Food!!!!
My family took me to McDonald's the other day. Haha, it was so funny. They don't think that I eat enough, and were joking that they have to make me hamburgers all the time in order for me to eat enough. But I do eat enough! For dinner I had a Big Mac, which is funny, because it was the first time I've ever eaten a Big Mac and I am so full right now! This is like in Mexico, where I had Chinese food for the first time. Lol. So far, the McDonald's that I've seen here are really nice, much nicer and cleaner then those in the States and they have free Wi-Fi too!! They also have a McFlurry made with Crunch bars; I don't understand why we don't, because Crunch bars are so delicious!
McDonald's isn't the only very American food chain around here if I am missing anything, then I can easily find a KFC here, Burger King, Papa John's, Domino's, or even a Cinnabun! (I asked if there was a Taco Bell, you know, for those late nights out at Plaza Foche, but I don't think that there are any here, so I suppose dos ochenta y ocho will have to wait until I get back home. Lol).Oh, but I can't forget, this country seems to have an obsession with hotdogs, hotdog stands everywhere! I made a new friend, el Rey de hotdogs, he has this stand just down the street from my apartment and I'm not sure if I just really craved a hotdog the other day or what, but it was really good!
While those can be good sometimes, the traditional food here is really good, I've had empanadas, soup, and taqueños or something like that, which were really good! But I still have plenty of time to try and find some more quality Ecuadorian cuisine. (Next on my list is cuy, which is guinea pig, it should be interesting!)
The thing I like most about the food though is that there is this stuff called ahí, which is basically this homemade hot sauce that they put on everything! I love it! Usually I'm not one for hot foods, but this stuff is great! At first I didn't think that it was that spicy and then I put way too much on my food and my mouth was on fire...it was great! (Plus if I encounter any bad food, I can just douse it in ahí, so that I can't taste it!) They sell it everywhere, so I'll be bringing a lot home, but hopefully I can learn how to make it myself!
The other condiments they have here are basically the same, ketchup here is pretty different, it's definitely no Heinz Tomato Ketchup, but once you pour some ahí on top, it's all good! Mayonnaise is still disgusting, and I still hate mustard, but that's okay, I just need some ahí and ketchup and I think I will make it just fine here. Coming back from Atacames I ate a hotdog with mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, crushed potato chips, lettuce, onions and ahí, so I guess that I'm really starting to branch out and diversify what I eat, first that and now the Big Mac.
Speaking of food and what not, the milk, "leche" is so weird down here, it's the kind that you can buy and store on the shelf for months, and I don't really know how to explain it, but I don't care for it too much.
And I can't forget, there are so many different juices and fresh fruits that you can buy down here, this one fruit is so good! I have no idea what it's called, but it's only like 10 cents. On the outside its pretty normal, is orange and has a stem, but then once you open it, it looks like it has blue tentacles that should belong to some sea creature. I was pretty skeptical, but I tried it...and it was good!
Anyways, for my salidas de campo for volcanology, I decided that a PB&J would be amazing!! My quest to find peanut butter, "mantequilla de maní" led me to SUPERMAXI (yes, it's really SUPERMAXI and there's a MEGAMAXI too!), which is basically the Wal-Mart of Ecuador, and searched for like 20 minutes for some peanut butter. I finally found some JIF, in the 18oz jar, and it was like $4.00, since it was imported from Orrville, Ohio (funny eh? Since I live like 40 minutes from there!). But yeah, I killed that jar, I think I've had it for about 4 days and it's basically gone.
In Other News
The other day I was waiting to cross the street and get to my bus stop, La Paz and heard all these sirens, I looked down 6 de deciembre and I see this caravan of police cars approaching, going down the bus solo lane. There were about 3 police cars, followed by 5 or so white Ford Explorers and then 3 more police cars. I'm was standing there just standing, confused, because I had no idea who that was or what was going on and then I thought about it for a minute and realized that I had just seen the President of Ecuador and his caravan, traveling through the city. It was pretty cool, but weird because the night before I had had a discussion about President Correa and the government in Ecuador.
So in Ecuador, you can buy any DVD/video games/computer programs, basically anything you want, because there aren't really any copyright laws here. On the street you can buy Microsoft Office or anything like that for like 5 dollars. And then television shows are all at least a season behind! It's funny though, because I know whose going to win everything and what{s going to happen...it's like I'm psychic or something. LOL
