someone in canoa knows the truth

encebollados a jorge

delectable seafood stew, available everywhere in ecuador, but not advised anywhere except the coast. i tried several different stands in canoa, and jorge's was my favorite. in my broken spanish (including many thumps to the heart-region to indicate pleasure), i wheedled the recipe from jorge. i can't wait to throw a dinner party with this delicious stuff as the centerpiece!

ingredients

pescado albacora seco

cebolla

cebolla blanca

pimiento

yucca

cilantro

tomate

comino

sabora

aji peruano

aji nomoto

camarones (optional)

good luck figuring this one out. i see much trial-and-error in my future.

survivor: muisne

muisne, enchanted emerald isle of swaying palm trees, expanses of soft white sand, placid cattle in the nearby pastoral fields, and me, reclining gracefully in an ecocabin, organic cuba libre in hand .... scree! [that's the sound of a record scratching.] nope.

muisne in the low season is about 95% deserted, and included in that 5% population figure are me, tom, mama inez (proprietress of the hotel calade, the only visibly abierto establishment on the beach), her son freddy (who would not shake my hand, having just been elbow-deep in the toilet-water supply, attempting to fix the plumbing), our tricycle taxi-driver francisco, and about 40 stray dogs. o, and the cattle, all of which are suitably placid, and roaming the deserted beach. hotel calade has neither power nor water. that's ok, none of muisne has power. i've been told that a restaurant will open in about an hour; in the meantime, we have one fiberbar, nicked from whitney's apartment in quito, that tom will not eat because it is quite dry and we have only approximately 6 oz. of potable water, and no leads as yet on where to find more. sometimes the fear of hunger creates a hunger of its own.

tiny hats for woodland goblins

patrick. likes: sunsets, composting toilets, piglets, his mom. dislikes: bandaids, traffic.

il professore. likes: books, unicycles. dislikes: idiotas.

latacunga: churches + chugchucarres

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.

chiva!

chivo = goat.

chiva = open-air party bus, equipped with bumpin' speakers, DJ (plus option to plug in one's own ipod mix), whistles, blinky lights, shot-glasses on necklace-strings, stripper poles, rope-loops attached to the ceiling for tarzaning about, and an endless supply of both canalazo (local liquor, served hot and tasting sort of like mulled apple cider) and general obnoxiousness. a wonderful mix of folk. and o, grinding off the side of the chiva to pretty lights (specifically, hot like sauce), reminds me of the gorgeous sweaty mess of a show in los angeles, lo these many weeks ago. hot and dirty times, uh-huh.

happy birthday whit!! i hope that the events of this coming year make you as happy as you are in these pictures. at least.

why google voice transcripts are not as fabulous as one might hope

what google voice thinks that scott said:

Ohh. I live in services eat about leaving a message for Rebecca. Anyways, that's. Scott sick in a and I'm just calling to say what's up and down at the bar, the E N X 1 door, so give me a buzz. I can get in touch with you were Tom her cellphone. Maybe you're already all in Baja see on it. But anyways, Hey (313) 593-8433 I think.

what scott actually said:

hello? uh, hello, i don't even know, there was just a beep, i hope i'm leaving a message for rebecca. anyways, it's scottastic and i'm just calling to say what's up for the zanzibar reunion in ecuador. so, give me a buzz. i can get in touch with you or tom on your cellphone. maybe you're already all en vacationes. but anyways, hit me up. (312) 593-8433. adios.