Comida

I could write an entire blog just about the food!


Each morning, I wake up and walk myself down the tile stairs, rubbing the gunk out of my eyes and find Zita, my host, sitting in the same section of the booth around the kitchen table.  Carmen, the cleaning lady/ cook/ best friend of Zita, is usually making something smell extremely good in between bites of fresh hot bread and sips of strong coffee.


I'll crawl into the booth opposite Zita and she'll give me a smile and say something like "Andresito, mas consado, si?  Necessito Cafe".    So, I sit and listen to Zita and Carmen chat away, picking up what I can understand.  Occasionally Zita will explain something in English for me when they are laughing to the point of tears and I'll try to respond in Spanish, usually making them laugh more.


Breakfast consists of homemade granola with yogurt, fresh fruit and honey.  Like Carmen, I'll also chomp on some fresh bread between sips of coffee.  This could be my favorite part of the day.  The other people living in the house stop by for 5-10 minutes before taking off for their daily activities.  Zita says, "I have one cup of coffee for every time someone comes down for breakfast".  She prefers the instant coffee to the delicious stuff that Carmen makes, saying it's stronger (because she adds a ton of coffee) and tastes better with the tablespoon of brown sugar that goes into it.  It's always a good morning.


Each day, Carmen starts making lunch during breakfast, so the entire house smells the way I imagine heaven to smell.  If I am around for lunch or dinner, it is a true treat.  The food is scrumptious and plentiful.  All different fruits, veggies and meats, much of it fried.  Everything has it's place around the kitchen and nothing is wasted.  All different kinds of food are stored in uniquely sized and shaped glass jars in tucked into the dark corners of storage in the kitchen that only Zita and Carmen could know.  It's like being in another world, but much of how I imagined my mothers family grew up.


At the restaurant I work (which I found out was voted the best traditional Ecuadorian food in Quito), the food is a tease!  I serve people food that smells and looks so, so, so good.  I have only tried a few things, mostly extras that don't get served.  My favorite thus far is the guinea pig soup.  The meat was tender and tasty and the broth was flavorful. Can't go wrong.  Every dish they make has achiote in it, a native Ecuadorian plant that is extremely spicy in food.  There is so much to try... my taste buds will never get bored.  Luckily, the restaurant is aimed at attracting gringos, so I can have conversations in English and the people are always interested in hearing what I am doing.  When I'm not taking with the gringos, I'm desperately trying to learn new words and actually retain what I've learned.  However, at the same time, I'm trying to learn a menu, learn a computer system and a trade (first time being a server).  If you're going to do something, might as well go all out, right?