money burned as an offering to appease the spirits. Mind you, I have had more than my fair share of interaction with supernatural beings recently.

To date I have not actually attended one of these gatherings since no matter who I called nobody seemed very interested in actually doing what you're supposed to do on the día de los difuntos. What kind of crazy person wants to go party at the cemetery when you could be partying at the beach? Who in their right mind would want to spend a morning paying respects to the dead, even in the traditional catholic way with fake flowers, cotton candy, atol (hot sweet maize beverage), elotes (corn on the cob) and all that? Cemeteries basically turn into fair grounds. It is the one day that thousands will flock to burial grounds to gather and be merry, visit family as well as of course pay respects and remember the dead. It is the Maha Shivaratri of Latin America, but unlike Maha Shivaratri, I was unable to participate. Clearly, I associate with the wrong circle of friends here.

At one point my grandmother took pity on me and we compromised. So instead of going to Ilopango and visiting Mama Amable (Mexican great-grandmother) and three of her Chinese sons with a whole parade of relatives like I wanted, we went to the Chinese restaurant round the corner for lunch. Not the best of compromises, but like a good Chinese merchant's daughter, Abuela drives a hard bargain.

Happy day of the dead. 

Sonsonate and San Antonio del Monte

Sonsonate is a great little city. It's like any other typical Central American town, with its bustling street markets where you can buy anything imaginable under the sun from fresh fish brought in from La Libertad to machetes, electronics and other necessary household utensils. Saturday is market day pretty much wherever you go and this is no exception.  The open air bit offers a wide and varied selection of fresh fruits and vegetables, and this time of year mobile vendors walk around with dried and fresh beans on offer. A pound (450g) of dried red beans for 60 centavos - local currency is USD - a bushel (as much as you can carry on your head) of fresh unshelled beans for 2 dollars. Although who would want to pay such exorbitant prices when you could just as easily pick them yourself for free from the fields? Further along, the open air market gives way to covered stores and fast food joints like La Bomba! and Pollo Campero, who in the spirit of market day plug their best salesmen into a set of speakers and have them rattle away their deals of the day.

Despite it's vibrant market scene which I obviously loved, (who doesn't love the smell of chicalín* and the distorted sound of a clipped sales pitch at full volume?) most people travel to Sonsonate for religious purposes. A short walk over the hill away from the market will lead you to a colorful but quiet square, one of the few places in El Salvador where you can still find adobe houses. They are old and discolored, but still standing after countless storms and earthquakes. As you walk down the hill you will see the white arches of the iglesia San Antonio del Monte, host to a tiny sliver of bone which is said to have belonged to the late saint. We arrived in time to see a procession of nuns reverently filing out of the chapel, a great contrast to my grandmother who went to give the good saint a piece of her mind.

The church itself is a large white structure with heavy wooden doors. The decor is simple but nice with but one mural of St. Anthony himself and his followers dressed in green. Women sell artesanias all along the left-hand wall of the church, but on a quiet day like Saturday when everyone is living the life at the market, there is not much business to be had. Despite the deceptive calm of the day, I am told that people travel far and wide to visit this site to thank San Antonio for his miraculous deeds. 

After paying homage to the saint our little troupe of non-believers shuffled back to our pick-up truck and headed back through the market crowds, Caluco, fields of sugar-cane in flower, and fields of molten lava and headed back to San Salvador, following the 205 bus and chasing coconuts and bundles of fresh red beans along the way.

*Chicalín is sun-dried shrimp often used to add flavor to soups and rice. It is not particularly appetizing but there are worse smelling things in the world. In El Salvador, nearly all markets smell of chicalín.