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For A Plate of Lentils

Mágico Herrera performs at Apu Teatro

I have said before that there is always something to do in Cuenca. We heard about a new theater opening around the corner that was going to open with a puppet show tonight.  We figured it would be a piece of interesting local color.  We were rather surprised from start to finish…

The posting we read said that there would be shows at 3:00, 5:00 and 7:00.  We decided to go to the middle show with a couple of friends, so met there a few minutes before 5:00.  hmmm…? The was a sign on a door that said “Teatro 7:PM”  (yes, that is the way it gave the time ☺).  We waited around, wondering if that was the right place, when someone walked up and went in.  Before he entered though, we had a simple conversation in Spanish with him, asking about the show.  “Si, esta noche a las sieta”  (“Yes, tonight at 7:00”) he told us, before saying “Hope you enjoy the show. See you in a bit. I brought hummus”  (in perfect English…).

We decided to have dinner before the now-delayed show, and came back a few minutes before 7:00.  As happens frequently (but not predictably) in Ecuador, the show time given was actually when the doors opened.  We were the only people waiting, so we figured they would have a pretty empty house.  The owner led us upstairs to the third floor, where we were asked to remove our shoes, and told (in fairly good English) that the show would wait a bit until others arrived.

About 10 minutes later eight other people showed up, including one toddler on a father’s knee and another infant at his mother’s breast.  We were then led into the theater — which had exactly six seats! The theater was a very small converted bedroom.  The owner scrambled to take some seat cushions from the waiting room, and we ended up with an extra row seated on the floor.

The owner went around under the small table, and next thing we know he is playing with a tiny (about 5″, or 12cm tall) rag doll, and we realize that the puppet show has just begun. He was the only puppeteer in the show, playing with rough homemade puppets, in a show titled “for a plate of lentils” about farming, death and (I think?) reincarnation.  His assistant came in a couple times to help move the table (during the puppet’s earthquake and later healing of the earth). The show was language-agnostic, since the only audio was a music background and a trilling sound the puppeteer made with the smaller puppets.

At the end of the show, the owner spoke very rapidly in Spanish, where I was not able to understand very much beyond his saying the show would be repeated multiple nights and that we should let our friends know about the “fantastico” show.  He then personally named and thanked everyone in the audience except the four of us — apparently everyone else there were friends of theirs.

I am glad we went and saw this bit of local color at least once.  Not entirely sure I will be going to future puppet shows here though…

 

Cuenca Puppet Show from Burt Johnson on Vimeo.

 

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Belly Dancing in Cuenca

Dance Performance at Colegio Santa Mariana de Jesus

Every so often, we used to go to High School plays in California. They were a nice change from the polished Broadway shows we usually saw, and was a reminder of High School when I had several friends in the theater club, and used to help them learn their lines (I was a nerd before the word was invented ☺, and wasn’t in theater myself).

Tonight we were invited to go to a High School dance performance.  We weren’t quite sure what to expect, other than that the daughter of Evelyn’s art instructors would be performing.  Upon entering the school, we discovered that the performance was in the gym — which was outdoors.  The school has a ring of classrooms around an open center courtyard, which is outfitted with basketball hoops and was used as a dance stage tonight.  It has been raining almost every evening for the past few weeks, but the students had luck on their side, since this was the only clear night in awhile.

The school covers grades 7 through 12, and each student in this girl’s school was part of some dance group.  As the night progressed, the quality of the dances improved, with Silvana Soriano (the friend we had come to see) up last with a belly dancing routine.  She is seen in the top two images of this photo montage in the blue dress.  While they danced, the younger students formed a ring to keep people from coming onto the field.  After the last dance performance, about 40 gymnasts of all grades gave a rather impressive demonstration of their skills too.

After all dance and gymnast performances were complete, attention moved to the stage, where the Queen of each grade was introduced and crowned.  Being a girl’s only school, there were no Kings…

Silvana Dance from Burt Johnson on Vimeo.

Here is a brief clip from Silvana’s dance.  If you want to see her entire performance, you can see it here.

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Granda Era Has Passed

Incoming mayor Marcelo Cabrera greets the audience, kissing babies while protesters hold up banners

Mayor Paul Granda left office today, as the new mayor Marcelo Cabrera was sworn in during a ceremony in Parque Calduron tonight.

