Food is such a great way to connect with a culture, and I’m glad that I have the chance to try different Ecuadorian foods every day.
As I wrote before, a typical meal consists of a soup as the first dish, then rice, potatoes, salad and a type of meat for the second dish. Here in Ibarra, there are many different types of meat cooked in a variety of ways. Similar to the United States, the main meats here are pollo (chicken), lomo (pork), and carne de res (beef). Then, each type of meat can be cooked in any number of ways. For example, pollo a la plancha is a piece of chicken breast that is flattened and cooked on the stove top. Plancha refers to the metal (usually made of iron), which they what they use to flatten and cook the meat. There’s also meat al horno, or meat cooked in the oven, or meat al grill which is cooked on a grill. Those are just a few ways that food is prepared here!
Here in Ecuador, the food really tells a lot about a region! Typical food changes based on what’s available. In the mountainous region where I live, rice, potatoes and corn are very common in all types of food here, in both normal dishes and some desserts. People have jokingly told me that a meal is “incomplete” if it doesn’t have rice and potatoes. In contrast, the food is very different near the coast. Fresh seafood is a lot more common there because the ocean is so close. I haven’t visited the Amazon region yet, but many people here tell me that the food there is also a lot different!
