A week of cooking

I'm a little late on writing this post..I started it a while ago but just added it now....So the week of June 22nd I spent taking cooking classes. It was nice to take a break from homework for a while, have time to explore Quito, and eat during the entire 6 hours trying everything we made. There's a lot to say in general about what we cooked and what I learned, but I'll leave that for when I return and try out some of the recipies.

But I would like to mention a little about Ecuador cuisine...they use a lot of cilantro, parsley, cumin, oninon, chilis, corn and a whole lot of bananas (they're one of the leading exporters in the world). We used these ingredients in just about everything this week combined with fish, pork or red meat. I ate so much fish during this week that I almost questioned how much I thought I liked it - yet I've confirmed that I still do. In Ecuador, you can find trout and tilapia everywhere - and it's whole. You can get it in a full meal for about $4 and its fresh because they raise it here. Nevertheless, we didn't cook with any of it during this week, but I eat a lot of it other days. We made a lot of soups this week. Unlike when I'm at home, I actually look forward to the different soups - and you add ají for more flavor (which I am def. going to make and store in my refridge to have it handy all the time), it's a chili sauce made with onions, cilantro, parsley and some other things. And the way they like corn here - (mom, you would love it) - they serve popcorn or toasted corn kernnels with ceviche and other soups. And I think I've mentioned before the 100 ways they use bananas, including this one kind that is used as a dessert and is sooo good.

A few of my favorites - a tamale, tuna with this coconut and onion sauce, and ceviche.