No Reservations - ECUADOR

[jaydreb]

Overall, I enjoyed this episode. Those stews that the mother-in-law made looked amazing. I could have done without the penis and the fetus soup though.

[californiabeerandpizza]

I thought it was an excellent episode. These days it seems Tony is either getting off or he's not. In Ecuador he seemed to be genuinely enthused throughout.

[Naco]

It was a good episode, although there was a pretty heavy focus on Zimmern-esque gross-out stuff, like the fetus soup and tronquito. Much more common soups/stews would be things like locro de papas and sopa de yuca. I was surprised to see llapingachos omitted, also.

[paulj]

Two thirds of the episode focused on the coast. Llapingachos are a mountain dish (mashed potato cakes with peanut sauce). That common use of peanuts in sauces came through clearly.

I don't think Andrew even made it to the coast in his episode. After spending time around Quito, he headed to the eastern jungles to eat grubs. In that sense the two episodes complement each other.

[Naco]

Right, I thought I'd added a caveat that I was just talking about the Quito/Sierra portion, but I guess I forgot.

[hudsonvalleyfoodblog]

I really didn't find any of the dishes to be gross. When described as fetus soup I agree it's unappealing but you have to imagine that situation is encountered fairly often at slaughter houses. If they didn't know the cow was pregnant what option do you have? I think using it as food is better then just throwing it away.

[paulj]

They even sell purses made from unborn calf hide.

In modern feedlots all the cattle are as young as possible, and the males are all castrated, so it is unlikely that a pregnant cow will find its way to the slaughterhouse. But the bulls and cows are not carefully segregated, and older cows find their way into the human food chain, finding a fetus is more likely.

[Naco]

You may not find it gross; the point was that a lot of times these travel shows focus on items that are strange and unusual even in that country, and "gross" to the average viewer. I don't have a problem with the ingredients at all, just pointing out that you'd be hard pressed to find that kind of thing in Quito.

[Sam Fujisaka]

Pretty much everyone who works with cows and cattle can identify pregnant females.

[hudsonvalleyfoodblog]

Fantastic episode and really taught me a lot about a country that I had never really given much consideration to. The stews had me salivating. Once again Anthony Bourdain made me want to hop on the next flight to a country that I had never considered visiting.

[RugbyMatt]

really good show, does any one know the name of the stew that the man's mother in law made, it was a seafood stew and the base broth was beer and bread, that looked really interesting and i would like to give that a try. thanks!!

[paulj]

I believe she said it was her own invention.

However I'd recommend looking at http://laylita.com/recipes/ for Ecuadorian recipes.

Here, for example, a fish 'biche'
http://laylita.com/recipes/2008/06/16/biche-de-pescado-or-fish-soup/
and the tuna encebollado
http://laylita.com/recipes/2008/03/01/encebollado-de-pescado-or-tuna-soup/
and tripe stew
http://laylita.com/recipes/2008/03/05...

[kpaxonite]

She said old bread, beer, salsa; and love!

[kpaxonite]

He redeemed the season vis a vis this episode!

[Evilbanana11]

I thought Tony hated that whole sailor shirt thing he was forced to try on in Brittany. He's wearing it proudly and willingly in Ecuador :D :D :D.