TRADITIONAL COOKWARE and cooking

Introduction

Ecuador has a wide range of traditional cooking; hence cookware varies from region to region. In the coast the main source of food is fish, seafood and plantain. In the highlands is pork and potatoes and in the Amazon fist and mammals. Certain beetle larva is eaten as a delicatessen by the locals: known as “chontacurros”; snails, beetles and tarantula spiders (Hoaorani).

Cookware includes the famous piala, clay pottery, wooden spoons and forks, wooden chopping boards, baskets and trays. Also some articles made of stone like mortars and meat pressers. In some communities meals are cooked inside banana leaves in hot coal.

Ecuadorian cooking is famous for enhancing the natural taste of food, species are widely use specially pepper, cumin, coriander, parsley, garlic, “achiote”, and more; most seasoning in done with salt and lemon.

One of the main sauces used is chili sauce, “picante” or “aji” always served in a small clay container. The aji is eaten with most food; Ecuadorians have a taste for hot and spicy.

There are over 10 types of corn and 12 types of beans in Ecuador . All used in traditional cooking and accompanied by potatoes or plantain and meat, chicken or fish. There are a tremendous variety of vegetables available and tropical fruit juices.