That's a Wrap!

Hey folks!  We arrived in Chile safely on the 29^th, and there will be posts to come about my school, family, and all that jazz, but I want to wrap up my Ecuador experience by taking you through my past two months in terms of food and a few other Ecuadorian facts.  Enjoy!

Here I am with my host mom Rosa during our last week of classes.  We decided a picture was necessary because we dressed almost the same.

The first week I was in Ecuador Rosa showed me that she was drinking hot chocolate with something in it that looked like a marshmallow.  Nope, it was cheese.  The cheese of Ecuador is called Queso Fresco and they use it with everything.  It’s very mild, kind of like a mozzarella.

One night I was very surprised to sit down and see what I’ve always known as Schuam.  The offician name is kaiserschmarrn.  It’s an austrian dish kind of like broken up, doughy pancakes.  You put something sweet on it like Karo syrup or this amazing vanilla sauce that my host sister Diana and her boyfriend Peter (from Germany) made.

While in Ecuador I made the three things I make best: meatloaf, puppy chow, and no-bake cookies.  Here is our attempt at Puppy Chow.  We had to use Special K because Chex don’t exist down here, but it was still delicious!

There are pig heads everywhere in Ecuador.  The markets, the streets, shop windows…and all the pork smells delicious.

Lunch every day was pretty much the same for me.  I would sit down, order the “Almuerzo Tipical” which means typical lunch, and eat whatever they brought.  There was always soup and juice, rice, either beef or chicken, some sort of salad with a combination of lettuce, tomato, avocado or beets, and either beans or potatoes or bananas.  Never paid more than $4.

Those who have been following diligently will have recognized that I didn’t hike Cotopaxi.  The timing just didn’t work out.  So now my reasons to return to Ecuador are to hike Cotopaxi, to see the Galapagos, and to visit my host family.

The tradition in Ecuador on your birthday is to smash your face into your cake.  Here is Diana on her birthday after we ate sushi (which was delicious!).  We had a cake at our house before I left as an early birthday celebration for me and thankfully I was spared.

Humitas.  Another reason to come back to Ecuador.  Ground corn, butter, egg, and cheese all steamed in the corn husk.  These things are incredible.  $1 for 3.

All the appliances and the hot water in our house ran on these gas tanks.  Trucks deliver and retrieve them, $2 a piece.  They last maybe 2 weeks.

I’ve used this picture before, but I have to say a few things about the cars in Ecuador.  They’re all manual transmissions, and I had a little practice with Rosa’s car.  I didn’t kill anyone but I could use some more practice.  Honks here are very different than in the states.  A honk here means “I’m not stopping, so don’t enter the street” whether you’re a pedestrian or another car.  It’s almost just an FYI that they’ll run you over.  Lastly, the orange license plate.  If a taxi has a plate of a different color, or doesn’t have numbers on the top, don’t get in.  It isn’t a registered cab and they’ll likely overcharge you or rob you.

Dan will be quick to tell you that “Ecuador doesn’t know how to do cookies and sandwiches,” and I would have to agree.  The sandwiches often lack filling and the bread is no good, and the cookies are all very dry and therefore crumbly.  It might have something to do with the lack of brown sugar in South America.  I was lucky to find a chocolate chip cookie though so I went for it.

I’ve talked about Pilsener before, but a food post wouldn’t be complete without it.  This stuff is everywhere.  On every ad, sponsoring all the sports teams, and on every menu in every restaurant.  I would say it’s the Budweiser of Ecuador, but that would be assuming there are other options.  This is really the only beer in Ecuador besides Club Verde which I think is just Pilsener in a different bottle.

The Tuesday before we went to the jungle I went to La Floresta with Mateo and Rosa to eat some typical Ecuadorian street food.  I loved it.  Rosa is holding Tripas, or cow intestine, and Mateo has Guatitas, or cow stomach.  We also had choclo (corn with cheese and butter) and haba (large kidney beans) and a desert-like thing that had sweet rice and banana.

And empanadas!  The empanadas of Ecuador are either made of a sweet dough with cheese inside dusted with sugar (seen here), which typically go with morocho, a sweet drink made with corn, or made of a corn dough and sometimes have a little bit of meat inside.  Delicious.

Another fantastic German treat that Peter made were fried apples.  He coated them in a pancake-like batter, fried them in oil, and covered them in sugar.  So good.

Here are my no-bake cookies!  I was thrilled with the result.  I made another batch for our final barbeque at the school.

Canelazo (on the right, next to my Pilsener, of course) is a hot drink native to Ecuador.  It’s a fruit juice called Naranjilla with cinnamon (canela) and caña, liquor distilled from sugar cane.  Great for chilly nights.

All the best food in Ecuador.  I accompanied Rosa when she was picking up humitas and tomales for a reunion at the school.  Of course we got a couple extra to eat at home.

On Tuesday of our last week we went to Café Mosaico for dinner.  It’s in Guapulo so it has a great view of the city.  The food was amazing.  Mateo and I had typical Ecuadorian food.  This is llapingachos (the double “L” is pronounced like a “y”), tortillas made from potatoes.  They come with meat, a fried egg, and salad.

I got churracso which has a better cut of meat and comes with fries instead of the tortillas.  So good.

On Wednesday we cooked our own llapingachos along with eggs and salad and sausage.  We did a pretty good job!  If only I liked potatoes...

On Thursday as our final project for school we gave presentations about the regions of Ecuador.  I was assigned Imbabura where Otavalo is located.  We all dressed according to the indigenous people of our region.  It was a lot of fun.

On Friday night we went out on the town one last time.  Our flight left at 6:50 the next morning so some of us just stayed out all night.  After dancing the night away we stopped for kabobs on the street.  $1, and so delicious.

I have enjoyed every minute in Ecuador, and I’m hoping to return.  I’m excited for my new adventure in Chile as well.  Stay tuned for news about my new home!