Jan-Feb-2016_Final-1-4-16-attempt2

the Around the World issue

when it comes to food, the offerings are even more varied. Like many tourists, we gave the famed roasted guinea pig (called cuy) a try. It produced a reaction similar to New Orleans foreigners trying to eat boiled crawfish: “lots of work for little meat.” Roasted cuy, which sort of tastes like rabbit, is full of bones. It’s often prepared in the mountainous regions of Ecuador on a spit over an outdoor fire. While it gets a lot of press, there are many other Ecuadorean specialties to be found including the seafood and plantain dishes in the coastal cities and the beef, pork and chicken recipes found in the highlands. A common thread that runs through all cuisine in Ecuador is fresh. Fish and other seafood come right out of the ocean. Meat, fruits and vegetables from the local countryside are plentiful and easy to buy. The Ecuadorean people sell wares from wheelbarrows, baskets, car trunks, pickup trucks or just on a blanket spread out on the sidewalk. There also are beautiful outdoor marketplaces,which include colorful flowers and warm wool sweaters and the Panama hat (originally from Ecuador, not Panama). And there are so many different fruits in Ecuador you probably could drink a different juice each morning for a year. The phrase “throw a seed and it grows” must have originated from this place, where the different climates produce a huge variety of fruits.

Sopa, So Good! by Suzette Norris

I n many places, food is the root of friendship. But in Ecuador the description comes with a little extra flavor. For me, the sentiment included a gentle knock on the door and a hot steaming soup — with a pair of rooster feet sticking up from the middle of the bowl. The soup and the knock turned up 20 years ago when my husband Scott and I were living upstairs from Susanna, a widow with four children who tended a small sugarcane farm in a southern Ecuadorian town called Vilcabamba. The feet? They were once part of a rooster who couldn’t wait until dawn to crow. Instead, he liked to get going around 3am. The problem was solved Ecuadorian-style. We bought the rooster, and gifted it back to Susanna who served it to her family for Sunday supper. The soup was Susanna’s peace offering. We are still friends to this day. Big Things in a Small Package Ecuador is about the size of Colorado, but what it lacks for size it more than makes up for in geographical and cultural diversity. Straddling the middle of the world, the country offers snow-capped volcanoes, mountain lakes, Amazon rain forests, cloud forests, beaches along the Pacific, and the famous Galápagos Islands. And

“We get fresh mangoes from Ecuador, as well as papayas. Mangoes are actually the biggest selling fruit in the world.” —Patrick, Rouses Produce Director

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MY ROUSES EVERYDAY JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2016