Ecuador - The food edition part 1

Ecuadorian food has proved to be much better than we anticipated.  Well, at least here on the coast and likely because we are seafood fans. There have been some misses for sure and we are learning that we can prepare some pretty badass meals ourselves.  Here's a little sampling of what we've put in our mouths this past month.


CEVICHE (2-6$)

Shrimp and fish ceviche 

If you don't know what ceviche is, it's raw seafood (except the shrimp) cured in lime juice, oil and spices and garnished with veggies ( mainly onion and tomato). The ceviche here is swimming in curing liquid. It's usually served with plantain chips that you crumble like crackers into soup.

You can find ceviche in just about every restaurant. In this area, you can also find it on the beach. There are ceviche carts ready to mix you up a bowl from scratch right in front of your eyes.




Ceviche a la concha (black clams)

And you can't help but love that it's always served in someone's grandma's bowl.

Fish ceviche with a radish hot sauce

Ceviche mixto (conch, octopus, shrimp, fish) with homemadhe plantain chips 

ENCEBOLLADO (2$)

This humble dish is probably the best thing we've eaten in Ecuador. It's served for breakfast at just about every restaurant as well as small pop up stands. At the bottom is a piece of cassava topped with albacore tuna and pickled onion and parsley. The broth is the heart of the dish, it's all about the broth. Served with plantain chips or popcorn for crunch.

BOLÓN (with eggs, juice and coffee...3$)

While we're on the topic of breakfast...this is a bolón. A giant fried ball of plantain and cheese (sometimes sausage). It is delicious, lilely because I suspect they fry it in butter.

ALMUERZO (3-4$)

Almuerzo is lunch in spanish and in Ecuador it's basically a set lunch menu consisting of a starter (usually soup), a main and a juice. You can usually choose between a couple of options...usually fish, chicken and shrimp are somewhere on the list.

Veggie and cheese soup

Seafood soup filled with fresh clams and octopus

Fried fish

I'll post this in segments because the internet here is sporadic and it's taking an eternity to get anything done. So, eyes peels for part 2...hopefully coming soon.


                             BON PROVECHO!

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