Hi Rhonda and all!

You asked me about El Salvadorian food.  Here I am, finally, to answer at 
least some of your questions.  I found out this morning that none of the 
food at the house wedding was El Salvadorian.  They couldn't find some of 
the ingredients for what they wanted to make.  But at Christmastime, I did 
get a chance to eat their kind of Tamali.  I like it okay.  My sister Judy 
likes them better than the Mexican kind.  For New Years Eve, there was a 
sandwich that is made in El Salvador, with turkey, celery, cucumber, maybe 
avacado and I don't know what else.  It had a different flavor than what I'm 
used to.  One night some time ago, we had a fire going outside, and we ate. 
One of the things they had was plantains, which is a type of banana that you 
have to cook.  It was sweet, and not too bad.  I've also drank at least two 
kinds of Mexican drinks that were sweet, but you'd probably have to get used 
to the flavors.  One of them was hot chocolate, made from Mexico's own cocoa 
beans.  I asked blanca if she thought this chocolate is more healthy than 
the American kind, and she said yes.  If I had to give up American, I would 
drink Mexican.  The same with a piece of chocolate she cut for me to taste. 
Another thing I like about this hot chocolate is that they put corn starch 
in it to make it thick.  Wouldn't that be a kind of substitute for the 
creamy texture?  It is called "champurrado".  My niece, Blanca, remembers 
that in the orphanage in Guatemala, where she lived before being adopted by 
Judy and her husband Wendell, a treat made with merang (don't know the 
spelling).  She wants it for her wedding.  My care provider Blanca thinks 
she knows what that is, and her cousin, who also spent part of her life in 
an orphanage in El Salvador, might know how to make it.

At the house wedding, we had a meat and veggie dish that I think was more 
oriental, and maybe rice, I don't remember for sure.  We also had Chile 
beans that Jose cooked in a special way, potato salad, and tortillas on the 
side.  Later we did have cake.  I asked Blanca if they ate potato salad in 
El Salvador, and she said she didn't know because she was raised in a poor 
neighborhood.  One interesting thing is that the poor families could not 
afford milk, so they drank coffee made of corn.  Wouldn't that be 
interesting to try?

sharon