Delicious Ecuador & Economical…

Maze beans & pork = Tostados.

Delicious snack for $0.50 USD. Wonderful mix of maze fried beans with fried pork. I love it.  You can find this traditional snack almost in every corner in any town.

Vegetarian chilli…
We shared this dish with Kai and Annette therefore it can only be made with veggies since they are vegetarians. The cost for this dish was $4.85/4 people and we had leftovers for another dish the next day: Chilli over pasta.

Ingredients:
2 Cans of beans: red and black
1 Can of tomato sauce
Carrots
Potatoes
Celery
Tomatoes
Garlic
Onion
Olive oil
Oregano
Seasoning salt


Preparation:
1) Cut all vegetables in small pieces.
2) In a pan fry the garlic, onions and celery with olive oil.
3) Add the potatoes and carrots and fry until they are well cooked.
4) Add the beans, tomatoes and tomato sauce.
5) Season with seasoning salt and oregano. Let it cook for a while, perhaps 15 more minutes.
6) Serve…
7) Enjoy!!!

Humita and coffee.
Humita is like a sweet tamal made out of corn with corn leaves. Delicious snack or meal for $0.50 USD in a restaurant. With a coffee $1.5 USD.

Bizcocho.
Famous bizcocho, we finally tried it. It is kind of like bread, sweet and light. We had a coffee and a bizcocho for $1 USD. In the same place we bought a big cheese for $1.75 USD; although the husband wanted to sell it to us, not to anybody else, for $2 USD. It is always the same situation, as soon as the sellers see Brian they think we collect money when it rains…

Tequila from Nabón.
I don’t know how much a bottle like this would cost because it was a gift from Fabian, “El Mocho”. It is quite strong liquor called Pulcre and believe it or not it saved us when we were trying to cook and we ran out of fuel. We used part of it as fuel for our cooking stove.

A full meal.
In Vilcabamba we had a full meal for $2 USD with chicken, $3 USD with pork or fish. We shared one dish and it was enough for both of us. This meal comes with soup, salad and a main course plus a drink. Hard to believe but it is real. Our favourite restaurant in this town is called “La Esquina”. Delicious food!!!

More of Ecuador.

HABAS, healthy snack.
This is a really tasty and healthy snack for the road, whether you are walking or in “La Ruta” somewhere. It only costs $1.86 USD for a 250 grams package. These roasted habas which are basically roasted broad beans are considered a legume.

HOT SAUCE.
$0.67 USD for a bottle of 110 ml. Delicious hot sauce from Ecuador, a little bit addictive perhaps because it contains MSG. It goes excellent on chips but you can put it on anything. I love it!!!

Taxos.
$0.41 USD for 3 of them (about 250 grams). It is a delicious fruit full of vitamins A, B and C. It is native to the Andes and it is cultivated at an altitude between 1800-3500 metres.

Babaco.
This looks like a papaya but it is not. It is a small, unbranched or sparsely branched tree reaching 5–8 m tall. The fruit differs from the related papaya in being narrower, typically less than 10 cm in diameter. The babaco fruit is seedless and the smooth skin can be eaten, and is said to have a tastes of strawberry, papaya, kiwi and pineapple. The fruit is pentagonal in shape, therefore giving it the scientific name of Carica pentagona.
I personally enjoyed it, it is quite refreshing!!!

Empanadas.
Yes, more empanadas. They are usually very inexpensive and great. In Ecuador you can get an empanada for $0.30 USD with chicken, cheese or cooked plantains… Delicious!!!

ECUADOR, exciting!!! bananas…

We found the best pineapple in Costa Rica and the best bananas in Ecuador, different kinds and very economical, you can buy an entire bunch of bananas for 25 cents of an American dollar; hard to believe but true.

Shenandoah Pie Shop.

Being sick requires some medication and a sweet pie my doctor may say… This small coffee shop has amazing pies, perhaps I would not ride for 45,000 kilometres to get one but I would for sure ride 1000 kilometres. They have all kinds of pies from blueberries (meriños are called in Ecuador), strawberries, chocolate to new weird species for us like babaco which looks like papaya but it is not.

Prices are quite reasonable for something that we cannot always cook ourselves in this journey: $1.5 USD for a big piece.

