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All the Good Girls are Taken in El Salvador

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador- There are hundreds of varieties of sweet breads and little pastry cookies that are popular in El Salvador. In the USA we would call this variety of baked goods coffee cakes. There are entire bakeries all over the country dedicated to pretty much only selling items from this liturgy of coffee cakes. Most of them are a little stale and hard and begged to be dipped, some of them taste good, some are a little funny looking, most have interesting names.

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SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador- There are hundreds of varieties of sweet breads and little pastry cookies that are popular in El Salvador. In the USA we would call this variety of baked goods coffee cakes. There are entire bakeries all over the country dedicated to pretty much only selling items from this liturgy of coffee cakes. Most of them are a little stale and hard and begged to be dipped, some of them taste good, some are a little funny looking, most have interesting names.

Sweet breads or coffee cakes in El Salvador

There are two varieties of popular coffee cakes that essentially act as sisters to each other. One is called Honrada — meaning “honorable girl” — and the other is called Peperecha — roughly meaning “slut.” The good girl cakes are essentially layers of sweet pie crust assembled together with brown sugar on top. The bad girl cakes are essentially layers of sweet pie crust assembled together with brown sugar on top that is dyed bright red.

Apparently, the bright red coloring is enough to turn an honorable woman into a slut. El Salvador is a very Christian country.

I walked into a bakery with the intention of trying both varieties of women in El Salvador.

Peperecha sweet bread or coffee cake in El Salvador

I requested one peperecha — slut — to be followed up by one honrada — good girl.

The bakery lady hastily scooped me out one brightly red colored coffee cake from an entire tray of its own kind, but had to apologize on meeting my next request:

All of the good girls were taken.

I contented myself with eating the slut merely.

El Salvador Travel Guide | El Salvador Photos

Filed under: Central America, Culture and Society, El Salvador, Food, Language

About the Author:

I am the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. I’ve been traveling the world since 1999, through 91 countries. I am the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China and have written for The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. has written 3699 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.

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  • Nath April 14, 2010, 6:07 am

    haha, love it! They sure know how to bake a mean cake! Im surprised i still had any remaining teeth when i left. Have you been to the juayua food festival yet? Its every sunday – go there. You’ll wanna eat till you go ‘bang’. Safe travels.

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    • Wade | Vagabond Journey.com April 15, 2010, 12:14 am

      Will check out the food festival. Been eating good in El Salvador. I have been enjoying those cakes — and they only cost around aroud 15 to 20 cents each.

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  • Steve-O April 21, 2010, 10:51 pm

    How’d it taste??

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    • Wade | Vagabond Journey.com April 22, 2010, 8:36 am

      Sweet, cheap, and readily available, just the way I like them.

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      • Steve-O April 22, 2010, 10:19 pm

        Sluts are good that way

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        • Wade | Vagabond Journey.com April 30, 2010, 10:36 pm

          Hey Steve,

          What is the email address that you are using now? I want to send you an email, and the one listed here doesn’t seem valid.

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