Our trip to Ecuador snuck up on me so fast, I was on the plane before I had time to do any research on the local cuisine and gluten free options. My bag had some Kind bars and I hoped for the best. As usual, Delta Airline’s food was full of gluten (Alaska has gluten free, vegan Tapas packs for sale on board). But soon enough we landed and set out down the cobblestone streets of old Quito in search of our first Ecuadorian meal.
Authentic Ecuadorian food, I quickly learned, largely lacks two things: vegetables and gluten. Their restaurant meals are heavy in fried food and white rice, and not overall good for the waistline or arteries, but you have a good chance of keeping gluten out of your system in this wildly diverse country that’s about the size of Nevada. Typically the person taking your order and serving your food has also purchased the ingredients and cooked the food, so they can be a reliable source of information about ingredients and cross contamination, that is if you can speak enough Spanish to ask the right questions. Lunch, called Almuerzo, is served with some combination of these fresh foods daily: soup, rice, fried potatoes (fresh with the essence of earth), lentils or beans, chicken or fish, and plantain chips or fried plantain patties, and sometimes a bit of lettuce, carrot, or tomato (washed in who knows what type of water). Generally the $2-$3 almuerzo is tasty and all gluten free.
Chef and Server, she knows her food.
Shrimp almuerzo, the tastiest almuerzo we found.
Ecuadorians eat locally in a way that we try hard to mimic in our house. For them it is the only sensible option because those are the foods they grow in their communities, the ingredients are fresh and familiar, and their markets lack any exotic, expensive foods from far-flung places. My favorite example of this is the amount of food they make from verde or green plantain. Outside of tourist areas, where breads and wheat creep into many dishes, these hard banana type fruits are used in place of wheat for most of their daily food, including empanadas, bolon, soup thickener, and chips. Bolon is the typical breakfast. It’s mashed verde mixed with cheese and shaped into a ball and fried or steamed and served with eggs and coffee and is available at most Ecuadorian restaurants.
- Verde
Bolon, and fried egg.
The other delicious find was yucca bread. This chewy white-ball-of-joy can be found at roadside stands and ovens placed on town corners.
Yucca Bread and the lady that made it.
There are a few things to watch out for, in case you decide to make a trip yourself:
1. Rotisserie chicken, though it looks delicious and safe, is almost always marinated with beer, although sometimes Coke or wine are used instead. Ask before ordering some of the tastiest chicken on earth (or so I was told).
2. The bus stop stands might have a few things you can snack on for long, crowded bus rides. We found chicken and cheese empanadas made with verde and hot corn based tamale like treats wrapped in corn husks at more than one bus stop. The coconut clusters are good, and bags of popcorn are safe, but you take a risk when asking the shouting sales person about ingredients of most items, including unmarked bags of bread that they will claim is yuka and not wheat if that’s what you say you’re looking for. They might not really know, and they are probably more interested in making a sale than keeping you safe.
3. When ordering food that may have more complex ingredients, ask about flour (harina de trigo), soy sauce (salsa de chine, or salsa soya) or beer (cervesa). These are the most common culprits of accidental gluten ingestion in Ecuador you will likely come across.
4. Stick with the comida typica, or Ecuadorian food. The places that cater to tourists are likely to have more flour in house, as they make sandwiches, pizza, pasta and other bread type foods.
With a little bit of Spanish language skills and general caution, Ecuador just might be one of the most gluten free friendly travel destinations around. Buen Provecho!
