Famous Street Foods in Ecuador
Potatoes
Llapingachos , which originated in the city of Ambata in the central Andes but are now popular nationwide, are balls of mashed boiled potatoes filled with cheese, then flattened and cooked on a griddle. They are served with peanut sauce and sausage, slices of roasted suckling pig, or a fried egg on the side. Papas con Cuero , often sold at football games, are small potatoes served in a stew with bits of pork skin and fat.
Bananas
Slices of starchy plantain are fried and eaten as a popular snack, called c hifles. Bolon de verde are dumplings made by frying green plantains, mashing them into dough, filling them with cheese or pork, and then frying them again until crispy.
Ceviche
In Ecuador, unlike in Peru, the seafood in ceviche is cooked briefly before marination, a policy adopted after a cholera outbreak in the early 1990s. Shrimp ceviche served with a tomato sauce is especially popular.
Ceviche de chochos is a vegetarian version made with broad beans, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, limes, oranges, and tomato sauce and served with a corn tostado, chifles , avocados, and hot sauce.
Corn
Many Ecuadorian street vendors sell grilled corn served with cheese and cilantro sauce. The Andean version of Mexican tamales, humitas, are packages of ground fresh corn mixed with milk and fat, wrapped in corn husks, and steamed. Served with a mild chili sauce, they are popular breakfast dishes. In Chile, basil leaves are added to the corn filling. To make tortillas, de maiz con queso (corn tortillas with cheese), a small ball made from corn flour and water is stuffed with a pinch of grated fresh cheese, then flattened into a patty and fried until crisp.
Mote Con Chicharron
A specialty of Quito, the capital, is mote con chicharrón. It is usually sold by women walking around with a cook-pot containing mote , or hominy (corn kernels soaked in an alkali solution) and chicharron, or fried pork rind.
It is sold in little plastic bags, with the mote on the bottom and the chicharrón on the top.