Comida Típica and the Market

I have really been enjoying writing this blog and think it is great that someone from Moscow is reading about my life here. I am in the middle of reading Stalin’s Ghost by Martin Cruz Smith and would love to experience the Moscow of the homicide detective Arkady Renko. Interestingly, one of his novels was set in Cuba (Havana Bay) and I still recall from the first novel, Gorky Park, Renko walking around Moscow with a small Cuban pineapple in his pocket which he would periodically take out and smell to transport him to the sunny island paradise while his world was threatening to crash down around him in cold Moscow.

Rene, Fatima and myself at the Mercado
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I also see that friends in Spain are reading my blog - so leave comments if you have any questions about life here.

The pupusa!

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So I will finally turn to the local food or comida típica. I think I have delayed this because, while I really enjoy it, I don’t know it very well yet.

Our first starter at Maurita's - Quenelles of fresh salty cheese
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The most traditional food here is the pupusa - a corn or rice flour thick tortilla that is stuffed with cheese, chicharrones, and beans. It is made by making a masa or dough with the right amount of water because consistency is very important. Then you take a ball of dough, make a hole inside, put the filling in, fold the top closed and pat it out between your hands - no press or machine can do it as well. Oh, you can put a bit of oil on your palms so it doesn’t stick. Then fry it up and eat it with cortida (which is a vinegary cole slaw made with hand cut cabbage, carrots, sometimes onions and jalapenos, and oregano) and a water tomato sauce. Oddly, this national meal is also slang for a woman’s private parts because the patting together of the hands while forming the pupusa reminds some people of Lesbians getting it on. Excuse the vulgar anecdote here.

Our second starter at Maurita's - Chicharrones with fried tortillas and pico de gallo (the salsa like stuff)

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This food is popular with all Salvadorans although some of my gringo friends hate them and claim that you will always get sick from eating them and that the pork is rancid. I have eaten them from maybe 10 different places/stands and never had a problem. On the Travel Channel, I saw a show where both Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern ate pupusas in NYC and they were both familiar with them and love them ... so that’s great food cred right there.

Fatima's separate and stuff technique

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I think that Fatima has the best way of eating them. She separates the two halves and then eats them like two soft tacos with the cortida on the inside. We all love them in the house but don’t eat them very often since they are very fattening and very condusive to turning regularly proportioned people into very round people.

The girls at Maurita's
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What I find really maddening is that pupusas can only be found for breakfast or dinner - and I think it is the perfect lunch food! I have heard various explanations for this - that it was supposed to be a big filling breakfast that workers would have at home before heading out to the fields to work all day. And the opposite where the workers have such a big lunch with meat, rice, beans, salad, tortillas or bread that they only want something small like a pupusa at the end of the day. Whatever the reason, this is harsh fact of life in El Salvador - although we were able to get pupusas for lunch one day when Elliot and his two friends were visiting from Canada.

The amazing waitress (left) who found us lunchtime pupusas!
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We were at my favourite comida típica place, the Mercado de Antiguo Cuscutlan, looking for a food stand that had pupusas. A lot of the big flat top grills were making tortillas but all the fixings for pupusas were put away. I offered women $5 tips to make a few pupusas ... and was turned down at 5 different places.

Fresh oysters on the half shell at Maurita's

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We ended up at Mauritas where I explained the problem to a waitress and she said hold on ... and came back saying she found someone who would commit the social outrage of cooking pupusas for lunch but we had to pay a 10 cent premium on each one and we had to order 20 of them ... done ... and enjoyed!

My favourite ... Sopa de Patas

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So that is how we came to become loyal to Mauritas. There are probably about 40 food stands and we have eaten at maybe 8 of them. Many of them are very quiet and empty but Mauritas is probably the biggest and busiests (and they take credit cards). They have fresh oysters (for $8, $10 and $12 per dozen, depending on the size), black clams that my friend Minh says are like the kind they had in Viet Nam, and all the traditional meals. We always start with a fresh soft cheese, avocados, and chicharrones (which is actually the name of a fried pork rind but is made here with big chunks of pork meat fried in pork fat), with fresh and fried tortillas.

