National Pupusa Day

Sunday, November 11, in addition to being Veteran's Day, a Salvadoran day of remembrance marking the day in 1989 the fighting moved into the city, the day that the FMLN formally announced their presidential candidate for the 2009 elections (which I know because I'm about a half block away from the stadium where all this was happening and got to hear all the fireworks), was also National Pupusa Day. And November is national pupusa month, even though people eat them constantly, all year round.

In a workshop I gave on Monday in Santa Ana, I had teachers brainstorm and categorize all of the things you can put in pupusas. Here's their list:

• Beans
• Cheese
• Chicharron
• A mix of any of the above
  
• Loroco (a flower)
  
• Mora (some kind of leaf)
  
• Chipilin (another kind of leaf)
  
• Chicken
• Ham
• Ayote (a kind of squash)
• Shrimp
• Fish
• Conchas
• Tuna
• Beef
• Spinach

I can add green onions, garlic, plantains, and green pepper to the list, which I've tasted and/or seen in San Miguel. Tasty bits of goodness, but I'm still not sure how people can eat so many of them here! Once a week is more than enough for me.