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.

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.

[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.

[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.

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…

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).

[Recipe] Avocado Stuffed With Chicken Salad

Stuffed Avocado has become a favorite appetizer, and often serves as a full breakfast too

I mentioned in my email a couple days ago that I have started cooking more at home, and going out to restaurants less.  In that message I mentioned that I might start including some of my recipes in my blog.  Quite a few of you wrote back encouraging me to do exactly that, so this is the first of an occasional series.  I will always preface the title of these blogs with [Recipe], so you can easily skip over it if the subject does not interest you.  Conversely, you can search on the title or keyword of ‘recipe’ if you want to see what else I have cooked up (the first being today though).

I’d like to hear your reaction to both the topic (that is, do you want more of my recipes), and the format for the blog entry (start with finished result, then ingredients, then process). That feedback can either be in the comments section below, or via email to me.

As with many of the recipes I will post, this is done almost entirely with fresh foods — a benefit of living here in Cuenca, where a mercado is about 4 blocks away.  A couple days ago I went there to buy the ingredients for a party we were having with six people, plus some general ingredients for other meals over the next few days.  I walked out with a cloth bag I carry into the mercado, stuffed so full I could barely carry it home — which cost me a total of $8.50…

We ate at a local favorite restaurant a couple months ago (Santorino), and chose a “stuffed avocado” as an appetizer.  I liked it so much that I picked it apart and figured out how to make it myself.  After a few experiments, it is now a favorite we eat pretty much every week.

Ingredients of salad. I don’t show the uncut chicken, simply because the photograph was awful… Note that this is double the stated recipe — set for 8 portions.

The ingredients for 4 servings is:

  • 1 cup diced chicken
  • 2 tbsp mayonnaise (or more, to taste)
  • 1 small chili pepper
  • 1/4 small onion
  • 1/4 small red bell pepper
  • 1/4 small yellow bell pepper
  • 2 or 3 limes, squeezed fresh
  • 2 avocados, sliced in half with pit removed
  • pepper to taste
  • chili powder to taste

As you can see above, I usually prep each ingredient into separate bowls.  Then, as I mix them, I can judge if perhaps I want a little less of one item or another.  That will sometimes change based on the tastes of the guests (I always ask if they like it hot before making a meal for them!), or even the pungentness of the ingredients that week.

Optionally you can first saute the onions, peppers and chilies in butter before mixing.  I have been skipping that step the last few times, and find I prefer everything (except the chicken…) raw.  Sometimes I will fry some boneless, skinless chicken thighs in hot sauce and pepper for this meal.  More often though, I just use the store-bought broiled chicken that I pick up each week for snacks.  I simply rip off the breast meat, remove the skin, dice it, and it is ready to go.

Mixed ingredients, ready to pile into the waiting avocados.

Simply mix all the ingredients, saving the lime juice for last.  I tend to use more mayonnaise in Cuenca than I would in California, because it doesn’t have as much body here.  I put the rest of the ingredients into a bowl, then add mayonnaise, mix, add more mayonnaise, and mix more until I am happy with the consistency.  Next I add the pepper and chili powder, again adding, mixing, tasting, adding until I am happy.  Last comes the lime juice.  How many limes are needed will vary depending on their size and amount of juice they produce, so again — add, taste, add, taste until the result is just to your liking.

Now scoop it into the hollows of the split avocados and you are ready to go.  I usually make this a couple hours before the guests arrive, and put in the fridge.  I can then pull it out and serve, without having to be taken from the guests during preparation.  I don’t recommend leaving it in the fridge more than a couple hours though, or the avocado will start to oxidize and turn brown.

Ricaurte

Evelyn continues to spend Sunday mornings with Alberto Soriano, painting landscapes of the region around Cuenca.  It gives her a chance to get some expert guidance in her landscapes, and gives us both a chance to see the outskirts of town, always within an hour’s drive of our apartment.  Without a car ourselves, it would be difficult to explore these areas, and without a knowledgeable local like Alberto, we would likely never find these out-of-the-way side roads anyway. We spent this morning off a side road in Ricaurte.