Sopa de Mariscada

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The the girls usually have a big seviche and I will have a big bowl of Sopa de Patas - a very hearty soup made with cow’s feet and served with big pieces of tendon, tripe, and big chunky vegetables like corn on the cob, cabbage, yucca, wiskil, and carrot. It is served with chopped onion and cilantro and I cover it in hot sauce.

Counting the empties to get a free Pilsener key chain ... sweet!

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Yum! Usually have 3-4 beers provided by the lovely Constancia and Brava beer girls who are constantly fighting for our patronage - Constancia has skinnier girls who offer little gifts like glasses and beer openers while the Brava girls are larger and bustier women who offer a free beer after having 6.

What's that smell? Oh, they brought the kids.
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The other great traditional soup is Mariscada which is a rich seafood soup made with fish, shrimps, langostine, and crab. Maybe some clams too? Then they pour heavy cream into it when they serve it (which is optional - you can have the healthy version which has more veggies in it at some places). Very delicious, rich, and messy if you take the small crab apart.
You can also get really fresh seafood - it goes from the fishmongers into the frying pan here. I tried a turtle egg once ... I know, a protected species but very popular here. It was put into boiling water for maybe 30 seconds and served to me ... it had a soft and leathery shell, you make a hole in the top, put in salt (maybe lime or hot sauce as well), then you suck out the liquidy mess ... did not enjoy that at all.

The stand where they grind the fresh corn for masa for tortillas
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Reminds me of the Sopa de Garrobo that I had once at another restaurant. An iguana soup where the reptile was first boiled to make a broth and then the carcass was fried and served as meat ... the broth was bitterish and quite unpleasant while the animal was extremely bony and had virtually no meat on it. Wow, not good. BUT, I was at a gastronomical food fair where 300 Salvadoran chefs set up at the Sheraton’s big ballroom and the best thing I tried was a Sopa de Garrobo ... rich, deep, delicious ... and am kicking myself for not finding out where that chef worked.
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Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables
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So we like to meet friends at the Mercado and we have a big weekend brunch meal. It has been getting a lot more crowded on Saturdays since Sky TV in Mexico took over the rights to broadcast Spanish Football in Central America. So the thousands of fans of Barcelona and Real Madrid have to go somewhere that has a satellite feed to watch their beloved team ... which makes the Market a popular place with TVs at every food stand. Afterwards, we go to the DVD stand and I buy a bunch of bootlegs to bring to Cuba and we go buy vegetables. The Mercado also has a shoe repair place, shoe stores, hair salons, a florist, stationary shop, and an artesanal goods shop. If you make it down to visit, I'll have to take you to this place.

Cooking pots and corn grinders made from volcanic rock

If you make it down to visit, I'll have to take you to this place.

More Food Verbiage

I’ve had a busy few weeks. Had to head up to Toronto for about three weeks to take care of a family emergency. Did a lot of shopping and lugged a lot of stuff back to El Salvador. Had a pretty good time up there, was able to spend a lot of time with family, got out a few times with friends, and finally got to see my friend Jeff’s new house with his incredibly nice kitchen. Hand painted customs cabinets (including on the fridge and Miele dishwasher doors), six burner dual gas Viking range, and an island that includes a sink/garberator, large wine fridge, built in microwave, and a big warming drawer!

Jeff and the wonder-kitchen

It was my first time in the new kitchen in Owen Sound so I was happy to cook three meals over the weekend. On Friday, we did Korean food with 8 bottles of Soju and 2 bottles of the 100 year wine. I picked up some kimchee, Chrysanthemum leaves, pickled cucumbers and garlic greens, fresh perilla leaves from Korea (!), and bulgogi beef for a nice table top cooking session. Chilli paste, fresh serranos, big chunks of garlic, and grilled meat wrapped up in lettuce with some funky greens. I recall the meal being very delicious and it ended with cigars, whiskey and chocolate on the porch but I don’t recall very much more than that although there were rumours that we got really, really drunk. Mind you, I think that we only drank maybe 6 bottles of Korean booze (or maybe 8) … and a bottle of wine and the whiskey. The Andong Soju was really amazing – clean and fresh like very good vodka.

