Volcanoes in El Salvador
What, you haven't heard of El Salvador?
Indeed, it is too small. The land area is 21,000 square kilometers, which is only 1/10 of the area of shaanxi province (about 200,000 square kilometers) on the mainland, and half the area of Hainan Island (about 35,400 square kilometers), the smallest in the entire Central American region.
Not only is El Salvador small, but its economy is also slow. The per capita GDP is only more than 3,000 US dollars, and there is not much economic development, the only thing that is known is that there are 22 volcanoes in the territory, with an average of one volcano per tens of kilometers, which is known as the "country on the volcano", and there are still several volcanoes active today.
▲China's assistance to el Salvador's National Library project
The most important reason why El Salvador is not familiar to Chinese is that it only established diplomatic relations with China in August 2018. However, after the establishment of diplomatic relations, the two countries immediately began to cooperate, and El Salvador exported their most famous cane sugar and coffee to the Chinese market; China has undertaken important projects such as its National Library.
Of course, in Latin America, it has beautiful scenery, pleasant climate, and many lesser-known fruits. For example: "'Rain tree' that can be used as chewing gum", "'Pseudobombax ellipticum' that can produce cotton", "'Coccoloba caracasana' that can be eaten directly with sauce"... Let's take a look, what of the following 8 kinds of Salvadoran fruits have you eaten?
▲ Fruit stalls on the side of the road in El Salvador
■ Can be used as a "Rain tree" of chewing gum
▲ The fruit of the rain tree fruit
"Rain nut", also known as "Samanea saman", is mainly distributed in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Colombia and Venezuela.
It is a large tree that can grow to more than 30 meters. After flowering, it can produce a fruit like a pod. The pods are more regular, with significantly thickened edges, 12 to 20 cm long, 1 to 2 cm wide, and about 1.2 cm thick. The fruit is green when immature and turns brown when it is fully ripe and dried.
▲Sun-dried hue fruit
The ripe fruit has a brown, viscous, sweet flesh in the middle, which will be eaten as a fruit by local children.
Its pulp can also be made into a lemon juice-like drink. The pole itself secretes a type of gum that was once eaten as gum. Dried seeds can also be made into handicrafts.
■ Will open the same cotton "Pseudobombax ellipticum"
▲The "cotton" blooming inside the fruit
It is a large deciduous tree found mainly in El Salvador, southern Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras.
The flowers produced by pseudobombax ellipticum are very beautiful and are often planted around courtyards, or churches, as green plants.
▲ Its flowers are very beautiful
It produces a pod-like fruit wrapped in cotton-like fibers, while the seeds in the middle can be processed and eaten as a snack. Cotton-like fibers can also be used as a pillow and pillow filler.
■ Girl fruit that is liked to be eaten in northern China
▲ Girl Guo is no stranger to her friends in the north
Although the "girl fruit" is well known to many Chinese, it is also found in El Salvador.
"Girl fruit", also known as "sour berries", its shape resembles a small tomato, but the shape of the fruit is similar to a round shape. The unripe girl fruit turns green, and when ripe, the surface becomes smooth and shiny, and the color will change to yellow or orange. At this moment, the sac-like shell outside the girl fruit will also become papery, so the sign of judging whether the girl fruit is ripe, in addition to looking at the color of the fruit, is to see whether the shell has become like paper.
▲ What the girl looks like when the fruit is ripe
The girl fruit tastes like a blueberry, and the sweet and sour are fused. It can be used to make fruit salads, or it can be eaten raw in fruit cocktails, cooked dishes, or even canned or processed jams from syrup. After drying, it can also be eaten as raisins.
■The fruit "yew" from the pine tree
▲The fruit of the yew is very beautiful
Yew is mostly used in China for ornamental plant cultivation, but in many countries around the world, it can be eaten as a fruit, including El Salvador.
In addition to El Salvador, yew trees are also found in Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico in the Americas.
As the name suggests, the ripe fruit is red and glowing with a faint luster that looks so attractive that even local birds love the fruit. The flesh is gelatinous, tastes like jelly, and tastes very sweet.
▲The shape and color are very attractive
However, if you eat bitterness, you must be careful, because yew trees have poisons in addition to false seed skins. If you don't have a local company, don't try this fruit easily.
■ "Mami apple" called apricot or apple
▲The interior of Mami's apple
The fruit of "Mammee Apple" has many names, such as mammee fruit, tropical apricot, South American apricot, the name is different, all due to the conventions of various countries.
And, can you imagine that with its sturdy shell, it is botanically classified as a berry-like fruit like strawberries and blueberries? Because its peel is composed of the outer and middle peels of the fruit, and the pulp is formed from the inner peel, which is in line with the characteristics of the berry.
▲ The fruit of the mami apple
Its fruit is irregularly rounded, with a skin up to about 3 mm thick and brown or grey-brown. The fruit is the size of a small melon and is about 10 to 20 centimeters in diameter. When immature, the mami apple fruit is hard, but when fully ripe, the flesh becomes slightly softer. There is a white dry film under the skin, which tastes astringent and sticks close to the meat. Inside, it has an appetizing orange or yellow flesh that is crunchy and juicy to eat.
In addition to regularly eating fresh fruit, Jamaicans make it into preserves or add it to stews.
■"Coccoloba caracasana" which can be eaten directly with sauce
▲You can eat it by mixing the sauce directly
Although Coccoloba caracasana is native to Mexico, it is more common in El Salvador, Panama and other regions.
▲ It is sold in the market, and there is lotus mist below
The fruit it produces hangs in bunches on the tree. The fruit is small, white or translucent, sweet and pleasant to eat, and the texture is like grapes. Although it did not form commercial cultivation, it is more common in the area. When the dry season comes, you can see local children picking it off and eating it. In addition to eating it raw, it can also make jam.
■ The "egg yolk fruit" produced on the tree - egg fruit
▲ Egg fruit like egg yolk
Egg fruit should be heard by many people, this fruit grown in the tropics, is also sold in many parts of the country.
Although most of the food eaten in the country comes from Places such as Vietnam, its birthplace is in Latin America, which includes El Salvador.
There are not many regular egg fruits, some will be round, ovate, and some will grow into a spindle shape. And its size varies, the large fruit will be close to the size of a goose egg, and the small fruit will resemble an apricot.
▲ Egg fruit hanging from a tree
Ripe egg fruit, the skin has a bright lemon yellow, golden yellow, and the skin is smooth and shiny. The flesh tastes like a cooked egg yolk.
Postscript:
▲ Fruit stalls in El Salvador
Although El Salvador is not as large as the mainland Hainan, the unique climate and fertile soil of Latin America have also contributed to the biodiversity of this small country.
The above fruits are not the mainstream fruits of El Salvador, and the fruits sold in the market are still mainly commercially grown. For example, the rambutan and lotus mist seen in the picture, the bananas baked on the baking sheet, oranges, pineapples, ginseng fruits, avocados, etc., can be eaten here.
As cooperation between the two countries deepens, perhaps one day we will be able to enjoy these fruits at our own tables.