The owner recently opened another shop in Quito and we may stop by to ensure my cold is gone.

Strawberry pie.

The owner, Brian and Deya.

Chocolate pie.

Mercado 24 de Mayo.
In this market you can find anything you need from fresh juice to vegetables/fruits and prepared food.

We started our visit through the market with a fresh juice made out of sweet grass, carrots and oranges for $1 USD. Again this is something we cannot really prepare ourselves and although fresh fruit is better than fresh juice, juice is enjoyable.

Brian had a plato mixto which includes salad, baked pork meat with small organs (which I don’t like), Ecuadorian tortillas (they look more like a perogie) and sausages (with herbs and veggies). The dish costs $2 USD.

I had a simpler dish for $1 USD which included: spaghetti, rice, potatoes, carrots, lettuce and one fried egg. Perhaps not the healthiest but for sure traditional.

Beef ribs.
Beef is not the kind of meat I prefer but this time we found a deal on beef ribs and we got them. The cost of the dish does not go over $5 dollars and we had leftovers for the next day.

Ingredients:
Beef ribs
Olive oil
Margarine
Seasoning salt
Oregano
BBQ sauce
Garlic
Onion
Rocoto (spicy pepper)
Romanesca (type of broccoli)
Pasta

Preparation:
1) Cook the pasta al dente along with romanesca.
2) In a pan add oil and margarine to fry the garlic along with the beef ribs, ensuring that the meat gets cover with this mix constantly. Add a little bit of seasoning salt.
3) Fry onions with rocoto and once pasta and romanesca are ready place everything in the same frying pan.
4) Serve pasta with meat and BBQ sauce in the side.
5) We had an avocado so we ate it, also beer!!!
6) Enjoy!!!

Made in Ecuador, $1.35 USD/bottle (600 ml)

Brian’s arepas.
The best arepas I have had. We had leftovers of corn flour from Colombia and we don’t throw anything away, we eat it.
So, Brian was in charged and he decided to make some arepas. How? Simple: mix the flour with water, make a little ball and flatten it to make a little arepa (kind of like a tortilla). Place the arepa in a pan previously coated with margarine so it does not stick to the pan, wait until it cooks in one side then cook the other side (you will see a slight change of colour). We enjoyed them with a little bit of butter on top and with a plate of cooked beans which by the way it took five hours to cook them. This is the problem with beans, if you do not know the type of beans you are buying you can end up with stones.

Anyway, this meal was very economical and I can’t really tell how much because we used leftovers from other recipes.
The beans were not really tasty but the arepas were. The recipe to boil beans is easy:
-Let the beans soak for a while, perhaps all night.
-Boil them. If you needed to add more water make sure this is warm and not cold.
-Add onion and garlic.
-Once they are cooked, add a little bit of salt.

Spaghetti Thai.
Shouldn’t it be rice? Correct, it should be rice but we have struggled with what we should carry: variety of products or practical items? Right answer: practicality takes one further.
For this recipe we had spaghetti so we used it. Leftovers were even better…

Ingredients:
Chicken
Garlic
Onion
Parsnips (my new favourite item)
Rocoto (spicy pepper)
Romanesca (type of broccoli)
Pasta
Coconut milk
Thai curry paste
Margarine
Salt

Preparation:
1) Cook the pasta al dente along with romanesca and parsnips.
2) Cook the chicken in water and once cooked save the soup for another dish.
3) Fry with margarine the diced onions, rocoto and garlic. Add coconut milk and Thai curry paste to taste, a little bit of salt if you may wish.
4) Once the chicken, romanesca and parsnips are ready, add them to the milky mix. Let it cook a bit more.
5) Once ready serve on top of pasta and enjoy along with a beer or tea…

COLOMBIA-4th. Part.

Chorizo con arepa.
This tasty sausage can be enjoyed with an arepa for a reasonable price: $2500 Colombian pesos.

Poker beer.
A new beer we tasted, not amazing but ok, for $2000 Colombia pesos.

Obleas.
A sweet thing… it is a little snack, similar to a wafer but flat with some ingredients inside: different flavours of marmalades, sweet milk, coconut, cheese… For $1500 Colombian pesos.

