Food & Drink

The food in Ecuador is very diverse, tending to vary with altitude in line with the agricultural conditions. Pork, chicken and cuy (guinea pig) are popular in the mountain regions served with an immense variety of cereals, potatoes or rice.

Seafood is popular at the coast, particularly lobster and prawns. Plantain and peanut based dishes and foods are the basis of most coastal meals, which in general are served in two courses: a caldo (soup), which may be 'aguado' (thin, usually with meat), or 'caldo de leche' ( a cream vegetable soup). The second course might typically include rice, some meat or fish in a menestra (stew) and salad or vegetables. Patacones (unripe plantains fried in oil, mashed up and then refried) are popular sidedishes with most coastal meals.

In the rainforest, a dietary staple is the yuca, (called cassava elsewhere). This starchy root is peeled and boiled, fried, or used in a variety of other dishes. Many fruits are also available in this region.

Other specialities include:

• baked guinea pig
• empanadas (stuffed savoury pastry)
• fanesca (soup made with 12 types of bean and usually served with codfish)
• humitas (flavoured sweetcorn tamale)
• llapingachos (pancakes of mashed potato and cheese)
• locro (stew of potatoes and cheese)
• lomo saltado (sliced beef sautéed with onion, tomato, soy sauce, vinegar, chilli)
• shrimp or lobster ceviche

Pilsner is the most popular beer, naranjilla is a unique fruit juice and an Ecuadorian speciality that has a taste somewhere between peaches and citrus. Canelazo is regarded as the best drink - a mix of sugar cane, alcohol, lemon, and cinnamon.