Regional Differences
There are several Ecuadorian dishes that are typical to the various regions in the country. For example, costeños (people from the coast) prefer fish, beans, and plantains (unripened banana like fruits), while serranos from the mountainous regions prefer meat, potatoes, rice, and white hominy (mote). Regional examples include ceviche from the coast, which is prepared in many different ways, but basically consist of seafood (fish, shrimp, etc.) marinated in lime juice, as well as cassava (yuca) bread, plantains served with crushed peanuts or salprieta, and encebollado, the most popular dish on the coast, that contains a marinade with large chunks of fish, onions, and various regional spices. In the province of Esmeraldas most of their typical dishes are cooked with coconut.
Seafood is very popular in the coast, where fish, prawns, shrimp and crab, clams, etc. are key parts of the diet. Plantain and peanut-based dishes are the basis of many coastal meals, which are usually served in two courses. The first course is caldo (soup), which may be aguado (a thin soup, usually with meat) or caldo de leche, a cream vegetable soup. The second course might include rice, meat, or fish with a menestra (lentil stew), and salad or vegetables. Patacones (fried green plantains with cheese) are popular side dishes with coastal meals. Some of the typical dishes in the coastal region are ceviche, pan de almidón, corviche, guatita, papas con quero, encebollado, and empanadas; in the mountain region: hornado, fritada, humitas, tamales, llapingachos, lomo saltado, and churrasco.
A food of the mountainous parts of Ecuador is cuy (guinea pig).
The food is somewhat different in the southern mountainous areas, featuring typical Loja food such as repe, a soup prepared with green bananas; cecina, roasted pork; and miel con quesillo or "cuajada", as dessert. In the rainforest, a dietary staple is the yuca, elsewhere called cassava. The starchy root is peeled and boiled, fried, or used in a variety of other dishes. Many fruits are available in this region, including bananas, tree grapes, and peach palms. It's also used as a bread, and has spread throughout the nation, most notably, to Quito where a company sells the native pan de yuca in a new sense; different types sold with frozen yogurt.
Read more about this topic: Ecuadorian Cuisine
Famous quotes containing the word differences:
“Quintilian [educational writer in Rome about A.D. 100] hoped that teachers would be sensitive to individual differences of temperament and ability. . . . Beating, he thought, was usually unnecessary. A teacher who had made the effort to understand his pupil’s individual needs and character could probably dispense with it: “I will content myself with saying that children are helpless and easily victimized, and that therefore no one should be given unlimited power over them.””
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)