Well, after the indignant comments we got about eating guinea pigs, this is to show that we also eat and drink non-controversial things.
Today I went to the local market with an Aussie sister who has been visiting our congregation for the last 4 months or so. She hadn’t really had a good look at this particular market, so we wandered around most of it.
Amongst all the fruit and veg etc for sale, you can also buy the ingredients for a rather lovely hot pink tea that they drink here in Ecuador, called “Horchata”. Hollie had tried the dried version of it (you can buy it in tea bags at the supermarkets, and also dried in a packet), but when she saw the fresh version of it, she cried, “how pretty”, and decided that we should buy some and make fresh Horchata. It’s made up of flowers and various herbs, such as carnations, basil, mint, lemon verbena, horsetail, chamomile and other things, and costs 50 cents for a bunch that would make around 10-20 litres of tea.
Horchata tea bags
It is pretty, isn’t it?
You have to wash it thoroughly, then add it to a pot of boiling water for a couple of minutes, then lift out all the bits that look like plants and strain the liquid. Add sugar to taste, and lemon juice. Yum! How can you go wrong with a hot, sweet, pink drink?
Hollie making tea
The horchata ingredients after being boiled
The finished product
(you can get a stronger pink colour by adding more horse-tail. The lemon most commonly used here in Ecuador is green, not yellow, as seen above)
We also bought some funny pink-speckled things that look like a cross between a mutant bean and a weird potato. They are actually a variety of potato, but unfortunately taste rather like dirt. Even when boiled then fried with some thyme and garlic, they still had a somewhat earthy flavour. (In the top right hand corner of the second photo, you can just about see them. They are in a clear plastic bag. They cost 25 cents. Dirt cheap.)
Then to top it all off, we made pan de yucca, or yucca (arrowroot) bread. You can buy pan de yucca here at little shops that also sell yoghurt smoothies (yum!). We found a recipe on the internet and decided to give it a go. The results were not as good as the ones we had bought, but we shall tweak the recipe for next time, and hopefully with practice, we’ll get something pretty yummy.
The pan de yucca should be nice and smooth, like little balls
Recently, we were with an Ecuadorian sister from our congregation, and we were talking about various foods one would or would not eat, such as tripe, goat, intestines, guinea pig (all eaten here in Ecuador), and she either had eaten them or was willing to try them. Then we got talking about Australian animals and how cute some of them were, and Brendan showed her a picture of an echidna. Did our sweet, gentle Ecuadorian sister ask, “can I pat it?” or “can I have one for a pet?” No, the first question out of her mouth was, “can I eat it?!”
