Today was pretty dreary weather all day, lightly raining most of the day, and pouring at times.  I mostly stayed indoors and did some software development for LeapFrog.  In the evening, we went with our neighbors, William and Anne (click for their blog),to Tiestro’s for dinner.  They are leaving tomorrow, heading to Panama for a month. We have enjoyed our limited time together, and have become avid readers of their blog, giving their experiences here.

Over dinner, we discovered that they make their own wine in Chicago, and learned a lot about being in a wine-making club, with stories of their experiences over the years.  Sounds interesting enough that I may look into it when we get home.  After all, we are just an hour from Napa, so we should be able to get some decent grapes to work with.  One interesting tidbit was that they make wine twice a year. While the Fall grapes come from Napa, the Winter grapes (Jan / Feb) come from Chile.

Tiestro’s is a very high end restaurant, and the only one in Cuenca where we have had to make reservations. Good thing we did, as even at 6:30 on Tuesday night, the place was packed — mostly by locals (which we always consider a good sign).  The food here is quite expensive by Ecuador standards, but it is absolutely world-class cuisine.

They have several meals that are designed for 4 persons.  There are multiple seafood, steak and chicken choices in that group.  The waiter offered us the night’s special of Surf and Turf, which was a combination of a Langostino and Loma Fina meal for 4, and we agreed.  William took care of ordering wine — we started off with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, and ended with a bottle of Cabernet.  Both wines were quite good (though I liked the Cabernet better myself).

The condiments for the bread were so numerous, I could only sample half the choces, and they were all good. The plates of langostino and loma fina looked as good as they tasted.

The food was amazingly flavorful, and the steak was the most tender I think I have ever tasted.

The meal also came with rice, cuscus, fried potato, baked potato, vegetables and salad.

It seemed like there was too much food to eat, but it was so delicious that we polished it all off… and then shared a desert too!

This is not a fancy plate — the flower decorations are actually part of the desert…

For the 4 of us, the meal totalled $160, which included the two bottles of wine and tip. Expensive by Ecuadorian standards, but easily half what we would have paid back home for a meal half as good.

At left, Anne is taking her own photos of the meai, while William waits to pounce on the food.  At right, Anne poses with Juan Carlos, the chef.