My favourite… Mostaneza.
Thanks Diego for introducing me to Mostaneza, a mix of mayonnaise and mustard, delicious for a sandwich or anything you may come up with. A bag of this with 200 grams of product costs around $2630 Colombian pesos… not bad eh!

COLOMBIA-3rd. Part.

Más empanadas.
I love empanadas in Colombia; they sell like tacos in Mexico. We found few other places where we can get empanadas for a great price.

-Little empanadas: $200 Colombian pesos each.
Miniature empanadas filled with potatoes, the ladies sell them at home…

-Delicias de la Mona.
Another place around the hostel where we stayed. Prices are great, taste is great: $1000 Colombian pesos each. The empanadas are filled with meat and potatoes.

-Deya’s
We decided to make empanadas. Cost $6699 Colombian pesos for 8 empanadas just with potatoes and 8 Mexican picaditas. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
Corn flour
Mashed potatoes
Fried beans
Oil
Cheese
Avocado
Salsa (made with aji, tomatoes, onion)
Salt

Preparation:
1) Prepare the dough (masa) as per instructions in the corn flour package. Prepare the mashed potatoes the way you like it. Prepare the fried beans, from a can or the long way. I chose the long way but the beans I bought were not very good.
2) Make a tick tortilla (Mexican technique), place the mashed potatoes in this tortilla and fold it to make the empanada shape. -Mexican technique consists of two round plastics to place the dough in between, with one hand you will turn the plastic around and with the palm of the other hand you will hit the dough trying to flatten it until it becomes a tortilla.-
3) Place the empanada in a pan with oil.
4) Once cooked (you will see the colour changing), let it cool to drip the excess of oil.
5) Add on top hot sauce and cheese. In Colombia we were able to find something similar to jalapenos, the peppers are called “aji”.
6) Do the same thing for the picaditas, make a tick tortilla but this time cook the tortilla in a pan without oil. Once done make little pinches around and in the middle.
7) Add the fried beans, salsa, cheese and avocado.
8) Enjoy!!! This is not Colombian but I wanted to have a little taste of Mexico…

Annette’s salad (BIO-LADEN) and Diego’s steak.
This was absolutely fantastic… Diego prepared some pork chops and beef sausages, I cannot tell you the price because I did not cook. Annette surprised us with a lovely salad that I never tasted before.
It is worth mentioning that in Colombia you can find anything in small packages, for example the BBQ sauce is found in a plastic bag with a proper lid that allows for friendly transportation; remember on the bikes we cannot carry a lot and whatever we carry needs to take the road conditions, therefore glass is not friendly…

BIO-LADEN SALAD.
Ingredients:
Salad dressing.
Glass tin: olives and juice of it
Glass tin: pepinillos in vinegar (with sugar) and juice of it
Glass tin: red small onions and juice of it
Fresh orange juice
Fresh lime juice
Salt
Pepper
Package (powder): Knorr (brand) Salatkrönung (name of product) Dill (flavour)

Salad ingredients (all fresh).
Avocado
Dill
Cilantro
Ginger
Mushrooms
Carrot
Broccoli
Parsnip
Celery stalks with its green
Sweet red pepper (rote Paprika)
Cucumber
Tomatoes
Chinese cabbage
Laitue d’hiver

Preparation:
1) Mix the ingredients for the salad dressing.
2) Cut and mix all ingredients for the salad, add the dressing and serve.


Diegos’s steak.
Ingredients:
Pork chops
Beef sausage
BBQ sauce
Olive oil
Seasoning salt
Soya sauce
Garlic

Preparation:
1) Marinate the meat with the following mix: BBQ sauce+olive oil+seasoning salt+soya sauce+garlic.
2) Cook the meat in the oven if your experience is like ours, the BBQ (grill) did not work.
3) Serve with Annette’s salad.

