Eating in Ecuador

First of all . . . HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!! Though I am far way over I have not forgotten how luck I am to have a Dad like you. I love you!

Happy Father's Day to the other fathers in my life as well . . . Grandpa, uncles, cousins, friends, and so on. Have a good one!!

Again, sorry for not posting more regularly. I am hearing reports through various mediums that people want me to blog more often. I honestly will try to post more often.

I have been wanting to post about the food here in Ecuador since I arrived. My fellow Beyond Bordians will tell you that I was seriously worried about the food I would be eating. I do not have a very adventurous palate, nor do I like spicy food. Having studied Ecuador a little, I discovered they eat guinea pig (called cuy). I used to play with my friend's pet guinea pigs when I was younger, the idea of eating one was far from appealing. Well, thankfully, it turns out I had very little to worry about. I have not yet had to eat cuy, though some of the other students have and say it's like fishy chicken. And none of the food I have eaten has been spicy so far. My family does have homemade hot sauce you can add to your food, but even that isn't terribly spicy.

We eat a lot of rice, potatoes, and chicken. For some reason I am not sick of rice yet, but I have had enough of the other two. I have never been the biggest fan of potatoes to begin with, and I have been known to tell my mother 'please, not chicken again'. But when you are staying with a different family you grin and bear it. For lunch every day we have soup, followed by a main course. My family still thinks I eat so little. I try to tell them that in Canada, the soup is the meal, but they don't seem to buy it. My host father does most of the cooking, and most mornings he makes fresh juice. I like the orange juice, though I am not so fond of the tree tomato or papaya juices. The later two are very thick. But again, most mornings I just chug it down anyway. Sometimes I say "no juice, thank you". A lot of the food I found weird when I first got here, but now I'm used to it. Somethings I still don't like, like fried bananas, mostly because I don't like the texture. One thing I will not get used to is all the salt they cook with. Nearly everything is salty, sometimes almost unbearably so. Eggs, soup, salad, sauce, everything. I wonder if it is a habit left over from when there wasn't really refrigeration, and food used to go bad without tons of salt. I think maybe the native Ecuadorians are either used to it or just don't taste salt anymore. In any case, I always eat with a glass of water so I can dilute the salt at least a little. My family cooks with a canister of salt next to the stove. They also use a lot of sugar. My little sisters drink warm milk with Nesquick in the morning and at night, and they even add sugar to that. Even though it is already probably 80% sugar, and the can itself says "no necessita azucar" or something along those lines. Granted, it isn't quite as sweet as it is in Canada, but still. They put a good amount of sugar in tea and coffee (always instant, by the way, even though we are very close to Colombia) as well. The other thing I have a hard time with is when we eat certain foods. In my opinion, chicken is not a breakfast food, nor are potatoes (nope, I don't even like hashbrowns). Here I sometimes have chicken and potatoes for breakfast. I also was given radishes for breakfast once, which I found odd. I used to only get hot milk for my cereal, and I am fairly used to that now, though I still prefere the mornings when it is cold. By far the strangest thing is that sometimes there are chicken feet in the soup. It would be one thing if it was many different parts of the chicken along with the feet, but no. The only chicken in the soup is the feet. Skin, nails and all. I am told they are delicious, but I don't think I could eat one. Luckily my family does not put them in my bowl. I think they saw my horrified expression the first time I saw it and took pity on me. It is still strange to see them in the bowls of other family members.

I could probably say more about food, but I have to be getting home. Tomorrow I am cooking pancakes for a Father's Day breakfast, and then climbing Mount Nevado with the other Canadians and Krista's host family. I am more nervous than excited, but I am hoping the pictures will be worth it.

Thanks for reading!!
Once again, have a great Father's Day!
-Amy