I was prepared to be sick for a month.I had no real idea of what to expect of the food in Ecuador. Would their different food safety standards affect my system? Would I rapidly shed the minuscule amount of body fat that I have?
I was pleasantly surprised when my housing situation was set in stone. Marjory Granja makes delicious food (comida). When she cooks, which was every day for the first month, she uses all natural ingredients and spends hours preparing dishes that look and taste amazing.
First I'll tell you that they view meals differently. Desayuno is around the normal time and resembles Breakfast. We have cereal or bread and cheese, some fresh fruit, and coffee. Cena is much different than dinner in the states. It is exactly like breakfast, except without fruit and tea instead of coffee. It is like this because lunch is big.
ALMUERZO (Lunch)Working adults go home at 1:30 pm. Students are done for the day. Almuerzo is THE meal. It is a full deal with vegetables, meat, beans, rice, potatoes...
We start out with a bowl of homemade soup. The bowl pictured is a chicken and vegetable. We have corn chowders, potato soup, spinach...
After that, the main dish is served. Pictured is lamb with vegetables, rice, and avocado. I've had plenty of chicken, beef, some fish, and even some cow tongue.
We usually share a pitcher of fruit juice blended from different fresh fruits like pineapples, apples, oranges, and some that we don't have in the U.S.Sometimes we share cerveza (beer...but you knew that). The brand of Ecuador is Pilsener. It's much lighter than the IPAs of the Pacific Northwest that I'm used to, but it is refreshing.
Sometimes Marjory makes snacks. Pictured is caca de perro (dog crap) and caca de mono (monkey crap). We had a good laugh when Erica
translated it for me and I didn't know if she meant to say "shit" or not.Of course, some days it is just better to relax and go out to the local KFC (of which there are many) and get some of the colonel.
