Mercado San Miguelito: lunch where San Salvador actually shops

Most travel writing about San Salvador sends you to the Centro Histórico and stops. Walk fifteen minutes north of the cathedral and you reach Mercado San Miguelito, which is where a large part of the city actually shops.

It is not a craft market. Nobody is going to sell you a hammock. That is the appeal.

The building

San Salvador spent recent years moving street vendors off the pavements of the historic centre and into purpose-built markets, and San Miguelito is the most impressive result. It is a multi-level hall under a huge arched steel roof, with one whole wall in glass — so from the upper galleries you are looking out past the stalls to the hills behind the city.

Stalls are stacked by floor rather than spread across blocks, which makes it navigable in a way street markets never are. Produce and household goods on the lower levels, prepared food above.

What to eat

Head for the comida signs on the upper floor. What you want:

Pupusas, obviously — revueltas, or de queso con loroco if you want the version people actually order. A couple of dollars, made in front of you, with curtido and salsa from the jar on the counter.

Chilate from one of the chilaterías. This is the one visitors miss. It is a hot maize drink with ginger, unsweetened and a little gritty, and it is traditionally served with nuégados — yuca fritters in panela syrup — and plátano en miel. Order all three. It costs very little and it is the most distinctly Salvadoran thing on the menu.

For something heavier, the comedores do sopa de pata and the usual plates of rice, beans and plantain.

Practical, honestly

Bring cash in small notes. Card acceptance is patchy and change for a twenty is nobody's favourite request.

Spanish helps a lot. This is not a market that has adapted to tourists, which is the reason to go, and also the reason you should not expect English menus.

Go in the morning, when the food is freshest and the aisles are busy rather than packed. Keep your phone in your pocket while you walk, the same as in any capital city market anywhere in the world.

Why bother

Because it is the least curated hour you will spend in San Salvador. Everything else on a visitor's list — the cathedral, the theatre, El Rosario — has been arranged for you to look at. This is a working building full of people getting lunch, and you can eat extremely well in it for the price of a coffee somewhere else.

Pair it with the Centro Histórico in the same morning. They are close, and they show you two different versions of the same city.