Two brass bands competed on the square — neither was very good…

About a dozen protesters walked around peacefully with banners


 

The audience mostly patiently waited for the fireworks to start

Finally one young man lit a cigarette and approached the castles


The cigarette was used to light the castles and fireworks, and the real show began!

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[Recipe] Key Lime Pie

A couple days ago I posted my recipe for a graham cracker crust (using honey bran cookies).  This key lime pie is what I use that crust for.

My sister-in-law (Pauline) gave me a “4 ingredient cookbook” as a joke gift for Christmas 2002. Never having successfully done more than boil water before then, I laughed and promised to make whatever recipe was found where I randomly opened the book and pointed with my eyes closed.  Key Lime Pie turned out to be my very first successful recipe as a result of that evening.  The making of that pie had several humorous points, such as when I tried to figure out how to separate the egg yolk from the white (that recipe just wanted the yolk), and the mess that resulted from my inserting a hand electric mixer into the ingredients when turned on full speed… ☺

Fast forward 12 years, and I am now the sole dinner cook in the house — Evelyn still makes breakfasts, we switch off for lunch, but dinner is now my domain.  She cooked for the first 30 years, and she (we??) agreed that I would cook for the next 30, so I guess I still have a few years to work out new recipes.

All of which is to say that Key Lime Pie is one of the simplest recipes around, yet is almost always loved as a desert.

As with that first recipe I made back in 2002, there are only four ingredients needed:

  • 20 oz Condensed Milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 or 5 limes (depending on size and amount of juice in each)
  • graham cracker crust (preferably freshly made, but store-bought will work)

Place the eggs and condensed milk in a bowl. Add the squeezed lime (about 1/2 cup juice).  Mix well. Pour into the pie shell.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, then place in fridge for 2 hours.  Best if served within 24 hours of baking (I usually serve within 2 to 4 hours of baking for best flavor).

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Birthday Party, Ecuadorian Style

Adrian plays the charango, while Marcos plays guitar

We were invited by an Ecuadorian family to join a combined birthday party tonight.  Three members of the family (Gloria, Adrian and Stephanie) have birthdays in May, as does Evelyn, so they decided on one combined party for everyone. 

Charango from Burt Johnson on Vimeo.

 

Let It Be from Burt Johnson on Vimeo.

The entire family loves music, and the bulk of the night was spent listening to various stringed instruments, and several sing-alongs.  Most of the vocals were in Spanish, but they had pity on the two of us (with our limited Spanish) and sung a few Beatles songs in English too.  Of course, we were obliged to add our dulcet (NOT!) tones to those songs. ☺

A massive Ecuadorian meal assured that nobody went hungry!

Of course, kids were everywhere, and they seemed to have a good time too.

Stephanie was one of the Guests of Honor, celebrating turning 19.

Part way into the evening, the power went out.  Everything continued under candle light.

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El Verde

Another of our weekly trips into the countryside brought us to ‘el Verde‘ today.  From our apartment, Alberto drove us to Turi, a famous hilltop overlooking Cuenca, then down the other side. We drove a few miles more until we came upon a promising landscape view in this tiny village.

While Evelyn and Alberto painted the scenery, I wandered the surrounding area for awhile.  This place is remote, and few of the locals have cars, so farmers drive up and down the single dirt road with loudspeakers blaring what they have to sell.  One product per truck.  Above you can see one truck loaded with very green bananas. He went by twice, each time with one woman flagging him down to buy a box full of the fruit.  Another truck blared that he was selling potatoes for $10 / box, though I never saw anyone flag him down.  Two other trucks had loudspeakers, but I couldn’t understand what they were selling.

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[Recipe] Graham Cracker Crust

It is not possible to purchase pre-made graham cracker crusts in Ecuador, which leads us to learn how to make our own.  In the process, I discovered that mine taste one heck of a lot better than those store-bought ones, so I am glad to have been forced into this.

Since graham crackers are unknown here, we use honey bran cookies instead.  A friend suggested belVita brand, and they work very well, though it is likely that other brands would also work.  The list of ingredients is pretty short:

  • Graham cracker or Honey bran cookies — 8 to 10 of them, totalling around 2 cups crushed
  • 1/3 cup white sugar
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 10+ tsp melted butter

You can put the crackers into a zip lock bag and use a rolling pin, or (for smoother and finer texture) use a food blender.  If using a blender, mix the full cookies, cinnamon and sugar and mix until smooth.  If using a roller pin, crush the crackers first, then transfer to a bowl and mix in the cinnamon and sugar.

