“What makes this cookbook special is that it includes women’s stories,” says Alma. “This is a kind of memory, a cultural memory, that is passed on from aunts, grandmothers and mothers to the younger generation. It is very important to document our residents.”
In fact, Salvadorans are the third most populous Latino group, after Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, according to the Pew Research Center. As of 2021, an estimated 2.5 million Salvadorans lived in the United States, with about one-third of them in California, with the largest concentration.
So Vazquez stuck to her goal of publishing with a major U.S. publisher, slowly building the Salvisoul concept through freelance writing and social media.
Salguero, who grew up in the Bay Area, had a similar experience. Some people come to Popoca and ask for chips and salsa that aren’t on the menu.
“I grew up around great Mexican people, and everyone thought I was Mexican too,” Salguero says. His father is from El Salvador and his mother is from Puerto Rico. “I love Mexican food. It’s not that I don’t like it…but I want people to know that.” [Salvadoran food] However, there is a lot to learn and it is very deep. ”
Salguero began cooking professionally as a teenager, honing his skills in fine dining for more than a decade before devoting himself to Salvadoran cuisine. It wasn’t until he visited El Salvador as an adult and learned the local cooking techniques that he felt fully immersed in the culture. His restaurant’s name, Popoca, means “smoke” in Nahuat, an indigenous language spoken in El Salvador.
“Sometimes people say, ‘I want pizza,’ ‘I want a hamburger,’ or ‘I want Mexican food,'” Salguero says. “I want to hear people say, ‘Oh, I want to go eat Salvadoran food.'”
He also wants people in the Bay Area to know there’s more to Salvadoran food than pupusas. “I love pupusas because I grew up eating them. But there are also foods that people don’t know about or aren’t very popular, but they’re really delicious.”
Like Salguero, Vázquez hopes to use his book and platform to demonstrate the vast diversity of Salvadoran cuisine. “One of the things I’ve always loved about her, for example, is how much edible flowers are used in her cooking. That’s so important,” she says.
Some of her favorite recipes in the book include rellenos de guiskiles (fried chayote stuffed with cheese), tortitas de camarones (patties made with corn masa and shrimp), mango syrup and Salvadoran spirits There are salvi sours made with “Tic Tac.” She also includes a recipe for rooster gallo en chicha cooked in fermented pineapple juice. This happens to be one of Salguero’s favorite dishes on Popoca’s menu.
After all, both Salguero and Vázquez use cooking to help a younger generation of Salvadoran-Americans connect with their heritage, but neither consider themselves culinary authorities. I haven’t thought about it. Instead, they surrender to their curiosity and love of culture.
“There’s a lot to learn, but you’ll never learn everything, so you can surrender to the fact that this is a journey,” says Vazquez.
On May 4, Vazquez will host a cooking demonstration (11 a.m.) and autograph session (noon) at Book Passage (1 Ferry Building, San Francisco), and Omnivore Books on Food (3885 Cesar) at 3 p.m. Chavez St.) will hold another autograph session. , San Francisco).
