Nothing Like a Good Meal to Make Me Happy

Everything that Conchita makes is tasty!  Lunch is the big meal of the day here in Ecuador and so far I have only been served one dish I haven’t liked.  This week I ate something kind of like a soup with small, slimey, chewy curly-cues that looked like they had pores.   I couldn’t quite understand what I was told I was eating.  Luckily there wasn’t enough leftover for dinner that night.  Breakfast and dinner are lighter meals here and in Conchita and Alejandro’s house dinner is leftovers and breakfast is my favorite.

Every morning we eat a variety of fresh fruit, bread, agua de frescos (flower water) and coffee.

The quantity of fruits here is amazing.  Most are available fresh year-round and there are many I have never seen before.  There are tomatoes from a tree, naranjillas, and six varieties of bananas, to mention a few.  This week we have been eating apples, pears, watermelon, papaya, and bananas for breakfast. 

That papaya is bigger than the watermelon!

Coffee is one reason I am so excited for breakfast every morning.   Before arriving here, I thought a good cup of coffee would be easy to find since we have so much imported Ecuadorean coffee in the States.  Ecuador does export a lot of coffee but little of the good stuff makes it into the mugs of the Ecuadoreans.  If you order a coffee at a café or restaurant, you will likely receive a cup of hot water, a bowl of sugar, and a bowl of Nescafe, which you can spoon into your cup in any quantity that you desire.  If you ask for a café con leche, you will get the same but with a cup of hot milk instead of water.  Needless to say, I was very pleasantly surprised at my first breakfast with Conchita and Alejandro when they served me the best cup of coffee I’ve had since I arrived in Ecuador.  They blend a few of their favorite coffees together and filter it through cloth.  It comes out strong and thick and we pour it into our cups and thin it out with water or milk.  It is delicious.

Last Saturday, Conchita and Alejandro taught me how to make the agua de frescos (flower water.)  They make it every day from the flowers that their housekeeper, Julia brings from her garden each Friday.  A small amount of several kinds of flowers and herbs are well rinsed and put into a pot of water on the stove until it boils.  The water quickly turns a deep pinkish-red.  Once cooled, the water is strained into a pitcher.  Just before consumption a fresh lime is squeezed in.  Yum!

These are the flowers that are stored in the fridge for flower water.