Let’s talk food!

I’ve been looking forward to writing this post and sharing the wonderful food we have been enjoying while in Ecuador, which has been plentiful. The markets here are filled to the brim with fresh summer fruits and veggies, the meat market overflowing and fish markets loaded with fresh catch. But there are some downsides, and I am going to start with those.

First, which has absolutely nothing to do with the actual food, but rather how it is prepared. On our rooftop terrace we have a grill, but we could not get it to stay hot. Believe me, if anyone could get that sucker to work, it would be Bill and Steven, and they certainly gave it the old college try. Unfortunately, at nearly 8500 feet in the mountains, altitude played a big part in our grill failure. Also, perhaps inferior (but fresh!) charcoal, but whatever the case they could not get the temps to stay high enough to cook food.

Because of that, we did not get to eat grilled swordfish, which we were all looking forward to, or grilled shrimp. We also did not have grilled burgers, but instead had them pan fried. Which, okay, we had burgers and the meat was excellent, but it wasn’t what we had hoped for. We do have an oven in our studio, but no extractor fan and little ventilation. The big kitchen window doesn’t open and there is very little airflow. We could open the windows, but there are no screens and it can get a little buggy. Hot and buggy is not my jam, so we have elected not to use our oven.

Second, the bane of nomadic travelers everywhere, is the lack of, or worse, old and greasy equipment in the Airbnb kitchen. (That, and uncomfortable furniture, but we will leave that for another day.) We have been doing our cooking in Bill and Kelly’s apartment, one floor below us, because it is better equipped and it also has an actual extractor fan and a screen on the kitchen window. Most hosts do not live in the accommodations they rent, and so they remain unaware of all the gross things in their apartments. Ours was not too bad, but we did toss a couple of things and replace them with things that would make our lives easier, such as a cutting board, a sharp knife, and so on. Our host also provided a couple of things we were missing, like measuring spoons, etc. We didn’t spend a lot of money, but we got a big value considering the length of our stay.

Third, and this is my final negative, the breads, pastries and sweets in Ecuador are terrible. Really terrible. The only thing that is exempt from my harsh review in this category is the lovely Honey Bee Cookies. Even when they are stale, which they mostly are, I love them. There are specialty bakeries that turn out some nice loaves, but I am talking about the typical bakeries found on every other corner around our neighborhood. In one place Steven picked up a “baguette” to buy and Bill asked if it was fresh. He went to poke it with his thumb and it went right through the loaf leaving a big hole. That is typical, dry, cardboard-like crusts that fall apart and the inside is almost hollow and mostly tasteless.

And geez, we really tried to find something we liked. For three weeks we made near daily trips to different neighborhood bakeries and would buy something, only to be disappointed. We finally agreed, no more inferior bakery goods! Is it the altitude? Is it our taste buds? Who knows. Lucky for me, bread and pastries are not my usual go-to anyway, so in the end, I found it easy to move on. Oh, I tried my fair share, for sure, but when I was done, I was done. (Except for the Honey Bee cookies…)

Now let’s talk about the good stuff, including the local marcado, Marie, the dollar fruit-and-veg lady, the Three Dollar Lunch Plate, Ceviche and Empanadas!

Mercado 12 de April

There are open markets in several areas around Cuenca, and we have claimed the Mercado 12 de April as our own. It is in our neighborhood, about a ten minute walk from our apartments and we go probably every other day on average. The market houses row after row of beautiful summer fruits and veggies, a fish market where we get our giant and delicious shrimp, the meat market where we buy our ground beef and several dry goods stalls. Eggs, beans, pasta, nuts, and so on are also available. And for some reason, the potato stalls are separate from the other veggies. Except for the tiny yellow ones, all potatoes are in the outer stalls. We haven’t figured that out yet. Maybe there is a critter that likes potatoes and they don’t want to mix them. I’m just guessing.

The explosion of color and freshness will certainly grab your attention when you walk into the market, but after making a few purchases, the thing that will have your jaw hanging open is the low cost of all this fresh food.

