Mango anyone?

A ver…I can’t believe I have been here for almost two weeks already! All in all, it’s been really great so far. I figure it is about that time for a food update…always one of the first few questions I get about life here.

For breakfast, my abuelita usually makes me a grilled cheese and chocolate milk. She is so cute. Seriously, this woman is 90 years old and is up and about every morning making me breakfast. (Usually with a few “Que fría-How cold!”s thrown in there. I had to explain to her that 50 degrees is not cold. Negative 10 degrees is cold.) Sometimes when I have to leave early I have an empanada de viento. It is basically a light pastry filled with a little cheese and topped with sugar. Bread, good. Cheese, good. Sugar, goooood.

Lunch is the big meal for Ecuadorians. If I am home around lunch time (2 or 3), Pasiona, our maid, makes lunch for me. It usually starts out with some kind of soup, usually a chicken-type broth with potatoes and some spices. After soup comes the main course—typically rice, some kind of meat or eggs, little fried corn cakes filled with cheese, and avocado. Sometimes there is also fruit salad, and always some kind of new fruit juice to drink. They have a lot of amazing fruits here that we don’t have in the U.S., most notably one they call el tomate del arbol (a tree tomato). I’ve only had it in juice form, but it’s delicious. Mangos are also a favorite, but are different from the mangos we are used to. They are much smaller and you suck the juice out of them first, and then eat the fruit inside. Our maid also made a huge tub of ice cream out of a bunch of them, which usually follows the massive lunch meal. It’s at about this time I am ready to pass out, throw up, or loosen up the pants a bit. I can’t complain, though, because the food is usually really good and I don’t have to worry about going hungry. Sure beats pasta or pizza every day…

While that meal would most definitely sustain me for a least a week, super-abuelita zooms in at about 8:30 or 9 to make a little cafecita for me. And by cafecita, I mean warm milk with a spoonful of instant coffee. It’s basically like a really weak latte, and actually makes me more sleepy than awake. I was kind of disappointed to learn that a country that exports coffee beans really does not use them. I have yet to talk to somebody that has had real coffee while being down here. And of course, to accompany the cafecita, a grilled cheese sandwich. Man, I thought Wisconsinites loved their cheese. My family eats it with everything. Granted it is usually only in one variety—a mozzarella type—but it is nevertheless present at every meal.
At school if I get hungry I grab a little sandwich from one of the cafeterias or eat some mangos I brought from home. I usually try to pace myself, however, in preparation for the thanksgiving feast that awaits me every day when I come home. There are a lot of really cheap restaurants around the school too, and even a McDonald’s (one of my professors was telling us that is kind of a luxury and status symbol for people to go out to eat there).

Food summed up in a few words: potatoes, rice, cheese, avocado, fruit. Lots and lots of tasty fruit. I think that is one thing I will definitely miss back in the states. Crappy carton orange juice doesn’t stand a chance against fresh-squeezed mango or tree tomato juice.