Andong Soju with unidentified pink bunny

Next day, I made that delicious simple tofu, green onion and beef soup that Mom used to whip up in about 10 minutes. My friends were amazed at how tasty and simple it was so I think that they have added that recipe to their repertoire.

Medium rare grilled lamb with roast veggies

That night, we decided to make a big meal and ended up with a nice deboned leg of lamb marinated in olive oil, garlic and fresh Rosemary and grilled on the Weber and served on a bed of grilled veggies.

Bacon wrapped to keep warm

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... and served on a bed of roast potatoes and grilled savoy

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We also, inexplicably, decided to do a roast steamer leg of pork covered in bacon and served over roast potatoes and savoy cabbage with a red wine jus gravy with parsley. What rocket surgeon came up with that menu? There were only 8 of us for dinner. Washed down with maybe 6 bottles of wine … ugh, wheel me to bed.

Good Canadian Pub Food

Other notably meals … convalescing family member at home where I cooked a nice mac and cheese au gratin with a very old white cheddar, giant BLT’s, chicken souvlaki with a Greek salad, and chicken and dumplings. Went out one night to my local Firkin pub and our table ordered 4 of the specials – prime beef ribs, charred on the grill and slathered with a sweet bbq sauce that comes, I kid you not, with a side of chicken wings and fries. Washed down with 5 pints of beer, yum.

Fixin's for Sukiyaki

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Elliot, myself and Mom after dinner

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Mom came back from Korea and China and we had some nice meals. I got to pick the last meal I had in Toronto so asked for Sukiyaki. Mom made it with beef, tofu, spinach, green onions, spinach, baby bok choi, and shitakes ... delish, and healthy too.

After all this food, it was nice to get back home. The rainy season has started and it will be overcast and rainy until October – although not all the time. It was sunny when I woke up this morning so as long as I get to see the sun every few days, I’ll be happy.

So getting back into the cooking and eating cycle here. Went to Minh’s Cuisine restaurant to celebrate my friend Pierre’s birthday. We ordered a few very tasty appetizers and Minh sent us a couple of nice freebie plates. For my main, I had a curry shrimp dish and it was delish and made even better by some pickled garlic and Habanero chillis. I foolishly ate a whole one including all the seeds and pith … and while it was awesome eating it, my stomach was upset all night. But that s**t is good for you and should keep most gastrointestinal maladies away.

The gift that keeps on giving ... pickled Habaneros and garlic from Minh

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Then on the weekend, Keller was in the mood to smoke so he found a couple of local pork shoulders (none of that potentially scary Hillshire Farms factory pork from Pricesmart). He dusted up a rub and threw it on the smoker along with a beercan chicken and some brined salmon. Salmon was well smoked and awesome and came off first. Then we had to battle our friend who likes to eat his meat very rare. I was trying to explain that that may be okay for an expensive cut of meat but for something cheap, fatty and gristly, it would need 8 to 10 hours at 225 degrees. But nooo, he took it off at 3 hours and then at 5 hours … still not properly cooked. I acquiesced and said that he could cook one shoulder any way he wanted but I was going to do the other one … but he snuck the second one off when I wasn’t looking (possibly between my beers number 6 and 7). So I had to restart the firebox and left it on for another 3 hours … which I think took us to 11:00 pm. When it was done, it was awesome – soft and falling off the bone in chunks. Unfortunately, none of us were hungry anymore! But it made for good tacos later.

Sorry but I forgot my camera so no good food pictures! Just these weird ones that Keller took with his Blackberry. The second one is me with one of the smoked shoulders.

What we are most excited about now, foodwise, is making pastrami and Montreal Smoked Meat. I brought the pickling spices and the saltpeter from Canada and I just have to find some nice briskets. I have two recipes – one calling for a 10 day brine and the other for 21 days … don’t know if I can wait that long. We are planning on having a big deli dinner with dill pickles, potato chips, and pastrami sandwiches slathered in hot mustard that are so thick, you’ll have problems taking a bite out of it.

Organized a group of 12 of us to go to the Mercado Antiguo Cuscutlan tomorrow for some comida tipica ... and I promise to take photos and do a proper blog on the great local dishes and seafood.

