I was sitting at my computer having a typical wanderlust attack watching a rotating screen saver of our travel photos.  This photo came up:
It seems like a lifetime ago when we took this photo on a beach in El Salvador.  This was literally the first country we went to on our around the world trip.  We started off in an adventurous way, I was lucky enough to pick up that peanut butter salmonella outbreak the night before we left.  Meggan decided to join in on my misery by getting food poisoning from civiche our first day in San Salvador.

A funny thing happens when reminiscing about travel.  Agony somehow evolves into adventure and any discomfort or pain of an experience blurs into an easily digestible memory.  Yes, we were really sick for most of our time in El Salvador, but I can’t really give any more details than that… lucky you.  In contrast, if you were to ask what it was like in the photo above, I could describe that experience all the way from the squeaking noise the dark sand made under our feet to how the misty air smelled like and isle scotch.  I guess when looking back on travel, the glass always seems to be half full, or in our case, overflowing.

As Meggan mentioned a few posts ago, we tend to use food as a mental travel vehicle between trips.  When I thought about El Salvador, their local specialty popped into my head, pupusas.  These are amazing handmade thick corn tortillas stuffed with various meats, beans, and cheese. My fingers found their way to Google search, “Pupusas Denver.”
Within an hour I was ordering Pupusas for take-away in a little authentic Salvadorian eatery I never knew existed called El Chalate.  The food was amazing and the best part, it was the real deal.  Authentic, all the way down to the pickled cabbage/peppers and a local Salvadorian cream soda.  Within one bite I was transported to a landscape of volcanoes and a Salvadorian roadside eatery with wood picnic tables garnished with jars of pickled chilies.

If you ever want to make a mini vacation out of a lunch hour, go eat somewhere like this.  It’s not fancy, there’s no scene, just real food from a real place.  If you have any traditional eateries from obscure places in your town we’d love to hear about them!