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Jose | Todd |
Todd: So, Jose, can you talk about the food in Ecuador?
Jose: Yes, I was saying that the Andes is where potatoes and corn and many other kinds of food come, I mean, potatoes for example, that was so important for Europe, during the famine in Europe, so in that sense..
Todd: Wait, potatoes come from Ecuador?
Jose: Of course!
Todd: They do!
Jose: Yes, we have more than 300 different kinds of potatoes.
Todd: No kidding! Wow!
Jose: Yes, yes, yes! Potatoes and also corn from the Andes
Todd: Wow!
Jose: Yes. Didn't you know?
Todd: No, no! That's embarrassing.
Jose: And do you know, of course for us, potatoes and corn and also rice. It's one of the main dishes, I think, or pork also, and we use lots of pecante sauce, chili sauce. Ah, corn is great. Corn with fresh cheese.
Todd: Corn with cheese?
Jose: Yes, yes, yes, yes!
Todd: How do you make it?
Jose: Just you take the corn when it's fresh and boil it and you just put it with out anything, no salt, no butter, no anything, and fresh cheese.
Todd: No kidding, so you melt the cheese on the corn?
Jose: No, no, no, no!
Todd: So the cheese is hard?
Jose: It is fresh cheese.
Todd: Oh, I don't understand.
Jose: Fresh cheese! Do you, you have different kinds of cheese. (Yeah) You have this kind of fresh cheese. You have basically no salt, and it just made. Usually the cheese you have to mature the cheese.
Todd: Oh, I got you! So it's more liquid?
Jose: No, no, it's just called fresh cheese.
Todd: OK, well, I have to try it.
Jose: Yes, of course.
Todd: Wow! That sounds good. And can you get Japanese food in Ecuador?
Jose: Yeah, it's very expensive. You can do it because of course we have the Pacific coast, we have very good, what can I say, fish, and actually Japanese fisherman, they go to the Galapagos area and they pay certain fees. I don't know when, what they pay, and they catch all the tuna they want, so we have good, very good tuna, yeah, and many different kinds of fish so you can have sashimi and sushi and in Quito you have maybe two or three different Japanese restaurants. All of them very upscale at least.