To Have and Have Not

I have been hearing stories from friends of mine living in Korea and China about the deprivations they suffer when living away from "home." I too am keenly aware of this after living in Cuba for more than a decade but I can happily report that we can get almost everything we need here in little El Salvador.

I chose the title of this blog as a tip of the hat to Hemingway's’s book about a charter captain who has to illegally transport Chinese workers from Cuba to Key West. Interesting echoes of my former life where I fished on charter boats that illegally came down from FLA to Marina Hemingway in Havana. I was also asked to join a business helping Chinese illegals to sneak into Canada on fake papers for $25K a person (I said no to this). Also, the book was turned into a movie with the screenplay being worked on by an out of print and out of money William Faulkner - who counts Ricardo Alarcon (one of Cuba’s top politicians) as a big fan.

My Canadian friend in China wrote "I mention potato chips because the anticipation of buying Ripples in China only sets you up for such a big disappointment when you take your first bite. Same goes for their chocolate bars (the ones without the melamine), hamburgers (excluding McDonald's), steaks, pasta, Korean, Thai etc. We do eat our share of Sushi. Salmon seems to be abundant in these parts so it's usually quite fresh- although there is fake squid here. An of course, they haven't even come close to copying a good jelly filled donut!" Ah, the life of the expat has a dark side!

My Canadian and American friends in Korea miss good Mexican food, wines, beer, and pizza that doesn’t have corn and mayonnaise on it.

As for El Salvador, we are pretty well set up. I ate most of a bag of Lay chips yesterday (from Mexico and they figured out that the chips are supposed to be crunchy, salty and light coloured - not cooked brown and bitter). We can get burgers at McD’s, a local place called Biggest with their Big Spam burger (not "the" Spam but just using the name), and Bennigans. Steaks, ah USDA choice sirloin, striploin, and ribeyes are available at Pricesmart. Pasta, several good Italian places like Enoteca (extensive wine list, fresh made pasta, and the lovely hostess/owner Lizette), Tres Fretelli, etc.
















Fatima and MJ enjoying the appetizers at Pabelion Coreano

Korean food ... we have two pretty good places! Sushi in Central America is a sad joke but I have discovered that Korean (at least in Panama and El Salvador) is excellent - restaurants owned by Koreans, food cooked by Koreans, for a largely Korean clientele. We go for sam gyup sal (fatty pork belly cooked on a table grill eaten in lettuce wraps with a spicy salad), bulgogi (seasoned thinly cut sirloin cooked on the table and eaten with big chunks of raw garlic, slices of "Johnny Cash" jalapeno rings, and a chilli paste in a lettuce wrap), usually a chigae soup of some kind, we get at least 7 side dishes with at least 3 kimchees, and several bottles of Soju.

Thai and Vietnamese are represented by two decent restaurants - one owned by my friend Minh who came here via Viet Nam, Philippines, SoCal. He is very good and his south east Asian fusion is pretty creative and tasty.

Otherwise, we have pretty much all we need. Good crusty french baguettes (made by a french guy), Guinness draft in cans and export special in bottles. A surprisingly good Chilean table wine for $3.50 a bottle. Tofu, sushi rice, and kimchee at the Asian stores. Haven’t found good pastrami or hotdogs but I don’t need many per year and can get my fill in Toronto when I visit in the summer.
















Our crack design team, Eric and Eric

What are our big "have nots"? Getting back to the pastrami and other smoked meats, a friend got it into his head to build a bbq smoker for another friend and I got roped into helping out with the design. So after numerous internet searches, we came up with a design we liked.
Then off to the friend’s large textile plant (where they magically turn tiny little plastic pellets into long threads made up of 72 different filaments) where he has a large scrap yard and a welder with some time on his hands.
















The guys who actually did the work

We gave them some photos and plans culled from the Internet and some basic ideas of what we needed - a big 50 gallon oil drum, very well cleaned out, with a quarter cut out and hinged with a handle, sitting on a base with a pipe chimney and a smoke box attached at the bottom left with as big a transfer hole as possible.

