QUITO, DAY 11, THE LAST DAY

Ok everyone. It's the one you've all been waiting for... the cuy post! But first, it was our last day in Ecuador. Our flight wasn't until the afternoon, so we were able to squeeze in some shopping, and more importantly, some dining, before our flight departed. Now one thing that I haven't blogged about yet is breakfast. Breakfast in Ecuador is pretty much like breakfast in the U.S. - you know, eggs, omlettes, fruit, toast, cheese - that kind of stuff. So I didn't really document any of it since it wasn't too exciting.

However, one thing I did enjoy was the lavish spread that we had every morning at our hotel in Quito. (which was twice). At the Hilton Colon, they have a lot of business travelers and airline personnel staying with them. And every morning for breakfast, they put out this huge buffet in the cafe. It has lots of stations. For example, here's the cereal/yogurt bar.

Here you can pick cereal or yogurt and top it with lots of different things like fruit, yogurt, etc. And there were a ton of fresh juices. By the way, all the fresh juices we had in Ecuador were amazing - it was just fruit, blended with water, so it was never too sweet and just tasted great.

Then there's the fruit area:

It's filled with lots of fresh, locally grown fruit. Including that granadilla that I got on the first day.

And there's the pastry/bread area with baskets filled with all different types of fresh pastries. I liked the mini croissants the most.

I've left out photos of the make your own omlette bar and the hot food stations, but here's a photo of my plate on the last day. As you can see, I was pretty moderate.

We had a little time before our flight in the afternoon, so we spent it shopping and squeezing in our last meal at Mama Clorinda in La Mariscal. I chose Mama Clorinda because it specializes in the foods of the Ecuadorian highlands, and more importantly, it served cuy. So for those of you who don't know, cuy (aka guinea pig) is eaten as a delicacy in Ecuador. It's not all that common, and much more prominent in the highlands. And it's not like everyone eats it - one of our tour guides went on and on about how much she loved it, while the other mentioned how much she dislike it. But it was something that both Tom and Cathy wanted to try. We had ordered our cuy ahead of time because our tour guide had told us that it took an hour to prepare, and we were on a pretty tight schedule.

Here's the dining room at Mama Clorinda. We were having an early lunch, so it was pretty much empty inside, but as you can see, it's very brightly colored and sunny:Since we had ordered the cuy in advance, they had it ready for us when we arrived. Ben and I ordered some more normal foods for our lunch, while Cathy and Tom shared the cuy. They're actually kinda expensive - each one costs $18.
This is what it looks like when it comes out - still pretty much intact. And it turns out that they actually fried the thing (rather than roasting it, which is what I had expected). Tom and Cathy both dug in. Here's Tom eating a leg:And here's another of him eating the head (you can make out the ears and eyes):
Overall, they thought it was pretty good. To be honest, it didn't have much meat on it - mainly skin and bones. And Cathy thought that some of the meat tasted fishy (though I personally think it was the feed that they give it). Ben also tried it and they all agreed that it was something that they'd eat again.

Meanwhile, I had ordered a roast chicken lunch plate:This wasn't so great, because the chicken ended up being fried, rather than roasted. And it was pretty dry and tough. Plus the French fries just weren't very good. But we were here for the cuy, not for the other foods.

We had a really great trip to the Galapagos - I highly recommend it to anyone who's looking for an adventure filled vacation and to finish off this last post about our trip, I'll leave you with a photo of the Galapagos mascot, the land tortoise:

GALAPAGOS AND QUITO , DAY 10

Our last day in the Galapagos was spent doing the reverse of what we'd done on the first day - taking the flight from Baltra back to Quito. We took the first flight out of the day, so when we landed in Quito, it was the middle of the afternoon. We hadn't really eaten lunch, so after doing a visit to the local craftsmarket (just a couple of blocks from our hotel), Tom and I decided to leave early, head back to the hotel and eat local junk food.

Well ok, I wouldn't count my bag of Ruffles as local junk food. But Tom had a bag of chincharrones:

He deemed these much better than the ones that we have in the U.S., stating that they literally melt in the mouth. He'd also gotten himself of chips made from plantians:

I'm not a big plantain fan, and these were covered in a sweet coating, so I'd say it was just ok. (Yes, I liked my sour cream and onion Ruffles more).

After our little break, we headed out for a brief city tour of old town, where the colonial Spaniards had settled. There are lots of churches, plazas and colonial buildings in the area and after walking around for a bit, we had our last dinner for the trip at Cafe Plaza Grande in the Hotel Plaza Grande.

The restuarant is located in an old historic building that was bought and renovated by Swissotel and now houses several restaurants. The cool thing is that it overlooks the main square in Old Town - the Plaza Independencia:The restaurant serves local Ecuadorian delicacies, but it's in a very formal setting - by far the most formal place that we had visited the whole trip. But it was a nice change from flip flops, mosquitoes and sand.

The first thing that that give you is bowls of crisply fried plantains in like a flower arrangement:
along with three dipping sauces:There was peanut, sesame and something spicy that I don't remember. But I liked the spicy one.

As for the menu, it's basically a prix fixe menu, and you get several choices for appetizer, entree and dessert. For my appetizer, I got this potato cheese soup served along with local avocado:Ok. To be honest, my tummy wasn't feeling so great the last couple of days in Ecuador (I blame that chicken stick I ate on the beach in Isabella), so I didn't really have much of an appetite. The soup was pretty good, but I didn't eat most of it.

For Tom's appetizer, he got a really pretty ceviche:served with the ubiquitos popcorn and toasted corn:
Even though it was quite pretty, he thought it was just pretty good. He like the ceviche we had at Las Redes more.

For my entree, I ordered fish:It was locally caught, well prepared and very pretty. But again, my stomach just wasn't into it - I mainly ate the veggies.

Meanwhile, Tom ordered chicken:And it was fine. I tried some of it. Well cooked and well seasoned, but nothing extraordinary.

And lastly, dessert. Apparently they like dramatic things at this restaurant, because the ice cream was served over a bowl of dry ice:I'll admit, it was pretty cool, and you could make it continue misting just by adding more water to the dry ice.

Overall, we had a really pleasant dinner. I mean, the place certainly is one of those places where you'd see foreign tourists dining with wealtheir Ecuadorians. And for me and Tom, we'd certainly prefer eating this type of food in a local joint. But it was still fun to be a bit pampered and surrounded by that type of elegance. I just wish my stomach had been feeling better so I could've enjoyed the meal more. (But that should teach me about eating street food on a beach).

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.