The food blog- Quito

It´s the blog post you´ve been waiting for! (and by you, I mean Andrea)

So what´s the food like? Let´s start with the staples- corn and potatoes. That´s really what it´s all about here. The upside is that there´s a lot you can do with corn and potatoes. Other staples are platanos (bananas and plantains), yuca, rice, pork, chicken, and of course the meat Ecuador is most famous for, cuy (guinea pig). Note: I haven´t tried cuy, but Kurtis has, and he described it as ¨different, yet also not that different¨.

Fruits are also big here, mainly in jugo (juice) form. Highlights that we don´t have in the US are naranjilla, maracuya (passion fruit), guanabana (soursop), taxo, granadilla, and tomate de arbol.















Lunch seems to be the big deal here. Most typical restuarants offer almuerzos, or set lunches, that will set you back $1.50- $4.00. They usually include juice, soup, a main dish, and something sweet.

Some typical dishes here are:
Caldo de Pollo (chicken soup)
Caldo de Pata (calf´s foot soup)
Sopa de Quinoa (Yum!)
Seco de Chivo/Pollo (rice with goat/chicken)
Fritada (to be explained below)
Locro (cheese and potato soup with avocado- also yum)
llapingacho (fried potato and cheese patties- obviously yum)
empanadas
hornado (a whole roast pig- I saw this in the market, crazy!)

Our school offers a cooking class, and we attended one where we made fritada. It consists, first and foremost, of fried pork. I think you could say it is deep fried pork. Then you take some cooked potatoes, mix them with some cheese and achiote (a vegetable used to dye food red), form them into tortillas, and fry those. Then you take some ripe plaintains and fry those, too. This is all served with mote, which is white corn that´s cooked until it bursts, similar to hominy. (Our class also made a salad, but I´m pretty sure that was just for appearances sake)

Fritada

Aji
Most of the food here is not spicy, but every meal is served with aji. Aji is a salsa made with the aji pepper (a pepper that grows here in the andes) and the tomate de arbol fruit. Tomate de arbol (or tree tomato) tastes nothing like a tomato, apparently. It is a not-too-sweet fruit that you can eat raw, cooked, or in juice form (I´ve only had it in aji form).

Snacks! They have a great snack here- ceviche de chocho. Chocho is a legume that we don´t have in the US, and it´s delicious. This is served with deep fried corn kernels. If you go for the full on ceviche, it is mixed with tomato sauce, lime, red onions, and if you´re lucky, some homemade potato chips. Because the majority of it is chocho, it´s actually pretty healthy.

Another snack is cafe con humitas or quimbolito- ground corn steamed in a leaf wrapper, tamale-style, but sweet. Then they have yogurt and pan de yuca- your choice of exotic fruit-flavored, liquidy yogurt served with little pieces of bread made from yuca.

Also, popcorn is often served with soup- just throw it on in there!

Since this week is Holy Week, we got to try a Quiteño specialty- Fanesca. Fanesca is a crazy fish soup that is only made once a year. It contains, well, basically everything. It is made with twelve types of grains (to represent the twelve apostles) including a few types of beans, lentils, peas, chocho etc., and also fish, milk, potatoes, pumpkin. Then it is topped with queso, an empanada, bolitos (little fried balls of dough), fried banana, onion, and parsley. Fish is, thankfully, the only meat due to the fact that it is eaten during Lent. Ecuadorian families traditionally prepare this together, and Ecuadorian families are large, so it is made in batches meant to serve over 100 people. We helped to prepare it at our school and made 150 servings!

And finally- drinks. A traditional Ecuadorian drink is canelazo. It´s a hot alcoholic drink made with fruit juice (the place we went had either mora (blackberry) or naranjilla) and aguardiente (alcohol made from sugar cane). Really, really delicious. Other than that, they have two types of beer and one of them, Pilsener, is not half bad.

And that´s it for the food in Quito! The next report will be on Jungle food- stay tuned.

Almuerzo- Jugo, Sopa, Plato, Postre!