Returning a few days later, we were very pleased to see that our ideas and their enormous skills had resulted in a kick ass smoker. They arc welded most of it, ground down the pointy welds, cut everything precisely. We asked them to make a few modifications and they had it ready in a few hours. So it turned out that two lawyers and an accountant were not, in fact, completely useless at doing something productive!

Rush back to my friend’s house, stop by the Pricesmart for sausages and ribs, a quick dry rub thrown together from whatever was in the house, start the smoker and wait. Wow, a lot of smoke but not too much heat. My friend had worried that the little Proctor Silex burner in the side smoke box wouldn’t be able to transfer enough heat and he was 100% correct. So we decided to build a charcoal fire on top of the burner and that helped enough to get the temperature up. Plus newspaper insulation on the smoke box, duct tape, and a hair dryer billows, 20 beers and 4 hours later ... pork ambrosia.

I made a bbq sauce with pureed onion, serranos and garlic, ketchup, balsamic vinegar and everything else from the spice cupboard ... delicious.


The next day, the boys were at it again but they have had time to think about the set up. So they dropped the electric element into the 50 gallon drum to raise the temperature, had an ash grill welded for the smoke box, plugged it in and started the fire and it leveled off at a perfect 225 degrees.



Crack open the beers, more ribs (brined this time with a fantastic mustard and habanero sauce), sausages, chops and a deboned leg. By this point, we had easily passed the point of too much of a good thing so have decided to take the week off but we will be back with brined and rubbed brisket (will try to make Montreal smoked meat) and we can buy pork shoulders cheap at Pricesmart (with a minimum order of 40 lbs, come on over!).

Food - El Salvador versus Cuba

It has been a week since the election and so far so good. Nothing crazy has happened although some of the business community here are very pessimistic and are expecting El Salvador to follow the pattern of Ecuador, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Others are expecting this country to follow the example of Brazil and it is a good sign that President Elect Funes went to visit Lula first.

Okay, it is not my intention to make this into a political blog and I have been spending way too much time this week arguing politics at parties ... so let me talk about something else. I was trying to decide whether to write about dentistry in San Salvador or food ... and I think the latter may be more fun.

I came to El Salvador after 13 years living in Havana. Havana has a vibrant culture and, seemingly, a diverse and interesting cuisine. Think about all those great cocktails invented in Cuba (Mojitos, Cuba Libres, and Daiquiris).
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Yoyi carving the pig in Yeya's kitchen
Think about Cuban sandwiches, roast whole pork cooked in a caja china, yucca con mojo, tostones and maraquitas, and fresh seafood. In reality, we ate a lot of cabbage (organic since the farmers didn't have the money for pesticides) and frozen chicken from the US (hormone enhanced giant chicken legs in 30 lb boxes with Russian writing on them) that fell off trucks.

We also had a lot of lobster tails (at a dollar per tail, it was cheaper than the imported hamburger) but there is only so much you can stand and with Fatima being allergic to it, I only cooked it when she was off island.
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Too much lobster!

Vegetables were really lacking. Sometimes all you would find was cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, and fruit. I only found green beans once in 13 years! Cauliflower maybe 4 time. Napa maybe 6 times - and of course I bought ever head they had so that I could make kimchee.

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Organic baby arugula salad in Cuba
The best produce we had was organic baby arugula that would cost a dollar for a giant plastic bag (until hurricane Wilma flooded the little farm in Miramar) and watercress.
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So when I moved to El Salvador, I was blown away by all the great food and produce. Four kinds of lettuce, zucchini, radicchio, daikon, strawberries, fresh chili peppers, fennel, sweet corn ... YEAR ROUND! A lot of it comes from Guatemala where I think they have the climate at altitude to grow through every season. We also have some nice culinary surprises like fresh mozzarella and a nice salty crumbly local cheese we use like Feta.
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Caprese on a stick with a balsamic dressing

The wines from Chile and Argentina are plentiful and very inexpensive - our house wine is an Undurraga that costs $3.60 a bottle. The meats are good although I have to confess that I buy most of that at Pricesmart so our beef is from the US and the fish is farm grown Tilapia.
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A dinner party in Havana with tamales and tacos
When we cooked for a large dinner party in Cuba, we would have a general idea of what we wanted to make and then we would try to find it. Depending on the outcome of that, we would have to change or tailor what we could serve. We did a lot of Mexican with tortillas brought in from visits to El Salvador. Our chicken mole was pretty popular.

