Panaderia Canadiense

MM, what is that erupting out of the tart? Candied lemon peels?

If this is the case, then what have you chosen for Peru? I ask because Ceviche as a dish originated there and it's therefore not really a good example of Ecuadorian national cuisine (although it is very popular here, no doubt.) EDIT - also, out of pure curiousity, what have you chosen for Canada (my country of birth)? It's another country that's awfully hard to pin down.

For men, white pineapples, carambola de sal (green starfruits), borojó, ishpingo bark (which is chewed), and I'm sure I'm forgetting the specialty meats. For women, carambola de dulce (ripe starfruits), mango chupadora (Ambassador type mangoes), gold papaya, borojó, guava, star anise (chewed), and I'm sure I'm also forgetting the specialty meats. In any household, at least half of those things are on the menu in any given week - the fruits in particular.

I'll play! Sunday is shopping day for me. Simón Bolívar Fish Market 2 large "Sol" fish (some sort of bream?), whole, gutted, about 3 lbs 1 small "Carita" fish (a small pomfret), gutted - this was a "yapa" fish 1/2 lb blonde mangrove shrimp, heads off, shells on. Mercado Mayorista, Feria Libre (big farmer's market - this will all be organic produce) 3 lbs of absolutely perfect giant strawberries 1 lb black table grapes 3 lbs beefsteak tomatoes; I won't know what they are exactly until I cut them 1 lb maracuyá 1 lb mixed red and green bell peppers 2 lbs small Nantes type carrots 3 lbs Mandarine oranges 1 giant zucchini 1 head of lettuce, iceberg type 1 handfull long green onions, greens on About 30 key limes 3 medium purple bell aubergines 2 lbs mora berries Three handfulls of Jade Harvester beans A small romanesco 10 lbs of blonde panela raspadura Mercado Mayorista, Naves Mayoristas (bulk sellers of grains and flours) 2 lbs arocillo (cracked sticky rice) 25 lbs unbleached white flour, strong 7 lbs gingerroot 1 lb fresh peanut butter 2 lbs mother of chocolate 2 lbs walnut halves My neighbour Homero, (who luck will have it is the best butcher in Ecuador) 2 lbs AAA grade Charolias tenderloin 3 large Porterhouse steaks I haven't been to the supermarket yet - that's an afternoon adventure.

This set of crieteria functions best for each city in Ecuador (my country), rather than the country as a whole. Our national cuisine is so varied that it would be a disservice to pick only one dish and say it's "representative." Generally when one hears the name of an Andean nation the immediate idea is "Cuy" but that's a main ingredient that is very difficult to find in most of the rest of the world, due to its being classed as a pet rather than livestock. Equally, a very Ecuadorian food is Colada Morada (it's not made in any other country) but it's a dessert drink, so it falls outside of your criteria as well. And our coast is renouned throughout Latin America as a mecca for seafood preparations, but to choose that ignores 2/3 of the country! It might be an idea to expand your criteria to include several dishes from each country, to allow for this kind of diversity....

Muchines de Yuca come to mind, if you can also get your hands on some whole root. Grate this, soak in salt water, drain, then mix a sort of fritter using harina de yuca and egg. Stuff that with cheese and fry until golden - super yum.

Oca and melloco are more popular than mashua, in general. However if you look at the other aspects of the Ecuadorian diet, you'll find that the aphrodesiac-type foods heavily outweigh the anaphrodesiacs, so people generally eat mashua with impunity. The three tubers mentioned are the three traditional highland starches - they're also rare outside of the highland Andes, and from what I can glean my province is one of the biggest producers worldwide. In my own opinion, I like the crunch and spice that orange mashua provides when it's lightly cooked and then chilled and added to salads (or just dressed with avocado). Oca have a texture similar to potatoes but are both sweet and oxalis-y (if that makes sense), and melloco have a sort of jelly texture when they're cooked perfectly, with a bit of crunch to the rinds.

