QUITO: DAY 1

So here they are, the posts that you've all been waiting for.... our trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. As many of you know, we recently got back from a trip with my family to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. We spent most of the time on the Galapagos, and for reasons that will be explained later, we didn't really get much of a chance to sample local cuisine. However, on the first day that we landed in Quito (the capital of Ecuador) we were able to go out for our first dinner at Las Redes, a seafood restaurant that's located in La Mariscal, a neighborhood about a 10 minute walk from our hotel.

Since we had arrived earlier in the day and hadn't really eaten, and we had to get up really early the next morning for our flight out to the islands, we ended up having a very early dinner, so when we arrived at the restaurant, it was completely empty. This ended up being a good thing since our large party of 8 ended up taking up a large table on a platform that overlooked the rest of the small restaurant.

This place wasn't particularly fancy, but I knew it wouldn't be, after finding about it in a guide book. However, I was looking forward to the food. We ended up ordering several things to share, and while we waited for our dishes to arrive, we took lots of pictures of the funky marine themed decor that filled the place.

After waiting a bit, our dishes finally arrived. My sister and her boyfriend ended up sharing one seafood platter (meant for two, but it could've fed 3 or more) which was served with a butter garlic sauce.

Uhm, the thing was enormous, piled high with various types of seafood including shellfish, shrimps, fish, conch and lots of other stuff. Can you believe that we actually ordered two of these? (the second one was shared by my mom and her two sisters). I definitely helped out. The sauce was actually quite yummy, and I ate quite a few of the shrimp. However, cooking so much of different at the same temp means some stuff gets really overcooked, which was certainly the case.

Meanwhile, for my self, I had ordered a seafood rice:

As you can see, the portion was much more reasonable. The rice was very good, but all the seafood in it was overcooked and pretty dry. I ended up just eating the rice, while picking seafood off my sister's massive seafood plate. Tom shared the seafood rice with me, but he also got a sampler platter of ceviche, which is one of the things that this place is really known for:

I think more than anything, he liked the plate that it was served in, but his favorite part of the ceviche was the conch. At this meal, we also learned of two accompaniements that always appear with ceviche at Ecuador - you can see the popcorn in the right claw of the crab plate, and in the left claw is this puffed corn stuff. It's pretty tasty. The ceviche plate was meant for sharing, but everyone was so distracted trying to eat the massive mixed seafood platters that Tom ended up finishing most of it off.

Meanwhile, we worked hard on finishing the mixed seafood platters, and my sister Cathy was pretty proud with the result:

Oh, I forgot to mention one of Tom's favorite parts - the bread and butter, or really, just the butter. Unlike the U.S., Ecuador hasn't fully developed factory farming techniques. This meant that the butter they served actually came from cows that ate grass (rather than corn, which is what most cows eat in the U.S.). Because of that, the butter had a very distinct flavor, almost like that of cheese, and Tom was eating like it was cheese (until I told him to stop).

Overall, I'd say that our dinner at Las Redes was pretty good. The service was very friendly and they definitely spoke English (despite my efforts to speak Spanish to them, people in Ecuador would generally respond in English). Though it wasn't the best food in the world, it certainly wasn't a bad start to the trip, and I looked forward to our future meals.

OYSTERS IN TOMALES BAY

A little while ago I had to do a demo up in Point Reyes Station for a client. It was my first time visiting Point Reyes - an area north west of where we live, but it was a cute little town and not too far from our home. While I was doing the demo, I overheard some people talking about the place you could go and buy oysters and shuck them yourself. I was curious about it, so when I got home, I googled it and found out about the Tomales Bay Oyster Co. Actually, there are two companies, Tomales Bay and the more famous Hog Island. I had wanted to go to Hog Island Oyster, but not only do they charge you to reserve a picnic table ($8/person), but it fills up months in advance for weekend reservations. Oh, I'll also mention here that I don't eat oysters. Actually, the only bivalve I eat are scallops, but Tom loves oysters, as does my little sister, so when she and her boyfriend, Ben, visited last month, we decided to take them up to Tomales Bay.

So I actually did some major prep before our drive up - buying bread, supplies, utensils, etc. And the first stop we made before we even went to Tomales Bay was at the famed Cow Girl Creamery located in Point Reyes Station. Here we picked up some supplies, like cheese, drinks, and rabbit pate. We ended up at the Tomales Bay Oyster Company a little before noon, and luckily, not all the picnic tables were taken up yet - though plenty of people were already there- shucking oysters and preparing for their BBQ's.

Since it was our first time, I went on the guidance of reviews on Yelp, which in retrospect I probably shouldn't have done. While Tom heated the grill, we headed over to buy the bags of oysters. This is where they're kept:
This place only offers one type of oysters in like 5 different sizes. People online generally suggested getting the large oysters for shucking and grilling. So I ordered 50 of them (the previous day, Tom said he could easily eat 40 oysters). While I was fiddling with ordering some mussels and shucking tools, the oyster were gathered up. Only when I was handing over the money did I realize how enormous the "large" oysters really were.

We hauled the bag back to our picnic table, and Tom got busy shucking. Unfortunately, our oysters were like 2-3 times the size of the oysters we'd seen online for the shucking tutorials on Youtube, and it ended up being much harder in real life. Cathy and I left the shucking to Ben and Tom, and after eating a few raw, they decided that the best way to serve them would be cooked on the grill.

Meanwhile, I manned the grill, grilling our bread, to eat with the cheese. I had also bought myself a pack of chicken dogs, and happily ate those. Here's Cathy and Ben at our table - the view was pretty spectacular, and you couldn't have asked for a nicer day.
After a while, we started getting pretty stuffed. But I'd bought five pounds of mussels to cook for my little sis. I did it with some garlic, white wine and parsley and cooked it all over the grill.

Our neighbors at the table next to us were also really friendly and they had totally done this before. There were only two of them, and they had so much extra food that they started giving it away to all the surrounding tables. They gave us garlic bread and some seafood stew with more mussels. I also saw lots of groups of Chinese people - one party was grilling shrimp wrapped in bacon.

Overall, we had a really great time. I had bought too many oysters, and ended up hauling them back home and giving them to a friend. I've now learned my lesson that next time I have to buy the small oysters, and hopefully will actually manage to shuck one successfully. And I'm hoping to go back soon.