Ecuadorian Gastronomy 101

 

 

A little late, but, better than never, right?

This post is part of Marie’s feature: Souvenirs from Across the World. A fantastic idea to get to know each other better and also share more about our coutries/cities!

Today, it’s all about the food! I loved Jamie’s post on Malaysia’s gastronomy, and I’ll be borrowing his genius idea to divide between meals to make this food guide easier!

Also, I’ll be mentioned some cool spots to eat, but won’t trouble you with adresses just yet XD If you ever come to Guayaquil, feel free to contact me and I’ll be running to direct you to anywhere you want to go!

Warning: This is going to be a long post

Breakfast

Menu 1

Bolón + Orange juice

I’d mentioned bolones in my past SFATW post, but I’ll be talking more about them now. Because you can never talk about bolones too much. Bolones are made with super mashed and fried green plantains, plus cheese/pork chops or both!

I recommend you to try it at:

• El Café de Tere: The go-to place for any self respecting Guayaquileño to have the most delicious way to eat green plantain. The place gets PACKED on weekends, but it’s totally worth it.
• El Porteño: A restaurant/cafe/bar that takes a slightly different approach to cooking them but I love how they get them to be so crunchy!

 

Menu 2

Fritada

OMG THE DELICIOUSNESS. Yes, this is seriously something we eat for breakfast. Pork chops + green plantain tortillas/patacones/sweet plantain (basically, anything plantain goes). This dish is originally from the highlands, but in Guayaquil we LOVE fritada so much too!

For the record, I make a killer Fritada!

 

Menu 3

Humitas

Okay, so I may not be the number one fan of Humitas, but that’s just because my mom used to make me eat them and I didn’t like them! Then later when I did try one of my own free will, I found I did like them, but to this day I refrain from being too crazy about them because I remember long hours of staring at the damn thing with mom sitting next to me! XD

Humitas are made with ground corn, milk, cheese, eggs and butter. They’re wrapped with corn leaves and then steamed.

 

Lunch

Menu 1

Llapingacho

Okay, I’m dying here now. Llapingacho is actually just the potato thingies that have peanut sauce over them, but most ecuadorians, when we think about Llapingacho, this is the image that comes to our mind. Sausage, fried eggs, some sort of green plantain (XD), and some salad. It’s common practice to add the peanut sauce, but I don’t really like it that way.!

 

Menu 2

Chicken and rice!

There’s nothing particularly fascinating about this one, but I think it’s worth mentioning since it’s so common and delicious in its simplicity! This one is just lacking the ketchup smiley face I always do on my rice and chicken.

 

Dinner

Menu 1

Rice, beans + Grilled meat/Steak/chicken/fish/anything grill-able

THIS IS IT PEOPLE. One of the most emblematic dishes in Ecuador, wherever you are. Arroz con Menestra y carne asada. Of course people also eat this at lunch, but what’s the fun in that? It’s better  when it’s six pm, the sun is setting, and you know it’s time. You and your family drive to that particular street you know has like a hundred nooks. People are getting ready, taking their grills outside and the smell. You go right past all the other spots and stop only at that one you always go to (that’s part of the experience, everyone has a favorite spot near their house), and order the best arroz con menestra in town!

 

Menu 2

Chuzo! 

Okay, so probably not the healthiest option XD In spanish, the correct terms would be pinchos, or brochetas. But meh, that’s only when you’re in an actual restaurant. When you walk a few blocks towards the nearest cart, people are going to look weird at you if you ask like that. You’re asking for CHUZOS! Sausage chuzos, chicken, shrimp, meat chuzos! Chuzos everywhere! One is never enough!

[divider]

 

Fruit juices

Yeah, juices get their own section because 🙂

For ecuadorians, two things are very important in their lunch:

• Soup
• Fruit juice

Some people don’t like soup. And some researches have shown that soup isn’t actually necessary. But soup is a big deal in Ecuador either way. And so is juice.

Of course we drink soda too, but the favored drink is juice!

 

Some of my favorite fruits to make juice of:

Excluding orange juice because orange juice is perfect and we all know it.

 

Passion Fruit / Maracuya

Also, here’s the mousse I successfully made last weekend!

Tamarillo / Tomate de árbol

 

Naranjilla

 

[divider]

There are a lot of other traditional dishes, but, some of them I really, really dislike. In general, we eat all kinds of food. It’s normal to eat chinese, and cook the occasional lasagna, and the regular fried chicken with fries!

 

Also, I couldn’t end this without talking about green plantains one last time XD So, you can now download the recipe to making tortillas de verde, as dear to ecuadorians as bolones. 

 

[button size=”btn-lg” color=”primary” url=”https://reveriesociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Recipe-1.pdf” text=”Download the free printable recipe now!”]

I’d love to know about your favorite dish from your own country!

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