In San Salvador, I can get an idea from the Food Channel or off the Internet, find everything I need, and then make exactly what I wanted to.
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Indian food dinner - butter chicken and homemade Nan

In the past year, that has meant such dinner parties like: Thai food with Jasmine rice, coconut milk curry, Pad Thai, and a green papaya salad; Indian food with a Goan grilled curry fish, butter chicken and home made Nan bread;

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Hand-rolls with avocado, tomago and shrimp

Japanese sushi handrolls with tofu miso soup; and a lot of beef with great salads and veggies like green beans with butter, garlic and almonds.

We have a nice condo but unfortunately we don’t have a private garden for a barbecue. There is a common parkette and I am contemplating setting up something there but it is a bit inconvenient. So we usually barbecue at friend’s houses.

A lot of big two pound sirloins on the grill and we recently did a proper barbecue with brisket and pork, cooked for 8 hours with a lot of hickory smoke.
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Pork and brisket in our improvised smoker
I am not much of an appetizer maker but I cooked for a friend's birthday party and she wanted some appetizers so we did pesto grilled chicken kebobs with grated manchego cheese, a nice caprese salad on a stick with local fresh mozzarella and a balsamic dip, and bacon wrapped figs with a mascarpone dip.

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Bacon wrapped figs with mascarpone dip

I have also been lucky to find plenty of friends who love to eat and also one who is a professional chef. Minh, of Minh's Cuisine, is a Thai and Vietnamese chef and he is just awesome to cook with. I like cooking and think I am a decent "cook" but Minh is a "chef" and is teaching me a lot. We once did a rotisserie boneless leg of pork and someone thought it was a bit dry. He was carving and said we should make a sauce. A quick rummage through the cupboards produced two cans of pineapples - through the blender, then into a saucepan with two sticks of butter, a touch of ginger, a splash of soy sauce, and finished with some sliced green onions and we had a 4 minute sauce done.

Now the big question is, what are we making next weekend?

We Have a Winner!

9:20 p.m. about 300 yards away from where I sit, Mauricio Funes of the FMLN is giving his acceptance speech in the Sheraton Hotel. Fatima thinks that the Arena candidate is probably giving his own speech ... but after a long night of vote counting, it appears that we have a clear winner.

No violence! Lots of language about how this is a young democracy. Lots of foreign scrutineers and a pretty clean process. Saw some shenanigans like a group of 10 Nicaraguans who were given fake ID cards and hats and T-shirts of the right wing Arena party - but they were caught pretty easily so were they paid by the left or the right?

The ballots were pretty basic - about 8 x 10" with only two choices given by their squarish coloured logo. Mark one or the other. In one case, someone put the "X" in the middle and there was an argument because it was touching the Frente symbol. In another case, someone in the countryside was so nervous about the party observers and international scrutineers ... that they panicked and put an "X" through the seal of the country. A vote for El Salvador!

Throughout the night, the cable channel has been periodically putting the Emergency Alert System on so that this one electoral official could stumble over reading number after number. They interrupted Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, The Unit, and now Bizarre Foods. Okay, what is this guy saying ... 8 million votes, 91% counted ... 48.76% for Arena and 51.27% for FMLN! Fireworks are going off outside and we have a socialist government coming into power in May!

After 20 years, there is a new government and we weren’t threatened by the US this time. They normally like to make noises about how El Salvador may not receive special treatment related to immigration issues and remittances if the communists take power. But there was a lot of noise from the American Embassy or maybe the State Dept about how other countries (i.e. Chavez’ Venezuela) shouldn’t stick their nose into another sovereign government’s election process. So I guess they felt bad about doing it themselves.

I can hear cheering from the Sheraton but otherwise, San Benito is very, very quiet. No surprise since this is a wealthy neighbourhood and I am sure most people voted for the right. We can see fireworks way off in the distance. The TV stations (which are controlled by right wing voting groups) are showing mostly boring speeches - the head of Arena for San Salvador is saying how divided the country is ... and he appears to be drunk. Not much news of how the city is taking these results so off to the streets!