Pizza with a stick.
A fighting/exercising stick was what we used to make the base of the pizza. Pizza was really tasty and we had two meals out of it. A year ago this would have lasted only for one meal but now we have learned to save some for the future…

Ingredients:
Dough-
3 ½ Cups of flour
1 ½ Cups of water
2 Tbsp. Olive oil
2 Tsp. Salt
1 Tsp. Sugar
Fresh oregano
Vinegar

The rest-
Tomato paste
Sausage
Cheese
Tomatoes
Onion
Garlic
Zucchini
Red bell pepper
Aji
Salt


Preparation:
1) Easy… prepare the dough as per instructed.
2) Add the tomato sauce and on top the sliced vegetables and meat. I like to put the meat in the bottom, followed by the vegetables then the cheese and at the end the garlic so it can roast nicely. You can add a bit of salt on top if you feel the need but realistically the tomato paste already has some salt.
3) Put in the oven for about 20 minutes at a reasonable temperature, I really don’t know what temperature we used because there are no marks in the oven at the hostel.
4) Let it cool and enjoy with some wine or beer.

Meat & Potatoes, actually Parsnips.
We cooked this dish to celebrate our exit from the hostel but we actually did not leave as we supposed to. We were about to leave Hostal Medellin when Leslie, one of the folks at the hostel, noticed a problem with my bike (my forks were leaking oil). We had to stay and fix the problem but had a fantastic time and a great meal. I have to say that parsnips were another discovery for me. Thanks Leslie for noticing the problem in my bike but also for introducing me to parsnips.

Ingredients:
Beef steak
Seasoned chicken wings
Garlic
Olive oil
Butter
Soya sauce
Seasoning salt
Salt
Parsnips
Potatoes
Onions
Zucchini
Guacamole made with aji
Broccoli

Preparation:
1) The beef steaks get seasoned with garlic, olive oil, soya sauce and seasoning salt.
2) Vegetables are seasoned with olive oil, butter and seasoning salt. Except for broccoli which is done al dente.
3) The steaks are fried; the veggies as well as the chicken wings go into the oven.
4) When everything is ready we served with guacamole (easy original Mexican way but instead of Jalapenos use Aji while in Colombia. Onion+Cilantro+Avocados+Aji+A bit of salt).
5) Enjoy!!!

Buñuelos.
These are a kind of bread and cost $1000 Colombian pesos each…
In Mexico buñuelos are shaped differently, they are long and thin, almost like a tortilla but sweet.
Colombian buñuelos are delicious and greasy at the same time. Thanks Luciano for sharing this with us…

Bandeja Paisa.
People from Antioquia (departamento/state/province of Colombia) are called paisas. Bandeja paisa is the traditional dish from this departamento, prices range from $5000-$12000 Colombian pesos depending on the ingredients.
The one we had, compliments of BMW Medellin “Ruta 40” was delicious. It came with Cargamato beans, chicharron (fried pork skin), plantains, corn, potatoes and avocado. Delicious!!!
Thanks BMW Team, we got excellent service and excellent food…

COLOMBIA-2nd. Part.

We are still in Colombia, enjoying the food and trying to be safe on the roads… DANGEROUS DRIVERS…


Genovesa cake in Pailitas Cesar.
Great piece of cake to deal with the stress… dealing with traffic in Colombia is either going to make us fat or thin… Just kidding.
I asked the employee at the bakery what item was the best or favourite and she said “Genovesa” but did not know what was in it… so we tried and it was wonderful. The baker came out later to let us know it was made with three different types of milk and that he could give us the recipe...

Papas rellenas.
This was fantastic. Brigida, the owner of this little street stand in Pailitas Cesar cooks excellent potatoes filled with rice, eggs, chicken and ground beef. A very reasonable price: $700 Colombian pesos.
She also offers Arepas de maiz (Corn Arepas) but filled with chicken or beef. Price: $1500 Colombian pesos/each. You can add the Colombian version of pico de gallo to your arepa; this is a salsa made out of tomatoes and onions with a little bit of vinegar, not spicy at all but tasty.
One papa rellena or one arepa is enough to calm your hunger.

"Papas rellenas"

"Arepa con pollo"

Thanks Brigida...

Salpicon.
This is so far the BEST thing we discover in Colombia, I love it. This is a fruit salad (normally bananas, pineapple, papaya and apples) with orange juice and sometimes cola or ice cream. Fruit is finely chopped and mix in a glass with the ingredients I mentioned. The price is $1500 Colombian pesos for a simple one, if you add ice cream then it costs $3000 Colombian pesos and so far the best one of this type we had was in San Gil, a beautiful town. At first I was afraid of trying this because it looked like it had water and water to me in warm climates means trouble but now I try every time our budget allows.
Salpicon is AWESOME!!!