Panaderia Canadiense Going to let my ignorance hang out here. Question about "spring lamb" - I've only been able ever to get "spring" lamb in the spring, mostly mid-spring. Also, since we like domestic lamb far better than that sourced from Aussie/New Zealand, my guess has been that the lambing takes place in Feb/Mar - & maybe Apr - and I'm looking for 6-8 wk lamb, never frozen. I just ordered a rack from D'Artagnan, fresh. I'm eager to hear your input - on anyone's.Please be kind enough to disabuse me of anything where I'm wrong. I'll point out for starters that I live in Ecuador, and that our seasons are a bit different. It's currently spring (or rather it's a spring-esque lambing season in Salasaka, where the lamb in question came from) and hence what I ate was spring lamb. The neat thing about this country, though, is that when it's no longer "spring" in my province, it will be "spring" in neighbouring Bolívar or in another close province. This boils down to spring lambs, milk fed and between 6 and 8 weeks old, being available here almost year round.... It's a unique advantage to living this close to the equator and at such a high altitude. I also suspect that many of the breeds found in the highlands close to my markets are year-round rather than seasonal breeders (whereas in Canada at least the seasonal breeders are more common), which means that here in Ecuador not only do I get the rather abundant and delicious spring lambs (and my butcher is very precise about what she calls the lamb she sells) but also very tender and tasty milk lambs in the non-spring seasons. Up in the nothern hemisphere, spring lambs are born either in late winter or early spring (so February-April or so) and must be sold before July 1 to qualify. Anything else between 6 and 8 weeks but born in a different lambing season is milk lamb, which is very similar in flavour and texture, although in my experience milk lambs tend to be just a tad stronger tasting than spring ones. Thanks so much for this explanation. I've never had lamb sourced from anywhere but either New Zealand/Australia or the Domestic US lamb raised in Colorado. I had no idea Ecuador produced lamb.We had a rack of lamb done on the Big Green Egg last evening - best we've ever had! Veggies also done on the BGE, except for the potato spears fried in duck fat! I don't think we export - lamb here seems to be for domestic consumption only (which is fine by me - it keeps the price reasonable!) When it gets warm enough here to grill again, I think I might try the rack on BGE type thing. It looks amazing.

Quality is the earmark of Ecuadorian aquaculture - they're primarily smallholding farms, which means that the harvest is not only more carefully checked for disease and other quality issues, it's also more sustainable in the long run and provides a great deal more employment than factory farming of seafood would. The first fish I ate in this thread, the Robalo, is an economic byproduct of shrimp farming.

98% of the shrimp, scampi, and langoustines that are harvested in Ecuador are from farms, both on shore and offshore; the wild catch is very small and subject to heavy regulation (as it is also for the Ecuadorian spiny blue lobster, one of my favourite crustaceans). For most of the other fish, particularly the large fin-fish and billfish like Picudo (Swordfish), Dorado (Mahi Mahi) and the various Tuna present in our waters (most of which are shipped to Japan), the laws permit primarily the artesanal harvest of them which means small boats and lines rather than trawlers. Trawlers of any type are heavily regulated. There are strict size regulations for all fish caught - and the boats are checked religiously (I have spent time in some of the fishery ports watching this - the inspectors are really thorough particularly when it comes to the big-ticket fish mentioned above.) There are seasonal catch bans on almost everything that comes out of our waters to allow for breeding and growth periods, and permanent catch bans on others, including sea turtles, hammerhead sharks, sea cucumbers, and any fish or seafood on the IUCN redlist. [if you read Spanish, the current indefinite and seasonal catch ban list can be found HERE.] Yeah, and since I posted about the Carita, I find that it's actually more likely to be a Pomfret than a Pompano. The perciforme fishes are such a challenge, especially when the common names can refer to any number of things.

