Fried · Meat Turnover

Pastelitos

📷 Closely related photo — Photo via Pexels/Unsplash — free for commercial use

The dough gets its warm orange color from annatto, the same seed Salvadorans use to tint rice and stews.

Thin, annatto-tinted masa is folded around seasoned ground beef, potato, carrot, and green beans, then deep-fried until crackling-crisp. Vendors sell them hot alongside curtido cabbage slaw and tomato sauce.

Why it's made this way: As one of El Salvador's simplest, cheapest fried snacks, pastelitos let street cooks stretch a small amount of meat with vegetables inside a crisp, portable shell.