ok, this post is mostly about pork, so all you pork purists can just skip this first picture. if you don't like pork, please stop here. latacunga, two hours easy bus ride south of quito, is known for having eight gorgeous churches. just kidding. it's known for chugchucarres.
because it was sunday, everything was closed except a pizza place. but chugchucarres are too famous to miss! so guillermo and nieste, our charming host couple, piled us into their truck and cruised the streets until we found rosita.
chugchucarres is uno plato tipico in two acts. the first, above, is a plate of big, creamy-soft kernels of pale hominy, sprinkled with pork cracklins. in your mouth, the salty, fatty porkiness and the hominy's starchy creaminess meld into perfect harmony. go ahead and put some spicy aji on it, if you want another note to the symphony. [a quick note on aji, the bright sauce that accompanies every ecuadorian meal: yum. they are all different, each more delicious than the last. aji is relatively simple to make; its just a question of finding the right ingredients, i.e. tomate de arbol, aji (a type of chile), cilantro, green onion, salt and pepper.] 
the second act is mas fuerte. popcorn, tostitas (basically massive ecuadorian cornnuts), plantains, potatoes, tiny fried empanadas made with banana-batter, and chunks of juicy tender pork, slow-cooked and then fried, so that the outside is crispy-salty like the cracklins, and the inside pulls apart to curl sweetly around the tongue. 
yes, it's true; don't worry. i will be there ever.
swine is divine
ReplyDelete