First of all, apologies. I'd love to show you my fish market, but I took the wrong camera (cruddier than heck pictures in the natural-light environment - my cel might be good for some things, but this ain't one of 'em) so you'll have to wait for next week to see what I'm choosing amongst on a weekly basis. One of my favourite fishmongers is saving me some Lenguado, which will make the shopping much easier and the photo-taking more comprehensive..... Ecuadorian name: Carita English name: Permit, Prophet, or Pompano Size: about 25 cm long, about 180-200g each Carita have actually been on the list of fish I want to try for quite some time, and this week they looked particularly good, so they ended up on the leaves. They had a much smaller gut cavity than I'd have expected for fish of their size - they're almost all meat, and not as bony as I thought they might be. One of the nice side effects of cooking in canna leaves is that on fish with delicate skin, it often comes away when you open the package. The Carita were meaty with a texture and flavour that remind me strongly of steelhead trout - they'd make excellent fish salad sandwiches, I think. My next ones will be grilled - trout responds well to this treatment, and it will be an interesting experiment to see if Carita do as well given their flavour and texture.

David, I do something similar to what you're describing quite often - a puree (or if you're me, a slightly rougher version produced by sort of mashing the tomatoes with a fork) of roasted or grilled tomatoes, with garlic and oregano (or with herbs that are complimentary to what you put in your ricotta) works beautifully between the layers and holds everything together without overpowering the flavours of the individual veggies. I'm actually doing a hot take on this tonight for dinner - a layered terrine type creature consisting of giant marrow, eggplants, and tomato with queso fresco. It's not quite a ratatouille, but that's the flavour profile I use. Assembly and final photos later; it's a very simple dish to put together but the final effect is impressive. -- Oh, and next time I have pattypans, I'm totally stealing that recipe. It sounds absolutely delish.

Do you have a similar dislike for "maple" flavoured syrups (not the real thing, obviously, but the Aunt Jemima type corn-syrup based "alternative")? I ask because fenugreek is the main flavouring agent in fake maple everythings. No. I'm not nuts about the flavor; it's SO fake, but not to gag on. I never knew fenugreek was in that! OK, if fake maple syrup doesn't make you gag, maybe it's the asafoetida rather than the fenugreek in common yellow curry powders that's producing the "ick" reaction. It's not a pleasant spice on its own, and it's one of the ones I leave out of my masalas because I have issues with its flavour. Fenugreek to me is just sort of sweetish. (Then again, that's me - and I actually do like most masala-based foods.)

I'm quite fond of blossoms when lightly steamed - basically I give them as long as I'd give asparagus (which are a nice compliment to blossoms), which is to say just enough time to bring up the colour. Then shock in cold water and use on salads. On the other hand, sugaring them (painting raw blossoms with a bit of gum arabic solution and dredging lightly and carefully in granulated sugar) makes them excellent for edible cake garnishes.

Do you have a similar dislike for "maple" flavoured syrups (not the real thing, obviously, but the Aunt Jemima type corn-syrup based "alternative")? I ask because fenugreek is the main flavouring agent in fake maple everythings.

It appears that so far I'm the only one who looks at a zucchini or yellow crookneck and thinks not of savour applications, but of sweets! My hands-down favourite thing to do with a glut of zucchs is Death by Chocolate Zucchini Cake. I'm also fond of a couple of types of bread that incorporate zucchs for colour and texture, although crooknecks give a better gold colour and more delicate flavour.

If I ever find bourbon here under $200 a bottle, I'll try that. In the meantime, though, I've got excellent aguardiente puro that should do in a pinch, and a cute little cask to oak it up a bit afterwards.

Fishsticks. I had a horrible incident where a stray bone caught in my throat and I had to go to hospital. It left me with a deep-seated distrust of Captain Highliner and his ilk.