Festival de Comedias de Un Acto

Cuenca is often called the cultural capital of Ecuador. Symphony is always free, and there are multiple free music venues every week.  Tonight saw the inauguration of a new theater group in town — The Azuay Community Theater, with their Festival of One-Act Plays (yes, I know the Spanish says ‘comedy’, but their English title did not). This is a mostly-gringo community theater group, who opened with a set of four plays, all in English.  They asked for a $5 donation, and were sold out.  Fortunately, Evelyn had the foresight to make reservations, or we would not have gotten in. 

Though this was clearly “community theater,” and not the Broadway level of productions we usually watched in California, the stories were interesting, the cast was enthusiastic, and I spent much of the evening in stitches.  In particular, the second play (“Car Talk“) included Laura Inks who played the part of cars from BMW (“stroke me, feel me, see how my leather makes you feel“), Prius (“we can save the world together“), and half a dozen other makes had me guffawing through the entire skit. In addition to performing tonight, Laura is the co-founder of Fishbon del Sur here in Cuenca, after having created a similar program in Santa Barbara (www.FISHBON.org). She also provided the space for the Azuay Community Theater to perform.

Estafania Ortiz played “The Woman” in the first play (Gnash, Gnash).  She was the only Cuencanan actor, and is also the daughter of Evelyn’s Spanish teacher — which led to another Spanish phrase being taught in Evelyn’s Spanish lesson the next day — “Es un mundo pequeño” (It’s a small world).

IRS, Chilcatotora, Baptism, Wine & Dance

This was a busy day, with us going into the country to Chilcatotora, attending a Catholic mass baptism, going to an art show, a wine tasting, and finally having guests over for dinner for two experimental dishes.

First though, we have noticed a surprising number of “closure for tax fraud” signs going up lately.  I first saw one yesterday on Chill & Grill, one of my favorite hamburger lunch spots.  In the last day, I have seen it on three other restaurants.  It appears that these are from the Ecuadorian version of the IRS (called SRi), where they have done undercover tests and then raided the stores for failure to report all taxable income.  Looks to me like they are trying to put the Fear Of God into other businesses, to reduce tax evasion, and increase tax revenues.

We started today though, with another trip into the country with Alberto Soriano.  Evelyn set up to paint another plein-air landscape. Alberto did the same, while also spending time helping Evelyn with her efforts.

As always, Evelyn gathered a group of young fans around her, including one that picked up a pencil and started to draw a portrait of her.  After awhile, I decided I had gotten all the photographs I expected to achieve, and went into an abandoned building to practice my Spanish using my Pimsleur tapes.  My stumbling Spanish brought the kids around though, and I ended up with some of the better portraits of the day.

 

While Evelyn was painting, I got a chance to see typical farm life in the Ecuadorian country.  As expected, the dogs had the easiest life, lying and sleeping in the sun.  The father cut trees for a fence, while the children all pitched in, gathering rocks and helping to set the newly cut posts.

On our way back our condo, we came across something about to happen at Iglesia de la Merced.  Waiting around a few minutes, we discovered several parents bringing out their infants from a Catholic Baptism ceremony.  One family in particular was willing to pose for us.  The email they supplied bounced, but we finally found them on facebook this morning, so copies of these photos are on their way now.

Art Dance Practice from Burt Johnson on Vimeo.

Later we went out to an announced art exhibit, and saw some young people practicing an unusual dance routine.  From there, we went on to a wine tasting event.  Did you know today was International Malbec Day?  Neither did we, but it was a great chance to taste a dozen Argentinian malbec wines!

When we got home, I experimented with a new chicken lasagna recipe for dinner, followed by a new key lime pie recipe for desert.  Both were a major success, and I am now sitting down because I can’t walk after eating that much!

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