Coastal Salvadoran
Mariscada: Pacific seafood stew.
Mariscada Salvadoreña
El Salvador's Pacific-coast seafood stew of shrimp, crab, fish...
View page →El Salvador's Pacific coast turns the highland-pupusa diet outward toward the ocean. Mariscada (seafood stew with coconut milk, plantain, ñame), pescado frito (whole fish fried, sometimes butterflied), and sopa de pata (cow-foot soup with yuca and plantain) are the coastal trio. Bahía de Jiquilisco oysters and Acajutla shrimp travel inland to San Salvador's markets — the coastal kitchen feeds the country with marine protein.
Start Here
Seafood stew with coconut milk, plantain, and ñame — the Pacific-coast catch-of-the-day bowl.
Why start here · Different from the rest of Central America's seafood stews — the Salvadoran version uses ñame (a starchy tuber) instead of yuca, and is creamier from the coconut milk.
Whole fish butterflied, salted, deep-fried until the bones are crunchy.
Why start here · Beach-side classic. The deep frying means you eat the entire fish, head and tail and crispy bones. Squeeze lime; eat with tortillas.
Long-simmered cow-foot soup with yuca, plantain, corn, herbs.
Why start here · Sunday hangover cure and labor-of-love stew. The cow-foot gelatin gives the broth a body you can't get any other way.
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Other regions
Siblings within Salvadoran — each its own tradition.