Once that is mixed, add the melted butter and mix completely.  The resulting mix should hold a rough ball shape when compressed.  If not, then add more butter or water (only a tablespoon of water at a time until it is the right consistency — you don’t want it too wet).

Press into the pie mold, flattening the bottom and up the sides.

If your pie recipe wants a cooked crust, then bake at 350 deg for 10 minutes.  Do not overcook, or it will dry out and taste like cardboard.

If your pie calls for an uncooked shell (such as the Key Lime pie recipe coming next to the blog), then chill in the fridge for one hour before adding pie filling.

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[Recipe] Fall-Off-The-Bone Ribs

This recipe is almost cheating.  I hesitated to even list it, but these ribs have become a favorite around here, so I thought it only fair to share my secret.

I start with the San Luis cut of pork ribs from the La Italiana deli on Solano Ave. These really do seem to be the best ribs in town, and several other friends that like to BBQ ribs say they use the same starting package.

I then use whatever BBQ sauce I want to try — the Hunts Hickory sauce seems pretty good. Coil the ribs into a crown in a pressure cooker, and empty a bottle of the sauce over it.

Close, set the pressure cooker for 50 minutes, and go enjoy your guests while it cooks.

Really, there isn’t anything more to it than that.  The simplest recipe I have found, the results are very repeatable, and produce the best ribs I have been able to make for years.

In case you missed the “Cooking Made Easy” blog post, this is the pressure cooker I use.  Electric and fully automatic. Just set the time you want to cook (50 minutes in this case), and it goes to work, turning itself to ‘warm’ after the assigned time.

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Police Car Celebration

I have mentioned several times that Ecuadorians find any excuse to celebrate, and that I always carry a camera with me because I never know when I will stumble upon another parade or party.

Well, how about celebrating the police getting some new cars?  Yep, that’s enough reason for a celebration around here!  Evelyn and I were walking to ETAPA to take care of some bills (I’m still deciding if I will even gnash my teeth in public over the lunacy of that government-owned company… ☹), and found several streets leading to Parque Calderon blocked off.  We saw a stage being set up, and thought we might come by later to see what was going on.

On our way back, we found the police brass and some politicos congratulating themselves on getting new cars, which would reduce the crime rate in Cuenca (my limited Spanish picked up that much). 

I found it interesting that all the men officers were in a group with chairs, while the only four women officers were separated and forced to stand during the entire litany of speeches…

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Human Pin Cushion

Image credit https://vimeo.com/71511269

I have been an engineer my entire adult life, pretty much only believing in medicine that has undergone rigorous validation, and trusting only doctors that have had formal Western medical training.

Six months ago I broke my ankle in three places and had a whole bunch of metal put in my foot to stabilize it.  Though the doctors tell me that my bones have healed well, my foot continues to be swollen and becomes painful if I walk over uneven ground (twisting the ankle) or walk more than 3 or 4 miles in a day.  Friends have told me how acupuncture helped them, so I finally decided I had very little to lose, and gave it a try myself.

It was a bit strange talking to the doctor while he was doodling on his pad.  Only after a few minutes did I realize he was actually writing in Chinese… ☺

After examining my foot, he confirmed that the bone was doing fine.  He explained though, that I had also broken the tendons and cartilage and those take longer to heal, particularly (… wait for it…) at my age… (a phrase I have come to detest…!)

My foot was particularly swollen that day, as I had run (walked…) several errands in the afternoon before seeing him.  He proceeded to stick 4 pins in my foot — the anticipation of the pin-prick was worse than the actual needle, and left me to listen to Italian Western music (I kid you not!) for the next half hour.  When he pulled the needles out, my foot looked downright emaciated.  All the swelling was completely gone — it was now smaller than my ‘good foot.’

I have been to five sessions so far.  I am not ready to declare this a complete cure, since each session seems to provide relief for only a couple days.  The doctor says another 3 or 4 should be sufficient though, and I am finally able to go several days at a time without taking any ibuprofen (aka Advil).

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