Ecuador food

Ecuador has a very rich, plentiful and varied food culture. It is an authentic indigenous gastronomy made in clay pots and smoked Castilian pans.  Ecuador food has centuries of tradition where ingredients, seasonings and experiences from several continents have been originally blended. Our immigrant ancestors precisely established in Ecuador because they found a bountiful nature from which they could subsist. Tropical plants and forests have varied fruits, and inter-Andean temperate valleys are gentle for agriculture and abundant for hunting. Normally, native life was regulated by nature, seasons and the rites related to these phenomena. The life-style was simple and depended on hunting and fruit picking. Nevertheless, the most splendid occasion for native food started on the harvest season. This special period of time gave them an opportunity to demonstrate their lavishness. Food traditions are remarkable in the Andean region, but they are not less important than the ones in the coastal region.

Ecuador has a magical realism which shines with splendor when we list Ecuadorian cooking tools. There are pots, casseroles, jugs, grinding stones, roasting pots, juice extractors, aribalos, sieves, graters, baby form bread molders, iridescent plates that illuminate served bouillons, neck portable compote dishes, hand made baskets, and estrange recipients which also worked as musical instruments to soften the hard work and to alleviate the fatigue.

The ancient inhabitants of Ecuador developed an admirable variety of food based on three products that come from the land: corn, potatoes and beans. In the coast people also used ingredients like cassava, peanuts, camotes, cocoa, coconuts, palmitos and fowl. Tostado, canguil, mote, chuchucaras,  mazamorras, and pankakes are all made with corn. Sweet corn is tenderly cooked to elaborate the choclomote. Corn is also grinded to produce the tamales or humitas which are a tasteful culinary marvel. Potatoes are eaten baked, roasted or mashed. For instance, llapingachos are a must try food. In Ecuador, there is plenty of food made in the form of a stew. There is a famous one made with mature beans, cuyes, turnips, achogcha and other exotic seasonings. On the other hand, the meat used in the native highland cooking was basically obtained from hunting and seldom from cattle breeding. Ecuador food traditions include animals like the lama, guanaco, deer, dove, cuy, rabbit, tapir, turkey, turtledove, partridge, quail, heron, duck and coot. 

Drinks were also among the native food gourmet. Chicha is an excellent beverage created by Ecuador Indians and it is obtained from the dried corn seed. The process is similar to beer production. It is one of the most popular drinks and it is commonly used in popular parties and marriages. There are also well-known fruit liquors such as the molle liquor and the blackberry liquor. It is worth to mention the chaguarmishqui which is a fermented drink made from maguey juice.

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