"Simple salpicon"

"Salpicon with ice cream"

Tinto.
Wine? Absolutely not… In Colombia American coffee is known as Tinto. Coffee is great here, when they don’t add sugar to it… ahrrr…
You can find a coffee shot for $200 Colombian pesos on the street. People who sell this fantastic deal also offer cigarettes.

THE BEST MARKET EXPERIENCE EVER.
Jota was right. San Gil has a great market; people seem to be proud of what they do there. The market has different levels and meat is separated from vegetables, fruits and others, I love this because we don’t have to smell death.
I was really impressed with this market and happy to find few new things.

Pitahaya-$3000 Colombian pesos/lb. A pitahaya is the fruit of several cactus species, most importantly of the genus Hylocereus (sweet pitayas). These fruits are commonly known as dragon fruit. Other vernacular names are strawberry pear or nanettikafruit.

Annona-$1000 Colombian pesos/lb. – Annona or sugar-apple in English, has super-sweet white flesh inside. It’s closely related to the chirimoya. Annona is high in annonacin and may increase risk of Parkinson’s.
I personally did not enjoy it so much but I can see the potential, perhaps making juice out of it will be better.

Madroño- $1000 Colombian pesos/lb. Fruit resembles a bumpy lemon, with an interior like lemony cotton candy. Yellow, sometimes spotty fruit with a white-translucent pulp having an aromatic, acidic flavour. Country of origin: Costa Rica and Peru, so not sure if this was cultivated in Colombia but it does taste great.

Spicy tamales Colombianos-$2000/each. Believe it or not they were spicy, although Colombians do not typically eat spicy food. I was impressed… Brian and I had one for both or I may say I had a little bit of it… One of the best things of this tamal is the combination of corn mass and chickpeas in addition to pork meat.

Carne Oreada.
This typical meat is fantastic. It is some sort of beef jerky but in Santander (a State=Departamento of Colombia) they use beef or goat. The meat is seasoned, smoked with Arrayan tree and placed under the sun to dry with time and wind, it tastes AWESOME. Jota’s dad invited us for some of this meat with arepas de maiz.

Guarapo.
This is the typical drink that farmers will bring to work, so watch out in the streets of Colombia…
Guarapo is made from various fruits kept in a large ceramic jar and left to ferment for about 2 months. Within that time, panela (sugar) is added into the liquid to makes the alcohol stronger. Grapes and pineapple are typically used.
Worth to mention, by 10 am you can see tables full of alcoholic drinks… and by 4 pm farmers have had a gallon of guarapo.

The glass is full of "guarapo"

Bandeja Santanderiana.
In the State (Departamento) of Santander you will find wonderful things, from roads with NOT MANY VEHICLES to awesome food. This is one more example of a full meal that can be shared by two people.
This includes a soup of beef kidneys, pieces of leaver and hearts; it is called Sopa de picado. I did not particularly like it but Brian enjoyed it. After the soup you get a plate with meat, beans, rice, potatoes, yuca and salad.
All this for $7000 Colombian pesos, including coffee… it was actually too much for the both of us. It is possible that our stomachs are getting smaller…

Memories.
This is what we used to do in Vancouver, sit and have something before groceries shopping; sometimes a sandwich sometimes a sweet piece of cake.
This time we got a piece of chocolate cake with coffee for $6000 Colombian pesos, not cheap but necessary to reach happiness.

Crepes & Waffles.
Diego, our friend in Medellin told us about a place to have dinner, simple and economical. We visited Crepes & Waffles and I have to say he was right…
Good portions, good environment, good prices… good food!!!
We had some crepes: Pollo Curry Hindu ($14200 Colombian pesos) and Pollo Trufa Mexicana ($15700 Colombian pesos). Diego had a Mediterranean salad ($20500 Colombian pesos).
By the way, none of the food was actually spicy… but they tried.

Diego trying to smile...

You should see Brian's plate after... absolutely nothing left...

I love avocados...

On the top: thin slices of fried onions...