Heavy fusion here (we cook just about every style and often blend things to get flavour profiles that are engaging), with the realization that my family is definitely omnivorous and heavy on the veggies with main courses and fruits in snack contexts. We tend towards the following as staples: Red and green peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, lettuces of various types, asparagus, carrots, beets, green beans, and either cauliflower or romanesco. Sometimes eggplants when we can find them at market. For starches, a higher focus on oca, melloco, and mashua as well as potatoes; less emphasis on rice or pasta. Almost all meats with the exception of pork (although occasionally bacon, as a big treat). We eat more chicken and turkey than we do red meats, and more rabbit and lamb than beef. However, all are represented at table. Fresh homemade bread, good butter, good olive oil. Reasonable cheeses, because that's what's available here in Ecuador. All fresh fruits in season. At the moment, that's oranges, mandarines, carambola, banana, papaya, white and gold pineapples, strawberries, mora (blackberries), pitahaya, peaches and nectarines. In a couple of months, mango will be added to that list, and around December the remaining stonefruits and cherries.

I'm actually intrigued that most of what people have posted has had to do with flavour, rather than texture. There are some things that I find genuinely offputting not because of the taste, but because of the feel. Okra is among them - I actually like the flavour, but the sliminess of even deepfried okra is so offputting that I will actively avoid dishes in which it features. Granted, the steak-n-eggs/churrasco ecuatoriano thing I mentioned above has more to do with my rather strong allergy to the eggs involved, but I could just have easily mentioned file gumbo, which I can't stand not because of the flavour but because the okra gives it this completely cow-boogers texture that I cannot get past my lips.

Panaderia Canadiense Going to let my ignorance hang out here. Question about "spring lamb" - I've only been able ever to get "spring" lamb in the spring, mostly mid-spring. Also, since we like domestic lamb far better than that sourced from Aussie/New Zealand, my guess has been that the lambing takes place in Feb/Mar - & maybe Apr - and I'm looking for 6-8 wk lamb, never frozen. I just ordered a rack from D'Artagnan, fresh. I'm eager to hear your input - on anyone's. Please be kind enough to disabuse me of anything where I'm wrong. I'll point out for starters that I live in Ecuador, and that our seasons are a bit different. It's currently spring (or rather it's a spring-esque lambing season in Salasaka, where the lamb in question came from) and hence what I ate was spring lamb. The neat thing about this country, though, is that when it's no longer "spring" in my province, it will be "spring" in neighbouring Bolívar or in another close province. This boils down to spring lambs, milk fed and between 6 and 8 weeks old, being available here almost year round.... It's a unique advantage to living this close to the equator and at such a high altitude. I also suspect that many of the breeds found in the highlands close to my markets are year-round rather than seasonal breeders (whereas in Canada at least the seasonal breeders are more common), which means that here in Ecuador not only do I get the rather abundant and delicious spring lambs (and my butcher is very precise about what she calls the lamb she sells) but also very tender and tasty milk lambs in the non-spring seasons. Up in the nothern hemisphere, spring lambs are born either in late winter or early spring (so February-April or so) and must be sold before July 1 to qualify. Anything else between 6 and 8 weeks but born in a different lambing season is milk lamb, which is very similar in flavour and texture, although in my experience milk lambs tend to be just a tad stronger tasting than spring ones.

For me, it's when the waiter/waitress waits until I've got a nice big bite of whatever stuffed into my face, then comes over to ask if everything is OK. I am always very tempted to spit out what I've got in my mouth and tell them that the food is absolutely terrible, send it back, and not pay. If there's a problem, I won't eat the food: I'll call you over and let you know what the problem is! I'm fine with being asked if it's all OK when I'm not chewing. But for crying out loud, if you want my opinion you should wait until I can voice it! I have the sneakng suspicion that waitstaff do this just so that they never have to take a complaint....

Churrasco doesn't have eggs. It does in Ecuador, Colombia, and Perú.....

It could be an instruction for very hot environments. I generally follow the freeze before 5-6 step simply because even on a cool day it's well over 30C in the kitchen, and the pastry handles better with a gentle freeze and thaw between 4 and 5 to firm up both the paste and the butter. I have to do the thaw step in the fridge because at those temperatures, puff pastry can go completely watery on me in five minutes if I'm not paying close attention to it.

Steak and Eggs, and its Latino friend Churrasco. It's taking a perfectly good cut of meat and ruining it by putting a sunny-runny on top.