The Food Post

I´ve been eating well here in Ecuador, but because it is never enough to explain what the food is like with words, I´ve been taking pictures of all the things I´ve been eating for the last week or so. I think my home-stay family is partially weirded out and partially flattered that I´ve been doing this. The food that I´m served in my home-stay house seems to work on a 10 day rotation, so I figured this is a fair representation of my last month of meals. Also, included toward the end are a few dishes that I had while in Cuenca. That is, they represent more of what you might be served in a restaurant and less of what I eat on a day to day basis at home.

Here we have some typical breakfast fare, although it only looks this pretty when my host mom sets it out for me. From left to right, sweet bread, drinkable blackberry yogurt, papaya, and breakfast cereal.





This is a typical lunch (almuerzo). A soup with chicken broth and chunks of potatoe in it. Rice, beans, tuna, and a class of pineapple juice.

Another lunch. This time, the Ecuadorian equivalent of chicken noodle soup (with no chicken and less salt than we´re used to in the U.S.). On the plate, rice (of course), avocado, a fried egg, a yapingacho (think potato cake), some peanut butter sauce (really good when mixed with the rice), and a glass of tomato de arbol (literally "tree tomato") juice. Unfortunately, I don´t have a picture of this really good fruit, but if it helps any (which it probably won´t) it does indeed look like a tomato that would grow on a tree. Also, it´s my favorite juice.


Let´s see, going clock-wise, and starting with the juice, this looks like melon juice, melon pieces, maduro asado (fried banana), crema de zapallo (pumpkin soup) and a tuna salad kind of dish, with a side of rice. On the top left is ceviche, which is considered "a traditional" Ecuadorian dish. It´s made by slightly cooking seafood in lemon juice and then putting it into a lukewarm broth that tastes a little like onions and a little like lime. It´s pretty darned good. On the plate, a warm (ish) vegetable potato salad, rice, and fried fish. And for the soup, shrimp with pieces of squash floating about.
Here´s a "personal pizza"I had in Cuenca.
Here´s some vegetable fried rice and lemonade. Chinese food is pretty popular around here, and if you order the fried rice, you get a whole huge pile of it for a really good price. This one cost no more than $4.
Fried fish, little bitty potatoes, and mixed vegetables with a glass of papaya juice.
A bowl of potatoe soup (locro de papa) with little bits of spiraley grains found in the mountains mixed in. It´s times like these I wish I had written down the names of these things. And last, but certainly not least, the cuy (pronounced "koo-ee", which means guinea pig) that was shared by our group in Ingapirca. The head is on the left, just in case you cared to know. This is an entire pig roasted over a spit, neatly chopped into 6 pieces, and served over maiz and potatoes. It tastes a lot like the dark meat on chicken, except a little more greasy. The skin is the best part (despite the little hairs still attached), it reminded me of a really hard kettle-cooked potato chip but saltier.

Not pictured here, but still important to Ecuadorian cuisine: ají, an onion and pepper-based hot sauce served at all meals. I will surely be bringing some home with me.

Chifles, the Ecuadorian equivalent of a potato chip. They´re made with bananas (the starchy, non-sweet kind) and have lots of salt. A few bags will also be making the treacherous journey back to the states with me.

This concludes the long post on the foods I´ve eaten in Ecuador.