Wow, there are hundreds of cars driving up and down Escalon and all over the side streets. Traffic is mostly blocked and thousands of people are gathering on foot, wearing red FMLN shirts and waving flags.

Traffic is crazy and it takes us about 10 cycles of a traffic light to cross through Escalon. I have never seen people this happy and emotional before.

Normally everyone is so reserved in public and they don't make eye contact or talk. Now people are waving at me as I take their picture (sorry for the quality - I really have to get a better camera) and kids are directing traffic while waving flags.

Cars make U-turns to either get closer to the celebration or to get farther away.

A guy is walking up the street with a big hand-lettered sign that says "Cual miedo?" which means "Which fear?"

Booom! Someone is throwing giant firecrackers (the illegal foot long ones called morteros) on the street and one went off very close to our car. We don't want to get caught in traffic for an hour so we head further and further down a side street until we can cut across Escalon. Cars are still flocking up the street to join the party and it is good to see the cops are all out - but they are staying in the vehicles and there seems to be no problems.

The TV channels are showing the concession speach by Rodrigo Avila (the donut fan) but nothing of the massive celebration going on in the street. That's too bad because on the TV and amongst my expat business friends the mood is dour and pessimistic. But the people have spoken and now they are celebrating in the streets. Their faces are shining and they look euphoric with so much hope for a better future.

Election Day!

I have so much to talk about that I am not sure where to start. I wish they had blogs in 1995 when I moved to Havana. At the time, I just sent out these very long "Letters from Havana" to friends by E-mail in which I noted all the bizarre things that happened to me and all the cultural ironies that I ran across. I stopped writing those when a friend of mine said that he would print out the letters and stash them in the can but that he was getting too far behind and was feeling guilty. So onwards and upwards!

Today is election day in San Salvador. Yesterday, the streets were quite calm although I saw various law enforcement guys throughout San Benito, the neigbourhood where I live. There was a group of 10 cops (male and female) in their quasi-paramilitary outfits on foot going through the Zona Rosa (entertainment district), there were two different types of cops in the parking lot of my local supermarket, and I heard a lot of helicopters out and about (there is a landing pad between our condo and the Hotel Sheraton one street over). I also saw two Japanese scrutineers with their credentials walking around - only a few of the thousands who have descended on the city to ensure these elections are fair.

Helicopters flying in the early morning mist on election day

I heard that the border with Guatemala has been closed - I thought for security purposes but I also heard it might be to prevent either party from bringing in fake voters.

Last night was pretty quiet since the Ley Seca came into effect, prohibiting the sale of alcohol for 24 hours on either side of the polls being opened. This meant that the many bars in our neighbourhood were closed and you could find parking! Of course the Super Selectos chose Friday to have a sale selling booze at cost! So to stock up, I got a bottle of Stoli Gold for $8, a Smirnoff Silver (for cocktails) for $6, and some Campari (for Red Square martinis - equal parts of cranberry, vodka, and Campari) for $10. Now isnt the point of the law to prevent people from getting boozed up and hitting the streets? Oddly, (or perhaps not), this same chain has similar sales before Christmas and Easter.

I am hearing what sounds like the drums of a marching band practicing off in the distance - it is 4:00 a.m.

As I mentioned before, I can see pros and cons to both sides running in this election. I have spoken to a lot of Salvadorans and the basic consensus is that the right wing ruling party has governed for almost 20 years and the rich have gotten richer while the poor haven’t been helped properly. One of my richer friends would refute this strongly and has pointed out all the public works the current government has done - building hospitals and roads. The amount of good that has been done is debatable but most people want to see some change, to let the left wing party take over to see what they can do. The left would be a shoo-in but for the fact that they have some old school rebel guerillas in their midst and there is some fear that they will assassinate their moderate leader and then go hog wild partying with Farc, Chavez and their old friend Fidel.
Wow, now I am hearing the roar of voices chanting along with the marching drums. Sounds like a war party getting their jones on.