Quilotoa

Hola,

Here we are in week three of our journey and all is well. We just started our last week of school which has been by all acounts an excellent experience. We have both improved our Spanish speaking skills but we have also had access to cultural, political and local information through our respective teachers that otherwise might have passed us right by. Here is a picture of us with our teachers; Luis and Alexandra on one of the museum tours they have taken us on. No idea who that kid on the right is... I guess he just really wanted to be in the picture, he didn't even make a goofy face or anything. Go figure.

After a long week of class we have been inclined to take advantage of the very central location of Quito by going on weekend excurions. Last weekend, as you can read in our previous blog post, we went to the cloud forrest of Mindo where we rode a zip line, went down a waterslide into a river and saw a whole mess of butterflies. This past weekend we decided to go to Quilotoa.

Quilotoa is a lake inside the crater of a volcano located in the mountains at about 13,000 feet. To get there we rode two separate buses and a pick-up truck; the first bus went from Quito due south to Latacunga on the Panamericana Highway for two hours. Then in Latacunga we caught a bus that went way up in the mountains for two and a half hours to the small indigenous populated town of Zumbajua. We stayed the night in Zumbahua so that we could check out the Saturday market in the morning which was a pretty crazy happenning but also your one stop shopping for fruits, veggies, meats, baby pigs, lamas, or sheep. You could get your pants sewed up and have a snack of fried potatoes and hot-dogs while you're waiting! By 1:00 we had tracked down the pick-up and we were on our way up the road to Quilotoa.

The drive took 30 minutes through beautiful highland farms, flocks of sheep and their indigenous shepherds who were mostly children. We put our stuff down at the Cabañas Quilotoa and went to check out the crater. This place was incredible. At 13,000 feet we could see into the far distance and we were above many of the clouds while the rest passed closely over our heads so closely that we could watch them break apart and pass by with incredible speed and grace even though the air was relatively calm. The lake itself is huge and the crater even more so. Here are some pictures of the crater itself and the peaks nearby.

Big Crater, Lil' Em

At the bottom

More Crater

Standoff with a chicken on the edge of the crater!

Awesome sunset between the clouds

On Sunday we hiked down into the crater until we got to the lake at the bottom. It took an hour to get down and two and a half to get back up. The trail was steep and composed of loose rock and silt plus it is harder to breathe so high up but the views were awesome and we made it out of the crater before the volcano erupted and in time to catch the bus back to Quito. We will miss Quilotoa.

More Pictures!

Here´s some pictures from our travels thus far. Don´t miss the new post below this one!

Another heated game of Uno (on the rooftop terrace of our hostel)

The cloud forest in Mindo

Butterfly Sex!

On the streets of Quito, old town

La Virgen de Quito

Mindo

Hey everyone. So it has been over a week since we last checked in and we have been getting some feedback that we need to up be more on top of this blogging thing. It's good feedback fgor us to get because at least we know people are following along. Thank you.

We had a great week at school last week. Kurt got to play soccer with a bunch of folks from scool. International games are always the best and they are pretty easy to find whether it be in Berkeley, CA or Quito Ecuador. We had players from Germany, Norway, Jordan, USA, Ecuador (of course) and other unidentified nationalities. We have been eating up a storm and the first food blog will be hot on this blog's heels I swear, but we need a few more pictures to make it happen like it should. Speaking of which, we have had some technical dificulties uploading images but I think we are figuring it out so you should be able to see more soon. Last week we checked out the botanical garden in El Parque de Carolina which was great. They had awesome bonsai, orchid, and cactus collections . Like most tropical places plants just want to grow here anywhere they can however the altitude of Quito is just over 9000 feet which keeps things from getting too dank. There are also usually clouds around but when the sun is on you here it is fuerte and being that we just passed the equinox its even more so.

