La Comida

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I love food! However, there is definitely a love/hate relationship developing with Galapagean food. Let me explain…

The day usually starts with a pan dulce and a cup of coffee. The pan dulces are absolutely amazing. There is a bakery right down the street from our house where Norma buys the bread. The baker is Luis, a very old man, with a gold star embedded in his front tooth, and is a big flirt with every woman that walks by. If you chit chat with him for a bit, he will give you free bread. Emily and I even got a tour of the bakery, but when he tried to tell us that his name was Amador Constante (Constant Lover), we decided that even though he is a harmless old man, we should probably not stop by very often. Not to mention, that we should probably not eat that much pan dulce! The pan dulce is usually accompanied with some Casero cheese and a cup of coffee. Even though they apparently grow delicious coffee on the island, everyone drinks instant NesCafe. It was a very hard adjustment.

They have a long lunch (12:30-2:00) and it happens to be the biggest meal of the day. A typical lunch starts with a light, yet flavorful broth soup that has vegetables on a good day. The plato fuerte always has rice and some type of meat and perhaps some platanos maduros, which is like a steamed plantain banana (soooo good). Lunch is always served with fresh juice (passion fruit is the best one) or Quaker juice, which is essentially watery oatmeal (yuck).

Dinner is usually a smaller meal that varies. It usually includes more rice, some sort of meat or an egg. Something that we commonly eat is yucca pancakes (fried of course) with a fried egg. With enough aji hot sauce on top, I can usually eat 2 of the 3 yucca cakes she gives me.

In our housing contract, Norma is supposed to feed us vegetables since typically they are rarely eaten. On a good food day, we have “salad” at dinner, which consists of a few slices of cucumber, a few shreds of carrot, a couple slices of green bell pepper and one slice of apple. I have become oh so grateful for salad days because more often than not our vegetable is a potato with a side of rice! Carbs galore!

Their late night, after bar food here is called PapiPollo. Starting at around midnight, little stands along the street open up with their deep fryer in hand. For $2.25 you can order French fries and a piece of fried chicken. They also serve salchipapi, which is basically a hot dog cut up and pan fried with French fries. The fries are served with ketchup and mayo if you wish. I usually pass on the fries altogether and just go straight for the pollo. It is everything you ever wished KFC could be! Not to mention you save a dollar if you don’t get the fries!

I still need to dive into the traditional desserts more, but I have definitely eaten my fair share of ice cream here. They have amazing coconut bars that have giant chucks of real coconut! Dad, you would love them! They also have Coco cookies, which I eat way too often with a coffee. Norma, has made a couple of cakes - one for Emily’s birthday that had way too much amaretto to fully enjoy after celebrating her birthday and one that was in the shape of a pinwheel. The pinwheel one is a thin white cake, with a caramel like filling. I asked her to teach me how to make that one! The chocolate desserts are definitely lacking - I am craving a brownie right about now…

Cockalackas as my Aunt Betty would say, are VERY expensive here and there are not many options. The cheapest beverage around is called Cana and is made on Santa Cruz. It is sugarcane rum that tastes like rubbing alcohol, unless you mix it with fresh, cold coconut milk, a drink called Agua Loca. There are only three beers sold on the island, 2 are Ecuadorian (Pilsener and Club) and 1 is Corona, which goes for about $5. The Ecuadorian beers aren’t anything too exciting - one is similar to a Coors Light and the other a very weak Sierra Nevada. They also are severely lack tequila - Jose Cuervo Silver is their only option and is $45/bottle - I will pass on that! However, we have found one tasty bottle of rum that also happens to be very cheap ($8) - perfect combination. However, all beverages are better consumed on the dock, watching the pelicans and sea lions fish.

Oh, and lobster season has begun! For 6 months you can get lobster for $1/pound. And they have some huge lobsters here - most weigh about 10 pounds! Sometimes, in the mornings, at Pelican Bay, where the fishermen unload the boats, there are upwards of 50 lobsters laid out at one time. The people, along with the pelicans, blue herons, blue footed boobies, black seagulls, and sea lions stand around admiring them. The animals try their hardest to snatch a lobster or fish from the dock, but it only happens if they can evade the hose of the fisherman.

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