Great foods in Quito

Currently there are power cuts in Ecuador. Why? Not enough rain! We are dependant on hydro-electric power and there has been very little rain. Pictures on the papers of dams with no water behind them. Security warnings are part of everyday life in Quito, but when there is a blackout put on your chastity belt, lock the door and cover your head with the blankets. Apart from that there are some great foods here and some that push the boundaries for westerners .

Great foods in Quito

Cachos.. first go to the market or street vendor and buy a bag, say 1 kg, of white beetles. They are alive and crawling over each other. The are only available at the end of October , start of November, after heavy rain. The smell is strong, think of almond essence with an overtone of stewing rabbit. Next decapitate each and pluck off its wings. Soak in salted water for 24 hrs.. Strain. In a lightly oiled pan fry very hot for 5 min, add water and stew for 2 mins. Meanwhile prepare and roast “popcorn” . When water has evaporated serve with prepared corn. Eat with fingers. The flavour is nutty and the texture crunchy. It is a dish prized by the few and hated by many. Well worth the experience
Moracho. Buy your moracho corn in the local corn supplier, (don’t confuse it with the 79 other types of corn available, particularly the moracho fed to chickens). Stew with an equal volume of milk and water. Add cinnamon and sugar to taste. Serve in a mug and hey presto! You have something that tastes like across between rice pudding and porridge, great for a cold morning in the Andes!
Humitas. The best cooks prepare at home but the vulgar masses listen for the Humita woman’s car horn to honk, and buy from the cardboard box in the back of the van. What is it? A special maize flour flavoured with spices, and sometimes sugar, plenty of oil, pounded for hours on end , All wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed for hours. Quite tasty, eaten as a snack or the main part of the evening collation. But it is just another addition to the long list of carbohydrates.
Colada Modada y Guagua de Pan This is a traditional food for All Saints/Souls day. The Morada refers to the colour—purple- It is a thick fruity” soup” made with dark fruits—blackberries, blackcurrants and others unknown. It is strained to takeout the seeds etc and fruit chunks added mainly pineapple(I think). It is served with Guagua de pan. Guagua is the qitchua word for baby. The bread is a plain bread shaped into the shapes of babies and decorated with a coloured “plastercine”. It is a very tasty warming supper dish. Don’t make the mistake of buying the bread shaped like camels, horses, llamas, etc, these are sold from the same stands but are purely decorative. I assume you just put them with the other junk in the house to collect dust
Bread Bread Bread to the power of n. The bread shops ,(every 4th shop) outdo each other in advertising how many types of bread they have at 10 cents. Most of the bread is sweet in some manner. The frequency of bread and other carbohydrates does not help the digestive system—the less said the better.
Cuy.. Guinea pig—I have not had the pleasure yet. But Janio , the 16 yr old in the house refuses to eat it on the grounds that he does not eat "rats"!
Cuero , tripa.y pata de gallina In Santa Isabel, I declined the lunch of pig skin and tripe. Only once have I had the pleasure of Cuero the pig skin—all texture and fat and tripe(beef tripe) did appear on one dinner plate—a texture that Goodyear would be proud of.. If you are so inclined you can buy the cuero from the wandering vendors with the bag of cuero over the shoulder. 95% of soups provide an endearing surprise in the bottom of the soup plate—a hen’s foot. If you are unlucky and don´t get the hen´s foot some other unidentified offal will appear. All these things add flavour and if you can overcome your western sensibilities the soups can be quite nice.


Nex time -- Random thoughts and impressions