1 lb. (very) lean ground beef – $2.50
1 lb. jumbo shrimp – $5.00
3 large, almost-ripe avocados, head of garlic, two white onions, four limes, two oranges, two bunches cilantro, large head of lettuce – $3.00

Marie, the $1 Fruit and Veg Lady

We almost exclusively buy our fruit and veggies from Marie, a beautiful Ecuadorian vendor we found on our first trip to the market. My gosh, she’s practically family now. For the first few days we would tell her which fruit or veg we wanted, and she would look at us inquisitively and say, “One dollar?” And we would reply, “Si!” I mean, we didn’t know how much we would get for a dollar and we thought it sounded about right. But after a couple of trips to her stall, we soon found out that, to Marie, one dollar of tomatoes was seven or eight large slicers. One dollar of green peppers was seven or eight big, long peppers. No matter what, “One Dollar” was almost a bag full of whatever we pointed to. And, Steven and I would get our dollar haul, then Bill and Kelly would get theirs. Kelly came home loaded down with strawberries, mora berries, and cherries. All together, we had so much fresh food we couldn’t possibly eat it all. So then we decided to get the “One Dollar” amount, but only one of us would get it and then we’d split it. Even then, it was still too much! It was all so cheap, we finally learned that we needed to tell Marie how many of each item we wanted rather than how much we wanted to pay. The thing we love most about Marie, though, is that she always greets us with a big, beautiful smile on her face.

The $3 Plate

We have mostly lived off our hauls from the market, and we have cooked a lot. But when we are tired of cooking and just want a quick meal out, the market is still our go-to. On the second floor is the food court where stall after stall displays a whole roasted pig, called hornado. Samples are abundant as the sellers try to get you to come to their stall, and the most popular sample is the crunchy and delicious pig skin. So delish! The only difference in the $3 plate and the $5 plate is the amount. We started off getting the bigger ones, but finally settled mostly on the $3 plates. These include a generous portion of hominy, a couple of roasted potatoes, a serving of roasted pork, a couple of pieces of crackling and a salad of marinated tomatoes, onions and cilantro. I am the only one among us who enjoys hominy. To me it is like rice, kind of dry and not too flavorful on its own, but perfect for soaking up sauces or juice.

Empanadas with Aji sauce

If we are not in the mood for a $3 plate, we will head to the food stalls that ring the outside, south of the market. Here we nosh on “empanada mixta”, a giant empanada stuffed with chicken, cheese and veggies. On the table is a bowl of one of the most popular sauces in Ecuador, Aji sauce. It is made with chilis, lime, cilantro and red onion and sometimes it is spicy and sometimes not. Fortunately for me, the sauce served with our empanadas is very mild and so, so, so delicious! Our giant empanada costs $1.50.

Ceviche

Ceviche is a dish consisting of fish or shellfish marinated in citrus. The citrus juice “cooks” the fish, which is then served a variety of ways depending on where you are eating it. Ceviche is a staple dish in most of the Latin American countries along the Pacific coast. The first time I even had this dish was in a restaurant in Washington state near where we lived in Sammamish called Coho. It was made with a variety of fish and shellfish and a few veggies and was served on a crispy tostada with a lime-cilantro crema. My gosh, it was so delicious I still dream about it. When I realized how popular it is here in Ecuador and how inexpensive it is to make, I finally decided now is the time to try and make it myself. More on that later.

In the meantime, there was plenty of ceviche to go around, as it is sold from carts on every other street corner as well as from select stalls at the market. A couple of days ago when we were on our way to our favorite empanada place, I decided to first get an order of shrimp ceviche to share as an appetizer. Two things stood out to me in this dish. First, it was served in a warm tomato base! I was not expecting – warm or tomato! And second, for $5.50 our dish had 10 jumbo shrimp in one serving, more than enough for all of us to sample the dish. We all loved it.

Beyond the market we have enjoyed our share of local restaurants, as well as a few lunches up in the mountains on our tours through the Cajas National Park and Ingapirca Inca ruins. Even in the summertime, Ecuadorian meals almost always start with soup, a favorite being Locro de Papa, a classic Ecuadorian potato and cheese soup, sometimes served with avocado slices on top. Yummy! Trout is farmed in the Andes villages and is found often on the Menu del Dia, or menu of the day. Rice is another popular dish that is almost always included in a full meal, sometimes along with french fries. One can never have too many carbs!

As I said before, we have been cooking up a storm while in Ecuador, and I admit we have gone a little bonkers on the shrimp. But holy cow they are so good! We have made shrimp and seasoned rice (twice) shrimp tacos (three times) ceviche, and coconut shrimp. All of these dishes have been outstanding, with perhaps the exception of our ceviche. We found out pretty quickly that limes in Ecuador pack a mighty punch and are so much more juicy and “puckery” than those we get in the States. So while the limes cooked our shrimp beautifully, they were so tart, each shrimp was like sucking on a lime. Seriously tart! I don’t know what to do about that, or how to reduce the flavor without reducing the amount of liquid I need for the recipe. I am still working on that!

That’s enough for today. I could really go on and on about the food here in Ecuador, but I’ll save it for the next few posts when we share recipes!

NEXT UP: Recipes!