Ecuadorian Food

Family Meals | Typical Food

Introduction

Ecuador is one of the richest countries in the sense that the Ecuadorian people have the great fortune of having lot of delicious products from mother earth. Even since before the Inca Period the farmers cultivate potatoes, coffee, many varieties of corn (maiz, morocho, mote, chulpi, choclo, etc) wheat and other cereals and legumes.

The base of our nutrition is: rice, potatoes, banana and yuca (mandioc or cassava). It mainly depends of the natural region. So, the daily meals in the highlands are very different from those in the coast or in the jungle. In the highlands where potatoes are produced people gives the potatoes as much use as you can imagine: fried, cooked, boiled, baked, for soups, for making tortillas, to prepare pastry, etc.

In the Coast and in the Amazon Jungle people cultivate green bananas and mandioc, which are a very good ingredient to make “empanadas”, cakes, quiches, soups, etc. On the other hand, there is rice in all the country and is consumed as the main dish, normally accompanied by meat, fish or chicken, and salad. It is also used as ingredient to prepare soups or a sweet beverage mixed with milk, called “arroz con leche”

Ecuador is #1 exporter of banana, but Ecuador is a tropical fruits paradise. Here you can find bananas, pineapples, oranges, tangerines, sugar cane, papaya, cacao, mango, coconut, guayaba, pears, guanabana, melon, watermelon, apples, strawberries, passion fruits, avocados, grapefruit, plus many other varieties that are only produced in our precious land, exotic fruits like naranjilla – which is also grounded in some areas of Colombia-, chirimoya, taxo, guava, granadilla, zapote, capuli, grosella, tomate de arbol, babaco, chamburo, uvilla, etc.

The seafood you can find is shrimp, fish, tuna, sea bass, trout, tilapia, squid, crab, lobster.

Ecuadorians also eat meat of cow, chicken, pork, rabbit, guinea pig, lamb, turkey, ostrich. In the jungle the natives also eat snake, monkey, guanta, capybara, and other local animals.