The weekend...

Slocomb’s been working on his blog for about an hour now, so I thought I should try to catch up (don’t wanna be outdone, of course). I guess I’ll just give you all of the boring details of our relaxing weekend.
Katya left to go back to the States today from Guayaquil, so she and Nellie left yesterday to spend the night in Guayaquil. While they were gone yesterday, Slocomb and I went to this restaurant, Punto, just across the perimeter (Avenida de las Americas) from the Las Pencas neighborhood where we live. It was a bit of an experience ordering because I wanted to be polite but just didn’t know how. I ended up just saying, “Quiero (I want) this and that...” I’m still working on my Spanish politeness. Sticking to the rule to get whatever is in the style of the city where you are (thanks Dad!), I had the locha cuencanos, a chowder of potatoes, hard-boiled egg, avocado, and corn in a very buttery cream sauce. For the main part of the mean, I had chicken in a mushroom and bacon brown sauce (very bacon-y, but good) which was accompanied by french fries and a salad. The salad was carrot, peas, lima beans (I think), and corn dressed with mayo (not my favorite). The french fries were really good though, and the ketchup was an experience. Salsa de tomate is sweeter in Ecuador than it is in the US, and this particular one had a bit of a tang to it. Quite good, but a little strange to my palate. I guess I’ll get used to it.
The one thing that is part of every meal in Ecuador is ají (ah-hee) sauce. I’m not really sure how its made, but it looks like yellow queso dip with green chillies. The base is butter I think, and it has tree tomatoes and cilantro in it. Its fairly tangy because of the tree tomatoes (not the same as your good ol’ Granger county tomatoes to be sure). I liked it the first time I tried it, but its not been appealing to me since then. The jury is still out on the ají.
Sorry, that aside was to say that at Punto, we were brought a gravy boat full of ají. We didn’t really use it, but it is everywhere in Ecuadorian food.
After lunch we went to do a bit of shopping. We went first to Su Kasa (as in “Mi casa es su casa” but spelled differently), a home goods store, really reminiscent of Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I think even some of the brands of sheets were the same. I bought a new pillow, but we had no luck finding a foam mattress pad. Oh well. Maybe Ecuadorians are just used to sleeping on hard mattresses.
After Su Kasa, we went to the Super Maxi, the local supermarket. Even though we were still completely stuffed from lunch, we decided to go ahead and get stuff to fix dinner. I wanted something simple, just pasta with veggies, but the pasta selection was very slim. After we came back to the Colomas’, I found Barilla pasta in the kitchen, so I know its available. Yesterday, though, I bought what I could find, and it turned out to be fairly blah pasta. I think that the basic grain in Ecuadorian cooking is rice, so its not surprising that pasta is a little bit on the fringe.
The vegetable selection here is fairly similar to what you can find in the US. The fruits on the other hand are very numerous. We had these fruits today called uvillas (translation - little grapes) which were quite tart. They looked like cherry tomatoes but orange. Very interesting. Last week, Nellie made a pie from babarco, a fruit that is shaped somewhat like a butternut squash and is bright yellow. I’m not quite sure how to describe the flavor. It was almost like a pineapple mixed with a peach. Don’t know if that helps, but its really yummy.
Another thing that I’ve eaten a lot of in Ecuador so far is queso fresco. It’s a lot like mozzarella but more mellow, I think. It may just be our host family, but it seems like people eat a lot of queso fresco here.
I guess this entry has turned into being about Ecuadorian food rather than about my weekend. On the whole, the food here has been very, very good. There are some things that I’m getting used to, like ají, but I have no doubt that I will learn to love Ecuadorian food as much as the food I miss from home.
Speaking of food I miss from home, they did have Kraft blue box Macaroni and Cheese at the supermarket. It was almost $3 a box.
As for the rest of the weekend, Slocomb and I have been mostly relaxing. We did do laundry today, which was easy because the washer is in English. There isn’t a dryer, so we had to hang everything out to dry. Line drying everything isn’t a problem, but I think that I will miss the way clothes come out of the dryer, all warm and smooth and fuzz free. But again, something I’ll get used to.
We also are in the process of downloading the fourth season of Weeds from iTunes. Not a very Ecuadorian thing, but its a lot easier to watch than television in Spanish. One of these days, I think I will try to watch TV in Spanish, but at this point I think it would make my head hurt. Being surrounded by Spanish everywhere is enough at this point without me seeking any more out.
I guess that’s all that I have for now. The food is good, the Spanish is hard, the altitude is less noticeable, and the laundry is the same. I’m not adjusted yet, but I’m getting there.