La comida (food)

I thought since I am getting close to the end of my time here I would talk about the different kinds of food that I have been eating while I am here. Most weekdays I eat my food around the same times. I have breakfast in the mornings before I leave for class. Usually I have some kind of fruit, fresh juice, bread and sometimes eggs (I am not a huge breakfast person so I told my host Mom that fruit and bread are enough for me). I have had a couple different kinds of eggs here. Usually I have scrambled eggs but sometimes my host Mom makes what they call here a tortilla but in the U.S. it would be like an omelet. Also I have tried so many new kinds of fruit here and other than a few I have loved every kind. The fruit here is always soo fresh and sweet. One of my favorite fruits here is called maracuya, which is a type of passion fruit, and it is great as a juice.

These are called uvillas and are kind of like mini oranges  but a lot sweeter. 

                                                   

I eat lunch with my friends after my classes around campus. We have eaten everywhere from the food court in the mall, sandwich places, pizza to more traditional lunch places. The places the serve traditional lunches start with some kind of soup and then usually come with chicken, rice, fruit, juice and fried plantains. This places usually cost around $3-4 which is a great price for the huge amount of food that you get. Also lunch here is a lot different from in the United States. Here most people eat lunch a little later like around 2 and most working people have at the minimum an hour for their lunch break. I really enjoy taking a long time to eat lunch, it is a really nice break in the middle of the day. I think that is why lunch is so important here because it is a time to re-energize for the rest of the day.

I have noticed that people here in Ecuador don't snack like some people in the U.S. do. For me that is something that I am still not used to. At home I snack all day long but here I just really eat my three meals and maybe sometimes I will eat some chifles here (they are a kind of like potato chips in the U.S. but they are made of plantains).

My favorite meal of the day is dinner. I am super lucky to have an amazing host Mom here that loves to cook and is really good at cooking. Also because I have diet restrictions she has been really good about making sure the food she cooks is something that I can eat. I have eaten a lot of different things here for dinner. Lots of times we eat some kind of soup with chicken or shrimp in it to start our meal. Sometimes we have chicken and rice. Other times we have vegetables and fish. My favorite vegetable here that I have never had in the U.S. is called yucca. It tastes like a potato and is brown on the outside and white in the inside but it is not as starchy as potatoes. Lots of time is it in soup or cooked and served with meat.

One of my most memorable dinners with my family here was when my host Dad was away on business and returned with some huge shrimp from his travels. They were soo delicious and a little messy to eat but the whole family enjoyed eating them together. I have to admit that I had to trade the heads of my shrimp with my host Mom for the rest of her vegetables because I wasn't sure if I wanted to eat them.

                                                       

All in all I have really enjoyed the food here in Ecuador. Most of the food is natural and not as processed as the food in the United States. I am defiantly going to miss the fresh fruit and the fresh shrimp and fish here when I have to go home.