Food

One of the things I love about traveling is the experience of being in a different culture, including trying new foods. Doing this successfully means being open to new experiences. I'm lucky that I've had the opportunity through my job to be places and try things that most people never even consider. However, it also means having an open mind, being flexible, and being willing to try anything once. As I've mentioned before, when I'm in community, my rule is to eat what I am served, and I try to take that attitude everywhere I go.

So what was new this trip?

The biggest and most unusual new food for me was grubs, as you've already read. These gusanas are traditional in the rainforest, and my Kichwa hosts were pleased to share them with us. I was pleased not to have to eat them raw, and the crunchy parts were very much like popcorn.

The other new proteins included tripe, which is not at all uncommon, but not commonly eaten at home, and guanta. The tripe I ate with my professor during our street food stop, (honestly, it reminded me a lot of octopus), and the guanta was actually my first day in Ecuador. After the meeting, we all went out for a traditional Amazonian meal. Guanta is a large rodent in the rainforest. When I saw a photo, I was reminded of a tapir. I can't find a photo of a guanta, but here is a tapir (from Wikipedia). Guanta may, in fact, be an indigenous word. Unlike cuy, which I had two years ago in Ecuador in community so didn't have this time (cuy is Quechua for guinea pig), guanta does not taste like chicken.



One of the most wonderful new food experiences for me was fruit. There are amazing and incredible fruits in Ecuador! Fruit is often a dessert, many fruits are turned into juices which are popular beverages at both breakfast and lunch, and there are fruit stands everywhere. I did not have chirimoya this trip, but I did two years ago (like custard apples), but I did get to try the following:

✷ babaco
✷ tomate de árbol
✷ guanabana
✷ taxo
✷ guayaba
✷ naranjilla
✷ uvillas
✷ papaya
✷ maracuya
✷ pitajaya
✷ pepino
✷ orito
✷ granadilla

Honestly, I have no idea how to translate some of these! Pitajaya is dragonfruit, which I had had in Vietnam. Granadilla and maracuya are both passionfruits, and amazing! Taxo is wonderful as a juice. Uvillas are good for fever. Papaya is good for cholesterol. Guayaba is also a wonderful juice. Orito is a type of banana. It's funny because it doesn't seem like Ecuador is that far away, and for me, it's only an hour time difference, but the foods of Ecuador, especially the fruits, very much are a different world.

What else? As I skim through my notes I also see that I had my first tastes this trip of humitas (similar to tamales), locro de queso ( a soup of potatoes and avocado), morcilla (blood sausage), chaúlafan (the Chinese dish), postre de miel (an incredible, sticky, sweet confection purchased at the market that I wish I'd had again), stinging nettle, zanahórias blancas (white carrots), emborajado (fried banana with honey and cinnamon), and two new favorites, pan de yuca (yuca bread) and colada morada (a hot purple drink with fruit, yum!).

I loved that most mornings I could have granola, yogurt, fruit and tea. Even at the lodge, this was a common choice, and I relished it. Lunch was the big meal, and often consisted of soup, entree (meat or fish with rice and salad) and fruit. Many evenings in Quito I just purchased a coffee drink and a yogurt from the little corner store and was happy. (This was great: many of the yogurts come with little folded plastic spoons in the lids, and some have cereal too. Yes, cereal, like corn flakes.)

It also struck me that it was sometimes hard to eat healthy and well. There is a lot of fried food, and a lot of fast food. Vegetables are not very common. This was probably one reason why I didn't often eat dinner on my own. It was also notable that many items in the grocery store were actually rather expensive, but that one could eat out rather cheaply.

But what really made it great was sharing meals with friends. Sadly, I have no photos yet of the evening excursion where the group sat in the little courtyard sharing blackberry canelazos and the biggest empanadas with cheese ever seen (seriously, they were more than a foot across). No one thought to take photos while we made mojitos at the school, or gnocchis. And since my big dinner with the office was cancelled at the last minute, I don't have any from those group meals either. But the night before, when Josien and Juan Carlos and I were out, I did take a few photos of the restaurant, because it was rather eye-catching, and Juan Carlos took one of me and Josien, albeit a bit blurry.





Food. Friends. New experiences. It's what travel is all about. Can't wait for my next trip!