I am not a morning person and I prefer to take the mornings slow and not get dressed before 9:00 (or later). It is my quiet time to write my Blog, catch up on emails or read. So, for me to set my alarm for 6:00am, get up, dressed and out the door in just 30 minutes, it had to take something special.
This morning, Ed and I were heading to the Ferria Libre Mercado. It is located about 2 miles from the house, so we opted to take a taxi. We knew from driving past it a couple of times, it was very large and would require lots of walking. What we have seen from the road, is not even the tip of the Mercado we learned this morning. It goes on for several football fields and we only saw about 20% this morning and that took 90 minutes.
Even before you come into the Mercado, there are lots local people selling their fresh produce on the sidewalk.
You also need to watch where you walk and beware that there are guys unloading trucks and carrying very heavy loads on their backs. You need to yield to them or they could push you out of the way. The picture below is of a guy with a hot whole roasted pig on his back....
There are sections of the Mercado were they seem to specialize in the same kind of item. There was a large fresh fish market area. Within each area there are many small vendors selling their products. Seafood is often available fresh from the coast about 3 hours away from Cuenca. But, from what I've been told, it does not come in every day. The best day to buy seafood is Saturday mornings.
Jumbo shrimp with heads on....
Bowls of fresh shrimp from small to jumbo in size
These are called Blue Crabs & very much alive
We walked around the fish area and then selected one vendor whom seemed to have the best looking very large shrimp. We bought 1 kilo (2.2 pounds) for $8.00 without the heads. It came out of be 16 shrimp per pound. Now, if we can just find horseradish sauce in the jar so I can make a good cocktail sauce.
I love just looking at the hundred types of potatoes they have, it's an Irishman's dream! The potato is the king of Ecuadorean cuisine and is eaten at almost every meal. But, these are not your simple Idaho Russets; you'll find over 200 varieties of potatoes here. The smallest is about the size of a peanut to larger varieties as big as a large orange. The colors of the potatoes range from yellow to brown to purple to blue.
Sacks of different potatoes
Ecuador has a wealth of delicious tropical fruits. The most common are bananas, mangoes, papayas, and pineapples. There are also many that I have never seen before and will have to explore those with a local person. We did buy 5 large beautiful tomatoes for $1 this morning.
Then, it was off to explore the fresh meats:
Fresh Pork
At this vendors stall #128, she was selling fresh slow roasted pork. She handed me a small sample and it was moist and very tasty. We bought a kilo (just over 2 pounds). The locals love to eat the crispy golden skin and she included a piece of it in our portion. This was going to our late breakfast when we got home.
This is the fresh roasted pork we bought at the Mercado. There was more than enough for 2 sandwiches for us when we returned. I still have enough for a couple more large sandwiches or maybe nachos!
Now some of the selection of "fresh meats" were a little to fresh for me.....
Rabbit for dinner?
Duck for dinner?
The Ecuadorean delicacy is Cuy - roasted guinea pig
Yes, my favorite part .... flowers. I didn't come across the large part of the Mercado that carried flowers & plants. I did select a small bunch of fresh flowers for myself.
This weekend, I selected these beautiful creamy white roses and I think several stems of the ginger flowers were included - because their smell really reminds me of Hawaii
Is this fresh ginger flower?
There were other items for sale:
These are the baskets they use when shopping to carry all their items.
The long wooden spoon was 4 feet long - I wonder what type of pot they use this spoon with.
Tough morning at the Mercado helping Mom sell her items
A local couple doing their morning shopping at the Mercado
Audrey & Vivian - they were selling this little guy in the market. It reminded my of our PUPPIES in Naples last summer!
This little guy (2 years old) was helping his mom sell at her stand.
This morning proved to be as much fun as I had hoped it to be. We took only 90 minutes to see just a very small part of the Mercado. Ed was such a good sport about going out early and walking around, I didn't want to burn him out on our first adventure. So, I see several more trips in our future. I'm not saying that we'll be leaving the condo at 6:30am on the future trips!
When we got home, we fixed a pork sandwich on freshly baked bread. I brought our food upstairs while Ed ran across the street for the fresh rolls for our breakfast. He also picked up a few cookies.
Fresh roasted pork sandwich on freshly baked bread
A couple of the remaining cookies that I remembered to take a picture of from our Swiss Deli
A quick trip to Super Maxi was necessary because today is the day they bake their fresh empanadas. We just had to pick some up to freeze, we prefer the meat ones. When the bakery department came with their hot fresh batch of meat empanadas, Ed had been waiting and took every one of them.... For our Montana family & friends, these are very much like Pasties in a small size (about the size of a half of coffee saucer).
This has been a very good day filled with adventure, fun and good food. We still have dinner plans this evening at Joe's Secret Garden with fellow Expats. I will share all about on tomorrow's blog. I will try to remember to take pictures for you (before we eat half of our dinner) ....
Peggy
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