My mom may be home alone and randomly feel the need to make beef soup. By the time she's done, without her saying a word to anyone else, the entire family will have somehow found out what she's doing and will show up at her house looking for warmth, laughter, and arguments.
Beef soup isn't just a meal, it's an event you won't want to miss. For Laura Munguia, who contributed the recipe, this is also a dish that she associates with her family, her childhood, and a good time. Enjoying beef soup as a child meant going on a family trip to the beach, and when you returned, everyone looked forward to the soup that would replenish your strength after a fun, hot day at the beach. Her extended family often prepared this dish for everyone who visited.
So while someone's perfect beach snack might be chips, ice cream, or hot dogs, for Laura and other Salvadorans, a beef soup at the end of the day was the icing on the cake.
Some historians have suggested that the addition of potatoes or plantains to this soup is due to the influence of Afro-descendants in El Salvador. This is especially true in San Miguel, the part of El Salvador with the highest concentration of Afro-descendants.