The campaign was quite interesting. There were a lot of TV spots, most of them showing crowds walking behind their respective leaders with sweeping emotional music playing. And only a very few talked about the platforms - which were basically the same, i.e. encourage foreign investment, create jobs, help the poor. Instead of going door-to-door (which wouldn’t be very practical or safe in a country with a lot of walls, razor wire and armed guards), their supporters will take over a roundabout or a stretch of road and will fly their colours and give away car flags, stickers, plastic cups, brochures and stick notes emblazoned with their party or leader.

There has been some violence but little humour except for the giant billboards throughout the country. One party will put up a billboard as high as 60' off the ground and the other party would then carry up buckets of "mud" coloured paint to throw on the faces.

Who doesn't like donuts?
The funniest billboard has to be this one, in honour of the right wing candidate who used to be the head of the police and, while he did a good job, isn’t considered to be the sharpest guy around.


The polls are open and there is a feeling of anticipation. This could be a shining moment in the history of this country where the democratic voice of the people rises above fear mongering and prejudice ... or it could spiral out of control until we are reduced to a 10 second video clip on CNN showing police firing at masked prootestors with smoke hanging over this beautiful city. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

A New Life in El Salvador

A view of the city

After being a fan of numerous blogs, I've finally decided that I wasn't wasting enough time reading other people's writings and have decided to throw in my two cents. I am also interested in discussing what life is like in El Salvador for people interested in a chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure.
I think Mexico is pretty full up (especially for anyone interested in an ocean front property), Guatemala doesn't have the nicest beaches, Costa Rica is seeing the beginnings of a backlash against foreigners, Panama is very hot and humid, so I think El Salvador may be next in line. Very affordable property, great standard of living (especially after spending 13 years living in Cuba), all the comforts of home, very localized crime (unlike Guatemala City, for example), and great people.

The view from our apartment
So a bit about myself ... I am a Japanese born Korean, moved to Toronto when I was 3, went to school there and then moved to Havana in '95 for work, met a wonderful Salvadoran woman, started visiting El Salvador in '97, and decided to move here in September of 2007.
When I first came to SAL, things were smaller and quieter. Less rampant American commercialism and only Metrocentro and Gallerias (two big malls) were open and only one ATM in the entire country. Now we have BK's, McD's, Pizza Hut, and KFC everywhere ... along with Tony Roma's, Wendy's, Papa John's ... list goes on. Can't say it is the Yanks' fault since I think all of these franchises have been brought in by wealthy Salvadoran families/companies that want an easy way to make money (more on this later). Roads were good then (and even better now), prices quite a bit lower, crime was much better with fewer mara/gang deportees from the US living here (although still a lot of guns and matériel from the civil war being used inappropriately - like a grenade being thrown into a bank), and people had less money and were less familiar with the comsumer lifestyle of North America.

My son at Punta Roca
Visiting over the years, I have noticed more and more franchises, more big malls, and now thousands of ATMs everywhere. The middle class is growing - which bodes very well for this country - although poverty is still huge at 35%. The upper class is still making a lot of money and are more conspicuous in the Porsche Cayennes, Ferraris, and their helicopters. There are a lot more maquiladoras or maquilas (factories using cheap labour to manufacture or assemble for export) with many being in textiles.
How are things trending? A lot will depend on the election tomorrow. I am not for either party and can see the pros and cons of both. Regardless, this isn't my decision but one the Salvadoran people will make. I just hope it is fair with little violence.
So back to what I want to talk about in this blog. Can foreigners come here to find a new life? I read and occasionally contribute to the Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree Travel Forum http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/forum.jspa?forumID=12 and there seem to be various people who find themselves in this country - be it a long stay traveling through the region, or for work, with NGO's, church groups, or to retire. In my case, along with most of the expats I know living here, it came about due to a relationship with a Salvadoran, a few visits to this amazing country, and then the decision to move here full time. We have escaped the cold and the rat race of North America (and remember what Lily Tomlin used to say, even if you win the race, you're still a rat) and live in a country where many people leave from, risking danger to go illegally to the country which we easily left to make money for their family's survival. But we are fortunate to have savings or jobs that grant us a very good standard of living in a country with a low cost of living.
More on all these subjects later!