Friday night we planned a weekend excursion and packed our bags for a place called Mindo. Mindo is in a cloud forest slightly lower in elevation than Quito. We took a bus directly there from Quito which took us just about 2 hrs. Mindo is a town that has basically one main street and it is a popular eco-tourism spot mainly for other ecuadorians, which was kind of nice. After a nice lunch we set out on foot to explore the lush mountains and valleys. We walked for about an hour and arrived at the "canopy" otherwise known as a zip line. For $5 each (Ecuador uses the U.S. dollar) we rode the two longest and highest cables. It was pretty sweet. By this time clouds had moved in over the mountain tops and it had started to drizzle but it had little affect on the temperature or on us even though we were wearing t-shirts, shorts and sandles. We were still fine on the walk home even though it eventually started pouring and we were soaked head to toe. This place was beautiful - the type of place where they stick logs into the ground to hold up a barbed wire fence and the logs grow back into trees. Plants growing on plants growing on more plants and tons of colorful birds too; I guess people come from all over to look at the birds in Mindo, it has been designated an IBA, "important bird area" (ha). That night we had dinner with some friends we met on the bus and then sat on the main drag drinking beer, watching people and dogs walk by. We returned to our room right above a river and slept like babies.

Sunday morning we set out early, on foot again, our first stop was the mariposario (butterfly garden). We saw tons of butterflies, all different kinds - we could hardly keep them from landing on us, one of them tried to eat Emily! We also got to see the largest species emerge from the cocoon. After the Mariposario we were off to las cascadas (waterfalls). We walked for about 45 minutes before a pick-up truck already with 6 in the bed offered us a ride, good thing because it was another 10 minutes driving, standing up and ducking tree branches. We paid $2.50 to enter this private reserve with our newfound pick-up truck pals. It was worth the price too because we found a wonderland of water features to play in along the river including a concrete water slide of about 100 feet that they had built into the side of a cliff at the end of which was a 10 foot drop into a giant pool of water. Way better than your average water park and without all of the pee! (You can click on the pictures for more detail).

We're planning another excursion this weekend for Quilotoa, a giant lake in the crater of a volcanoe at about 12,000 feet. Next week is holy week and our last week of school. On good Friday there will be a massive procession throughout the city. Stay tuned.

Quito - Part 1

Here we are in Quito, as you learned in the previous post. There have been some requests for a bit of a review of the hostel situation so here we go. On Saturday we left a hotel called La Cartuja which was nice and served the purpose of letting us relax and sleep for a full day but it was a bit out of our price range. So we strapped on our packs and set out for the hostel La Posada del Maple which is just 10 blocks away. Both places are located in the Mariscal district which is the busy and tourist-centric area of what is known as the "New City" of Quito. El Maple is a cool old building with great courtyards, free breakfast, free internet, great staff etc. When we got here they were cleaning the wood floors with terpentine and everybody in the place had a glazed over look but boy do the floors look good! The price is definitely right ($31 per night for the pair of us in a private room with a private bath) and it is just about three blocks to our Spanish school. There is tons of food around too but I think we will wait on the food report as we are still learning the ropes.

Yesterday we had our first outing as we took the bus (you thought the muni gets crowded) to the old town and then a taxi to the Panecillo for a 360 degree view of the greater Quito area, it is huge. Then after lunch we headed up to the Basillica. The guide book said we should expect a death-defying climb up the towers and they weren't kidding. I've seen too many disaster movies with buildings crumbling apart like sand castles not to have the thought cross my mind as we climbed up iron ladders that clung to the outsides of these towers built in 1926. As you can see from the photo, we made it and of course it was worth it, this time we got a view from right in the middle of town. In the background you can see the statue of la Virgen which is on top of the Panecillo where we were earlier in the day.

Today we got up early, had breakfast, put on the best of our limited wardrobe and set off for our first day of school! We are both taking one on one lessons at the Simon Bolivar Spanish School. We have already taken a liking to our respective profesors and we are also very excited about the extracurricular activites that the school offers every evening and the outings that they offer during the weekends. We are headed there shortly for a lecture on Ecuadorian economy. Tomorrow is Salsa dancing...I have to get new pants!

Llegamos en Quito!

