Taco Bell, Where Art Thou?

September 10, 2010

Plants thrive in the climate and soil of Ecuador – even in the sandy dirt along our coast.  Ecuador is the world’s largest exporter of bananas, grows some of its best coffee, and is lush beyond belief. …The colorful cut flowers (especially roses) that you buy in the States?  They probably came from Ecuador. Please support our economy here, and splurge now and then on their beauty.

In our yard we have papaya, banana, and noni trees.  Though the smell of a ripe noni is awful, it has been highly touted – especially by Japanese researchers – as having valuable medicinal/anti-cancer properties.  Those who regularly drink the fresh juice recommend mixing it with another juice or beverage (make mine a vodka – I’m telling you, these things smell terrible).  We also have poinsettias growing in our yard that are taller than me; until we came here, I didn’t know they grew bigger than the foil-wrapped holiday version in the States….I’ve seen our caretaker, Oswaldo,  transfer various broken plant branches (not the roots, mind you) into soil and watched them bloom into sturdy offspring. I honestly think a broom handle could be planted and little straws would sprout. 

Killer ceviche of many varieties
is plentiful here.

Seafood is also abundant. Fresh off-the-boat shrimp, langostinos (really big shrimp), squid, octopus (pulpo), crab, lobster, and any variety of fish are readily available. This is a seafood lover’s paradise.  And the diversity of fruit and vegetables available here is astounding (many unfamiliar to North Americans), not to mention the size of the produce – cabbages are the size of basketballs and cucumbers grow to 2 feet long and are thicker than my calves.

"Mellecos"or something like that.
We tasted them raw.
I thought they tasted
like minty potatoes.
Todd thought they tasted like "dirt".

So at the risk of sounding churlish, I am bored with the food at this juncture. Todd loves the comida here, but he is a more adventurous eater than I am (I have always been picky, and sincerely wish I wasn’t) and he has found a restaurant in Montanita that serves excellent encebollado (a fish soup that is commonly eaten for breakfast) and another in Montanita that offers papas huancaina, a favorite Peruvian potato dish he enjoys. Fresh, wholesome food is plentiful and lunch is generally the big meal of the day. Rice and beans are served with every meal, along with fried plantains (patacones), which I put right up there with lima beans as far as flavor (these things beg for some type of tasty dip yet to be discovered by me). It’s not that I’m starving, but gnawing hunger cravings constantly bother me now, though I knew this would happen – it always does by month two or three, and I knew to expect it. I’ve always been able to forge past this phase – because it does pass – once I adjust my personal expectations of an Ecuadorian meal that really excites me. But in the past, I also knew that an In&Out burger or Taco Bell burrito was readily available in my near future, upon returning to LAX.

I confess that I am a junk food addict. I have eaten – and thrived – for years on crap food – pizza, Diet Cokes, Velveeta Cheese and frozen chow.  NEVER in my life have I slapped my forehead and said “gee, I really want a piece of fruit”, nor willingly eaten a green vegetable, and I have always considered Nacho Doritos a perfectly natural substitute for “orange” food requirements.   That, and I am originally a Kansas City girl (though I have lived in Nevada or California for the last 30+ years). Which means…..I NEED MEAT (beef or pork) and BUTTER and BACON on a regular basis.  I would crawl on my elbows right now for the nearest package of Jimmy Dean sausage. Not to mention a Kansas City “Winstead’s” meal. Fortunately, real butter is easily found locally most of the time…The gringo craving that most tortures me at the moment is for authentic MEXICAN food, like we have always taken for granted in Southern California and Baja Mexico.

In a Montanita restaurant tonight, my poor shrunken/deprived tummy craved something Norte Americano, so I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich & french fries, mustard/mustazo on the side. (Note to self - learn how to say “pickles” in Espanol, even though no local restaurant stocks them)….Grilled cheese sandwich - I mean, how safe can you get, even without the pickles?

When it was served….on a cold, soft, thick sesame seeded hamburger bun with thin layer of melted white cheese in the middle - not sharp yellow cheddar – a few slices of raw red onion, and a fried egg (eggs, in one form or another will invariably turn up in most sandwiches /dishes you order here unless you tell them otherwise).  I very nearly lost it.

It’s all I could do not to cry, because if I’m not exactly starving at this point, I am tired of eating eggs, canned tuna and/or beans and chicken for my current protein fix.

But I have also lost a few unneeded pounds,feel like a million bucks, and becoming more tranquillo.

Like I said, everything grows here, and Todd and I are growing too – but not without an occasional pruning.

"La Putanita de la noche¨"
(The "little whore of the night"
 because of her intoxicating evening fragrance)