>flor de pito, izote, loroco... pétalos comestibles

The energetic electrician installing recessed lighting in the kitchen is from El Salvador. With a wide grin, he boasts of having at least 10 siblings, a dozen aunties and uncles, and a couple of dozen nieces and nephews. Among this happy clan, there are at least a few amazing cooks.

"I am the baby. My parents tell me I was a mistake." He grins again. 

"I have this big family, and no one in our family is named Carlos. No Jose. We have different names." It amuses him that people mistake him for a Mexican, but it doesn't bother him, not too much. 

"We have different foods, too. The best is the pupusa my auntie makes." 

The essential ingredient is loroco, an edible flower. 

 "Everybody uses loroco in our pupusas. It's a flower. We eat many many flowers. In eggs, in soups."

Flower-loving Mesoamericans.

Indeed, yellow blossoms of flor de ayote, pink buds of madrecacao, white petals of flor de izote and red buds of flor de pito.

>pupusas de queso con loroco (Salvador-style tortillas stuffed with cheese and vegetable blossoms), Sarita's Pupuseria Salvadorean, Los Angeles, CA

>huevos con loroco - eggs with loroco, rice and beans, Elizabeth Restaurant, Redwood City, CA