JoJo in Ecuador

The food of Ecuador is a simple cuisine.  Most of the time what you’re offered is variations of this:  the difference being what kind of meat or chicken you want on the plate.  There is always, always rice which I only saw growing in a couple of places even though Ecuador produces enough to export it in bountiful years. But you usually get another starch with your meal and what that will be is influenced by where you are in the country.

For a relatively small country, Ecuador has an amazing number of different climates.

On the coast - where you also get great seafood and the temperature is in the 80’s -  you will be given “patacones”.  These are plantain slices squished and then fried. 

You can even buy a special plantain squishing device at the market like this.

Plantains look like bananas but don’t have much banana-y flavor.

Plantains are often mashed into empanada dough and then become empanada verde.

 Bolone de verde” is a mashed plantain ball fried with sausage. 

In the middle of the country, high in the Andes corn and potatoes reign.  In Quito, the capital, the temperature never goes above 65 degrees or below 48 all year long.

There are all kinds of different potatoes I’d never seen before sold in the markets.  Here’s a pic from the market in Cuenca of tiny pink and yellow potatoes.

If there was a national soup in Ecuador it would be “locro” - potato soup traditionally served with a slice of fresh cheese and avocado.  Very tasty and warming.

And then there’s corn.  Ecuadorean corn on the cob looks like this.

In the highlands they make it into all sorts of treats that are eaten separately from a main meal as a snack or in the morning. And, in my opinion, these along with the plantain snacks,  are the best of Ecuadorean food.

“Humita” - a corn dumpling steamed in a corn husk and "Quimbolita” - a slightly sweet corn dumpling steamed in an “achira” leaf (canna edulis) which usually has a few raisins in it.

“Tamales” - like a “humita” but with shredded chicken inside.

When you get to the Amazonian basin and the steamy tropical rainforest, the staple is yucca.

When we were staying at a lodge in the rainforest of the Cuayabena reserve we visited the village of the local indigenous people and they demonstrated how they made a flatbread from yucca.

First of all yucca grows at lightening speed. 
All you have to do is take a cutting from another plant, put it in the ground and in four months you get a harvest!

After you dig up the rhizome you peel it, wash it and grate it.

Then, as demonstrated, the grated yucca is transferred to this woven and plaited container. 

Then it is twisted and torqued continuously until all the liquid is wrung out. 

Then it is spread on a flat pan, what we would call a “testa” in Italy, and cooked.   

Flipping it over by hand requires more than a little skill.  

This flatbread, which they also dry in the sun into a cracker, was delicious.  So much better than the yucca fries I was being served.  Perhaps because we had just dug it out of the ground.

Truth be told, you can usually get all of these starches anywhere in the country if you want but each region definitely has a preference.  You can also get other dishes that have been adapted from abroad.

Ceviche, which originally comes from Peru, is everywhere, although I only ate it by the sea.

We went to a Carnival festival in the little village of Zuleta where they were celebrating with a cookout of lamb using the “parilla” technique from Argentina. 

And “arepas”, corn pancakes from Columbia, are served everywhere.  

And what’s for dessert?  Two things stand out.  One is “helado de pailla”.  An ice cream made by immersing a large copper pan in ice and then turning it continously by hand until it freezes the ingredients.  It comes in all sorts of natural flavors.  This one is flavored with “mashua” (tropaeolum tuberosum) which looks like a carrot but tastes quite different.  

And then there’s Chocolate.  Ecuador makes some excellent chocolate which we sampled on many occasions.  Here’s me having an extra specially good hot chocolate in the town of Saraguro along with a chocolate dessert from a high end restaurant.  By the way, anyone know who started the trend of serving food on slate?

You Mean You’re Not Going To Write About Guinea Pig?   

Yes, I am and here it is.

Grilled guinea pig is usually a Sunday special - like British roast beef - available at roadside stands or markets.

A guinea pig roaster is quite a complex contraption which is why I think most people buy theirs already cooked.

But I was confounded by the fact that I never saw a guinea pig for sale, neither dead nor alive, at the market and definitely not at the supermarket.  So in order to see them “on the paw” so to speak, Bruce & I went to the Saturday live animal market in the town of Otavalo.  There people were indeed buying and selling guinea pigs - which looked quite small - to take home and fatten up for some “Domingo” in the future.  

And did you try it?  Of course I did!  Here’s the one quarter of a guinea pig I had at a restaurant in Quito.  Actually, I didn’t like it much.  It was greasy and had a funny almost fishy flavor; so you don’t have to worry that we’ll start raising guinea pigs in Eggi.