Ecuadorian Food

One of my favorite types of food is definitely the Ecuadorian food. Though I live in the coastal region, and i like part of the food made here, I do love some dishes from the highlands. In fact, we may consider a sin not eating those dishes when visiting the highlands.

In the coastal region, if you live near the sea, you will find many dishes based on sea food. The most typical ones are the ceviches and the rice with fried fish. Yes, rice is an important part of our diet in the coast, while in the highlands you will notice that some grains like "chochos" and "mote" (white hominy) are very popular, along with potatoes and a similar thing called "melloco".

Going back to the coast, as i said, near the sea shore you can find rice with fried fish. Common fish used for this are corvina, lenguado, dorado, and picudo. The fried fish is served with rice, lettuce, onion salsa, tomatoes, and patacones, which are pieces of green plantain that are friend, then squahed a bit, and then refried. Other typical dishes are the ceviches, made with any kind of sea food; the "encebollado", which is similar to the ceviche, but is made only with fish, either picudo, albacora, or tuna, and it includes yam. It is good for hangovers.

Ah, and the cazuela is another one too. It is made with a green plantain preparation, and filled with sea food. It is prepared in some clay pots called cazuelas in spanish. Can be cooked or put in the oven. Bollos are good too. They are prepared with a mass of green plantains, peanut sauce, fish, and they are put in plantain leaves and cooked in vapour. Well, I'm not exactly a cheff, so i am not mentioning all the ingredients, but i try to give you most of the idea.

Moving to the center of the coastal region, we have some other dishes like the famous "seco". It's a kind of stew, prepared mostly with hen, chicken, or goat. It can also be prepared with lamb or beef. The seco is served with yellow rice, that is rice that has been cooked with achioti to give it that yellow color. It is served with fried rippened plantain.

And my favorite... Rice with Bean sacuce (or lentle sauce) and pork chops! Typical food from Guayaquil. in spanish: "arroz con menestra y chuleta". Also served with patacones, and instead of pork chops could be meat or chicken. Even fried fish.

Another typical food, good for breakfast, is the "bolón de verde". That's fried plantain that is smashed and combined with water and salt to form a mass. That mass is mixed with chicharrones (fried pieces of pork skin) and/or pieces of cheese. Then you form some balls with them, and serve them with coffee. You may serve them like that, or refried them a bit more, and then serve.

Talking about balls, there is a typical soup here, the name of which translated directly into english would be.. "ball soup". Nothing to do with genitals. It's a soup made with meat, peanut, and the balls are made with a mass of boiled plantains, mixed with a raw plantain grounded. They are filled with meat, peanut sauce, raisin, and hard bloiled egg. Yummy!!

There is another soup, though, that has to deal with the bull's genitals. It's called caldo de tronquito. I've never tasted it, but it is made with the bull's penis, and it is said to be an afrodisiac. Another soup i like is tripe soup (caldo de salchicha), made with the tripes of the pig filled with rice and blood. Also good for hangovers.

And we can continue for hours...

Going up to the mountains, the typical food is the pork. Some dishes are prepared with pork, like hornado, fritada, chugchucaras, and not eating them when you go up there, is a sin ;-) Yapingachos (or llapingachos) are delicious too. The best ones are in Ambato. They are two potato tortillas placed on a bed of lettuce, covered with peanut sauce, onion salsa, and two fried eggs, plus some fried sausage.  Chugchucaras are typical from Latacunga and the north of Quito. They are a combination of some things, they have fritada, mote, toasted corn, boiled corn, popcorn, potatoes, rippened plantain, and a small empanada. In the southern highlands, in Cuenca, you can find the "motepillo", which is white hominy that has been cooked, and then fried with eggs.

A typical dish in regions like Baños, Ambato, Riobamba, Cuenca, and parts of Quito, is the roasted guinea pig. Yeah, in many parts they are pets, but here we eat them. Depending on the size and the place where you buy it, a guinea pig might cost between 8 and 12 dollars. Served with boiled potatoes covered with peanut sauce. Delicious!!

And well, those are some of our typical dishes here. There are still some more, but i guess these are the most representatives.

From Tmp, a Wikia wiki.

From Recipes Wiki, a Wikia wiki.