So I’ve got some cash, my bus pass, and my ID in my back pocket. It actually has a button on the back so pick-pocketers don’t stand a chance. Or is that what they want me to think? Anyway I am in search of a wallet today. I wanted a money clip but as good ole Abe Lincoln used to say, "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." That quote is probably only about 12% relevant but I’m going with it. So lets not trade in something big and bulky for something small and flashy. I’m going for boring and inconspicuous. But before I’m going for that, I am going for lunch.
Ecuadorian food consists of potatoes, seafood (better on the coast than in Cuenca obviously), fish, exotic fruit and spiced meats. The fruit, I have had. Some of it anyway. The Sweet granadilla is like a passion fruit. It looks like an orange and you cut it open and it’s full of seeds and this transparent jelly. The seeds are kind of hard but edible. You just grab a spoon and get after it.
Some traditional stuff I have yet to try. Cuy is a popular dish here. It’s a guinea pig on a stick. And when they serve it to you it looks a lot like a guinea pig on a stick. I want to try it though. I guess some places are better than others for cuy. A friend recommended a restaurant, around the corner, so Matt and I are going to head there soon. There are some local dishes I will probably pass on, notably tronquito – bull’s penis soup.
When the Ecuadorians are not putting genitals in their soup, it is actually quite good and served before most meals. Almuerzo (lunch) is the most popular meal here. Many businesses will close so people can go home and eat and it is a very busy meal for restaurants. It usually consists of soup, bread with jelly or butter, some kind of main course, which will include meat, and a desert or a pastry of some sort. And that’s all for about $1. When Matt and Di take the kids they usually just split two. Feed a family of four for $2. You can feed a family of four in Ecuador before you can feed a meter in Manhattan.
They really just have two beers in town – Pilsner, a Budweisery beer, and Club, which tastes like a Heineken Light. They are actually both better than those comps but there are no dark beers. You can also buy Corona and a real Heineken but they are expensive (and I don’t like either of them).
In the long list of the all-time cop-outs, this isn’t near the top. But it’s on it. For lunch I went to Monday Blue. It was on a corner in El Centro and had one of the few neon signs in town. It felt kind of Cheeseburger In Paradise meets Chili’s but much smaller and with some charm. In all seriousness, I wasn’t going to stay. I just wanted to see what was up, but no one spoke English and the menu was entirely in Spanish so naturally I convinced myself it was Ecuadorian. Not only did I eat at Monday Blue, I ordered a burrito.. Burritos are not Ecuadorian. Not only are they not Ecuadorian but it was on the page aptly labeled “Mexican.”
Little did I know, Thursday at Monday Blue was Margarita Day! Free margarita with every burrito. The waiter had a muddled accent and I could hardly pick up a word so I ordered my burrito ranchero and a Pilsner (grande). When he came with both the beer and a margarita he laughed and so did I. But a margarita and a large beer do not scare me. The margarita was good and the burrito wasn’t small. I was in good shape.
Let me take this moment to define the term “snowball effect.” Snowball effect is a figurative term for a process that starts from an initial state of small significance and builds upon itself, becoming larger (graver, more serious), and perhaps potentially dangerous or disastrous (a vicious circle, a "spiral of decline"), though it might be beneficial instead (a virtuous circle). Thank you.
So I needed coffee after looking around for a place to find a wallet. Or one I wanted at least. I stopped by a coffee shop, again American looking. I suck at traveling. All I really want is something quick. I don’t feel like carrying anything at the moment. On the menu there is Espress, and below Espress is Espress con Amaretto. In Ecuador, “Amaretto,” is the word they use to mean Amaretto in America. Una cervesa grande and a marg in, I figure the Espress con Amaretto makes more sense.
Working at a college bar for a year will drive up your tolerance but 8,300 ft will bring you back down. So my first Ecuadorian buzz is at 2pm, alone, in El Centro searching for a wallet. Classy.
I walk around for about an hour exploring parts of El Centro I hadn’t seen before. In front of almost every church is a plaza. I walk to the famous cathedral San Blas. It’s old and beautiful and I look in the window. There’s not a lot of seating but it has a grand feeling. It looks in good shape for being built when Jesse James was still robbing banks.
Dinner is coming up. Diana’s Spanish teacher and Duncan’s Spanish teacher are coming over so I had to get moving. I time the walk from my school to home and subtract a minute or two because the sweet smell of a bakery was too much to resist. Thirty cents later I had myself a delightful little pastry. Twenty-three minutes to get back. I figure I should give myself, with the pastry and allowing for potential doughnuts or possibly crepes, we’ll call it 25 minutes. No luck with the wallet. A few places had ones that were nice but I didn’t feel like spending $15 on a wallet when I could buy 50 pastries and a new waist size for that.
I am heading into my first weekend in Cuenca. The kids are finishing their school year and I begin mine (well a month or two) on Monday. Although exploring is fun and I have plenty left to do, I am excited to get into a routine and start making some leaps with the Spanish and meeting people my own age. I studied for 4 semesters in school and did well so hopefully a little practice and all these blogs will be in Spanish. We will be getting into the mountains soon for some more fun stories and I am finally going to get some pictures up here. But right now its time to watch The Lion King with the kids…
No comments:
Post a Comment