La Mercado

The bounty of freshness I bought at the market today!
All this for $12.00.  Time to get cookin'.

One of my favorite things about living in El Salvador is the availability and variety of fresh fruits, veggies, meats, fish, breads and anything else you can imagine on a daily basis.  Every city and town here has a mercado, or market, that is open from the wee hours of the morning to late afternoon.  There are vendors that sell everything you can imagine.  It's like a huge Farmers Market.  I've always loved going to Farmers Markets in the States, but here it's a whole other experience.  Some mercados I don't like to attend as they line the sides of very busy streets and intersections, but our mercado here in Izalco is just the right size and has the right amount of safety for me.  I like to go every few days and stock up on the fresh produce I will cook with the following days.  Since the mercado is open 7 days a week, you can always find what you need.  And days like today are extra special when I found that okra and beets are back in season.  Two of my favorites!  I will be posting some recipes of what I make with various vegetables in the future.  

As well as the mercado there are street vendors you can buy from along any road anywhere you go.  And my favorite are all the people that walk by our house every day selling things.  We literally will go a week without leaving the house simply because we don't have to.  Everything comes right to us.  It is custom to eat bread and coffee every afternoon around 4pm so you will hear ladies walking around with their big baskets full of pan, or bread, every afternoon and in the evenings, yelling "pan."  Liliana has always found this quite humorous and still enjoys mimicking them.