That´s right, we made it to Quito. Our two flights and 8 hours in the air went pretty smoothly besides the fact that one of the movies they showed was Alvin and the Chipmunks - "The Squeakuel." During our connection at Bogota internacional we had just bought some water when who else walks right by us but Ronaldo and a small entourage of three policemen! Crazy, within 30 minutes of setting foot in South America we see one of the biggest fùtbol stars of our time. It turned out a whole team was in the airport but the only other person I recognized was Roberto Carlos smiling for photos with whoever wanted them...our camera was in checked baggage.

We got in at 2:00am local time and slept until 11:00 today. Then we set out for some lunch and to find a more permanent place to stay. We succeeded in both attempts and also visited the language school where we will be starting classes on Monday: Escuela de Simon Bolivar. We are looking forward to our 3 weeks here in Quito before we head off into the jungle to volunteer our time with the organization Jatun Sacha.

LA: Last Day in the USA

We woke up Tuesday morning having said our goodbyes to San Luis Obispo and boarded the 6:45 train to Los Angeles. The train ride down was excellent as most train rides are. There is tons of leg room, practically nobody on board a nice snack bar and exclusive views of the Caliornia coast where the highway can't take you. We were met at Union Station by our friend Melody which was very fitting because she and her fiance Eitan will be getting married in the old ticketing hall in November. So we got a sneak peek and it looks awesome. We had dinner with Eitan and Melody Tuesday night, watched lost, played Wii Mario Kart and drank cocktails. Emily was pretty excited to give their Slanky a test drive, complete with built in bud light holdster!

We woke up today for our last day in this country for six monhs and four days. Uncle Pete picked us up around 11:00 and after a short tour of Los Angeles we ended up at Tito's Taco's for lunch. Tito's is a magical taco building where the options include fried mystery meat tacos or a styrafoam tray filled with melted cheddar cheese, enchilada sauce and soggy tortillabits. But like any worthy fast food it makes your heart beat faster just to think about eating it. Maybe out of anticipation, maybe out of fear.

Tonight we had a sushi and hot tub party with Pete, Tammy, Cody, Matt and Skylar and now we are getting ready for bed. We're going to be at the airport tomorrow morning at 7:30 for our 10:30 flight. 8 hours on the first leg to Bogota and about 2 hours on the second leg to Quito. The next post is going to be from a foreign land. Wish us luck getting there and keep an eye on things here in the USA for us while we are away. Thanks.

In San Luis Obispo

Hey all,

We made it through the move out, we spent an excellent weekend in Tahoe complete with sled-runs, snowball fights and hot tubs and after bidding farewell to the Bay Area we landed ourselves in San Luis Obispo for a week of relaxation, hiking and last minute preparations. After all of the rain California has been getting this winter it has been awesome to see countless shades of green radiating from the hills. San Luis is situated in a valley between costal ranges which right now makes it look like a sea of green, dotted by the volcanic peaks that draw a line to the ocean.

We have been trying to take advantage of the outdoors by hiking in the many hills around the city. Here is a picture of us on top of Madonna Mountain (Cerro San Luis for the purists) where we successfully hauled up our loaded packs as a training exercise. On the way up we saw wildflowers, several hawks and a great panorama of the town. On the way down I tried to eat a cactus fruit and when Emily's warned me that it had tiny needles which would get stuck in my skin I told her, "no, its more like a little fuzz than needles," and then I rubbed the 'fuzz' to prove my point. Well, I ended up with loads of needles in my hand and an especially stubborn one that refused to come out of my tongue. I hope this isn't a recurring theme of our trip.

The week has gone by pretty fast as we have had the chance to spend time with friends and family. Some highlights were: Blake's birthday gathering, a hike to the watchtower, dinner and a night-time walk on the beach with Ryan and Dirk, the Academy Awards with Patty, walks and hugs from Maggie, lots of shopping and sandwiches.

It is now Sunday night and we have one more full day here in San Luis before we catch the train at 6:45 am on Tuesday morning for LA. There we will visit our friends, Eitan and Melody as well as our Moyer family members and then on Thursday morning Uncle Pete will take us to LAX for our flight to Quito, Ecuador. Wow.