If I want something quick and easy, there is a Bolivan empanada shop just down the street from my apartment. Do you know what an empanda is? It’s like a little hand-held pie. It has a pastry shell with a filling inside. It is almost like a Hot Pocket or a small calzone. When I was growing up, my great-grandmother would make them all the time. Hers were usually made with a pumpkin filling. I thought they were all sweet. Now I know that you can fill them with anything, including meat. There is an Ecuadorian empanada. The outside is a flaky pastry. The ones I tried had a filling of chicken and vegetables. It was good, but I like the Bolivian ones better. The pastry isn’t flaky. The inside is a mix of meat, some vegetables and spicy gravy. They usually cost about $2.25 each.
A few other Ecuadorian specialties you might find interesting are chocolate, coffee, and guaguas de pan (baby doll breads).
Chocolate comes from cacao, which is grown here in Ecuador. I have visited Mindo several times, which is a beautiful town with several artisanal chocolate shops. They buy cacao from local farmers and process it in small batches to make the most delicious, natural chocolate bars you have ever tasted. I have been to two different chocolate stores in Mindo. One of them has a shop in Quito across from the Plaza San Franscico. It is on the second floor of an old colonial building. You press a buzzer at the front door and someone comes to let you in. You walk up to the shop where they tell you the history of chocolate, you can sample the different types of chocolates and sit looking out at the plaza. We ordered the most delicious chocolate brownie ever and watched the pigeons fly in circles in the plaza below. Quito is a magical place in that way.
