What to get a South American for xmas?

December 12, 2011 11:03 PM

A friend from El Salvador unexpectedly got me a very thoughtful xmas gift and I'd like to do the same! What could I get someone from Central America currently living in Australia that they wouldn't expect me to know about?

She came over here in her late teens and she 's still very much in touch with her culture so it'd be nice to surprise her with something El Salvadorian. Course, it's not much of a surprise if I ask her what she misses most from home! She's both arty and into food and very proud of her new herb garden so anything along those lines would be great.

posted by Silentgoldfish to Shopping (8 answers total)

Oh man, anything from central America would be welcome, I'm sure. Foodstuffs in particular from that area are very very hard to find over here. You could try Fireworks Foods - it's predominantly Mexican, and I confess I know diddly about El Salvadorean food, but there might be some overlaps e.g tomatilloes or something? They'll be able to ship you something in time for chrissie, so it's worth a shot. (You should mention you're in AU, otherwise you're gonna get a flood of suggestions for things you can buy in America, which will never arrive here in time and you may not want that).
posted by smoke at 1:48 AM on December 13, 2011

Best answer: There are a couple of things that you could possibly make for her, since trying to ship something from Central America in time for Christmas is going to be a problem.

My dad is from El Salvador, and the thing that people always bring back for him is a (delicious) pineapple-filled pastry called semita. The brand that they usually bring back is Santa Eduvigis. I can't vouch personally for any of the recipes on the web, but there are a ton of them. Gosh, just looking at the photos on that site makes me want some right now ...

The other local dish you might try is quesadilla. Central American quesadilla is totally different from Mexican quesadilla. It's a sweet cake with cheese in it. For /this/, I do have a recipe -- my grandmother's:

1/3 cup of pancake mix
1/4 cup sugar
3 whole eggs
2 tablespoons of sour cream
1/4 cup of whole milk
1/4 cup of parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
6 tablespoons of melted butter, cooled

Mix well. Bake at 25 - 30 minutes at 350 degrees in a buttered pyrex, sprinkled with some flour.

Here's an article from the Los Angeles Times discussing Salvadoran pastries, including quesadilla and semita.
posted by orthicon halo at 3:57 AM on December 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

There's a huge Salvadoran presence here in the DC area--I hear it's the largest Salvadoran population outside of El Salvador. If you come across any ingredients you can't get there (or anything else shippable), I'd gladly send it to you.
posted by MrMoonPie at 6:17 AM on December 13, 2011

If you can get masa harina, you could make pupusas. It would be even better with a side of curtido!
posted by moonmilk at 10:08 AM on December 13, 2011

Careful with customs if you order from overseas - my Australian coworker even had trouble with chocolate covered cranberries at Australian customs and those are pretty damned far removed from plantable.
posted by maryr at 9:48 PM on December 13, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions! I'm going to try the quesadilla because I remember her going nuts for day of the dead bread when we were at a Spanish film thing. The only reason I'm not trying pupusas and curtido is she's made them both for me, and they're delicious, and I don't think I can do better than hers!

Question though; what's pancake mix? Like the dry one you get from the supermarket or is it a wet thing?
posted by Silentgoldfish at 4:07 AM on December 14, 2011

I presume orthicon is referring to Bisquick (the US brand name). Here's another substitution. You can scale it down or use the rest to make pancakes or biscuits!
posted by maryr at 7:29 AM on December 14, 2011

maryr is right on the money; it's a dry pre-mixed powdery stuff. I'm not sure if my grandma uses Bisquick or another brand, but she didn't specify in the recipe, so I'm guessing it's not crucial. I hope it turns out great!
posted by orthicon halo at 11:48 AM on December 14, 2011