Santa Ana's traditional kitchen always reflects the customs of the old towns, conserving, like in tradition, maize as the main element. Santa Ana's typical food is a delicious mixture of the indigenous traditional food and combined with the Spanish.
PUPUSAS
The term pupusa comes from the nahualt ¨pupushahuathat¨ which means stuffed cheese tortilla with kidney beans, chicharrón, ayote, cream and carrot. They are elaborated generally with mass of maize, although there are some prefers that them of mass of rice. The common ones, though, are those that take control of mass of maize. Those of rice they eat generally in the capital outskirts, being the cradle of pupusas of Olocuilta rice, located in the department of La Paz. The worn out maize is kneaded and discs become that lie down on a hot comal to sew it. They can be filled with beans, cheese, chicharrón. The two varieties accompany by curtido and sauce of natural tomato.
TAMALES
They are elaborated of the mass of the maize, a filling (meat of hen, duck or pig, kidney beans, flower of izote, ejote, chipilín) and sauce. They are generally made for a celebration or a special occasion.
HORCHATA
The name comes from the Catalan orxata, probably derived from the word "ordiata", made of ordi (barley). The Horchata es a drink of milky consistency generally made with seeds (of chufa, nose, cacao, rice, sesame, linseed, almonds, etc.) or rice. The horchata found in Santa Ana is typically flavoured with Morro (Calabash tree) seed, ground cocoa and cinnamon as well as sesame seeds, and in some cases is strained.
YUCCA
The Yucca (Manihot esculenta) is a perennial shrub of the family of the euforbiáceas family, native and extensively worked in South America and the Pacific by its starch root of high nourishing value. It is possible to be served steamed or fried, accompanied with curtido, creole sauce and small pieces of chicharrón or pepesca (little fishes originally from the river). It is generally served in huerta leaves.
CORNFLOUR DRINKS
Santa Ana's gastronomy is rich in cornflour drinks: atol of elote, atol of piñuela and atol shuco.
CHICHA
Drink derived from maize previously fermented in containers that are buried during several weeks. Following their time under earth, chicha ferments and its turn out is a sweet refreshment drink with a high alcohol degree. Chicha is also the main ingredient of the dish "Gallo in Chicha" which consists of meat marinated with fruits and broth of sweet flavour. Until recently it was a typical plate of the dinner of Christmas Eve.
SEMITE OR SEMITA
It can be labelled as a pastry, sweet bread or dessert and it is a long, rectangular plate of flour, stuffed with pineapple jelly. Depending on the amount of jelly it can be known as a "Semita Mieluda."
TIED CANDY OR DULCE DE ATADO
Made from the molasses or juice of the cane, cooked and surrounded, "tied" is from, in tusas. With this candy, some farmers sweeten the coffee or the refreshments.
The Santa Ana travel tips offers various types of tourist attractions that the visitors that visit while they embark on a sightseeing spree in the city.Some of the must see places in the city includes the Cathedral of Santa Ana built in neo-gothic and Byzantine style in 1902;the National Theatre of Santa Ana built in the late 19th century; the Fietas Julias, municipal festivities of July; the City Hall; the Museo Nacional de Occidente and many more.
Coatepeque is a volcanic lake situated about an hour from San Salvador. It is much older than Ilopango, though created by a similar catastrophic eruption some five to six thousand years ago. Named Lago de Coatepeque, it is on the eastern slope of the Santa Ana volcano. It is a beautiful, clean, and sparkling blue crater-shaped lake, 6 kms wide and 120 meters deep and surrounded by steep green slopes rising up 250 to 500 meters. The scenic road between the Interamerican Highway and CA8, known as the "panoramic highway" for its marvelous views, curls along the steep ridge of the crater giving you glimpses of the broad fertile valleys on one side and the lake on the other.
