Missing My Roots

           Everyone has a weakness, and mine is Ecuadorian food. When I think about Ecuador, I just can think about how I miss the food. When I lived in Ecuador, I enjoyed spending time with my friends and family, eating in a restaurant, or having a traditional breakfast. As an Ecuadorian, I feel proud of our gastronomy. There are many traditional dishes according to each region of Ecuador. I am from Guayaquil, the coast, so we have a lot of seafood specialties. Even though I enjoy every traditional dish that our country has, it is impossible to choose just one favorite. I have many reasons to feel nostalgic about Ecuadorian food. The flavor of the food, the affordability, and the facility to find it everywhere. I used to eat Ecuadorian food every day, but now it only happens on special occasions. 

              The flavor of the food is one of the most incredible characteristics of Ecuadorian food. One of my favorite dishes is called encebollado. It is a flavorful fish soup with onions, yucca, and cilantro. You can eat encebollado with plantain chips, rice, or popcorn (the preference depends on the region you are from). I love eating encebollado with a big amount of plantain chips. It is like touching heaven with your hands. People also eat this when they have a hangover. The flavor of the food is what makes Ecuadorian food delicious. All the spices that we use to season the food give them a special touch. I miss the smell of my grandma’s kitchen while she was cooking with spices. She is one of the best cooks that I have ever known. Something amazing is that people get these spices from nature; it helps intensify the food’s flavor. 

              Not only does the flavor of Ecuadorian food makes it incredible. In addition, it is amazing how affordable it is to eat in restaurants. People can have a good meal with a small budget. Even though there are expensive restaurants, they are five-star. Once, my friends and I didn’t have enough money, so we decided to chip in to buy food. We bought a big bag of cheese bread with yogurt at a typical restaurant in Ecuador. It is easier and cheaper to share expenses with my friends, because I can split the amount, and everyone would pay a small amount of money. Living in Chicago makes me realize how I miss doing this simple tradition I had with them. Chicago has some Ecuadorian restaurants, but they are expensive, and the taste is not the same because they don’t use the same spices that we use in Ecuador. Furthermore, my friends aren’t here, so the experience will not be the same. Despite this, I get excited when I see an Ecuadorian restaurant here, and I want to try everything from the restaurant.

           Besides the flavor and how cheap the food is, I most miss the facility to eat Ecuadorian food in every part of the city. I am from Guayaquil, a big city with plenty of restaurants and variety. You can find almost every type of food from the different regions of Ecuador. Furthermore, my city it’s the principal port, so I can find fresh seafood. My longing for eating those traditional dishes from my city has increased since last year. I used to eat a lot of seafood, and now it is just something sporadic. I remember that if I wanted to eat a traditional breakfast, I just had to drive ten minutes from my house to get there. Eating would make me happy for the rest of the day. It was that simple. Chicago indeed has many Ecuadorian restaurants. My family and I have one favorite, but it takes too much time to get us there. For that reason, we just go there when we are craving something special.

           Having the facility to visit my favorite restaurants in Ecuador at any time is not part of my routine anymore. Moving here has made me appreciate those places, the flavor, and how privileged I was. The food is what I most like from my country. The restaurants here are not as good as in Ecuador and they are too expensive. I guess that it is what I must pay if one of your weaknesses is the food from your country. I also know that moving to a new country is hard, so I am thankful that at least I have the chance to eat Ecuadorian food at any time. It is not exactly what I used to eat, but it has some similarities. I can’t complain about that. Maybe it is not easier to get the food as cheap as in Ecuador, but it is not impossible either.

I took this picture. It is the dish I describe