What is this & how is it used?

I wanted to share with you something that I think is pretty darn neat.  You see these all over the city on the outside walls of homes.  What  are they and how are they used?  No, they are not torture devices left from the Spanish days....

 

Look just left of the flowering shrub on the wall and you will see one of these items.

 

The picture above is an open device.  Now, maybe you can see how they are used.  All three pictures were from different places.  They hang on the outside of the walls around the individual homes. 

 

 

This is were the residents place their trash bags on collection days.  The locals do not have much garbage for collection so these will hold the few small trash bags they have each week.  Cuenca does not have any lease laws for animals, you do see many dogs running free around the housing areas.  These metal grates keep the trash above the dogs reach.

 

I think these are a great idea and really do keep the city much cleaner. 

 

 

Now you've learned something,

Peggy

New England Seafood Chowder - Lunch Nov. 3rd

Saturday is the best day to go to the Mercado for fresh seafood & veggies.  Ed ran over this morning to shop.  We had sea bass the other night at dinner and it was great.  Now we know what to ask for at the fish vendor.  In Cuenca it's called corvina.

Ed look at all the vendors before selecting the perfect piece of sea bass.  He selected a kilo (2.2 pounds) of the fish and the total was $5.  I was able to get 6 perfect sea bass steaks of the one piece.

They sell tiny little neck clams in a long bag (2 dozen) for $1 each.  Ed picked up three bags because half will go into the chowder but we also love steam clams in butter.  Ed's next mission was the perfect large shrimp and he found the vendor that we usually buy from but didn't have what he thought looked good enough.  Ed found another vendor and bought a kilo of very large shrimp for $9 - that's $4.50 for a little more than a pound. 

Ed also picked up some baby potatoes, onions and celery.  Now, he had everything we needed for lunch.


New England Seafood Chowder

3 strips of lean bacon - diced
1 large white sweet onion - diced
1/2 cup of celery - diced
2 cups of potatoes - peeled & diced
2 cups of fish stock * See Ed's secret for this 
1 cup of heavy cream
1/2  pound of boneless white fish - diced = I used sea bass
1/2 cup of cooked clam meats - you can chop but I left whole
1/2 cup of cooked shrimp - into bite size pieces
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper - or to taste
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon minced chives = for garnish - we didn't have any

* We could not find any bottled clam juice or any fish stock.  So, Ed took all the raw shrimp shells (for the kilo of shrimp) and then boiled them for several minutes.  Then, we strained this broth and used it in the chowder.... 

1.  Brown the sliced bacon in a deep, heavy-bottom sauce pan until crisp.  Remove it with a slotted spoon and set aside.

2.  Saute the diced onions & celery in the bacon fat in the same pot until the onion is translucent.

3,  Add the diced potatoes (raw) into the onions & celery and saute for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Do NOT brown. 

4.  Add "fish stock" and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are fork tender - about 10 minutes (do not over cook or them will become mush)

5. Add cut up raw fish and simmer for about 5 minutes

6.  Add cream, cooked bacon and adjust seasonings

7.  Add cooked clams and cooked shrimp and heat through - do NOT boil.

Sit back and enjoy a wonderful bowl of CHOWDER!

 
A very happy camper with a full tummy....
Peggy

Halloween - A Fun Day at Art Festival & Dinner

Cuence is getting ready for several big events in the city:

All Saints Day, Nov. 1st and All Souls Day on the 2nd and these two combined are Day of The Dead.  The ancient belief is that the soul visits its relatives  within these days and should have plenty of food to be fed to continue further on its journey to the after life.  Present day the locals visit the cemetery and adorning their tombs with flowers and gifts of food.  There is a candle light parade to the cemetery for the locals but many of the Expats will follow them. 

Also, on Nov. 3rd Cuenca celebrates it's Independence Day.  Now for a tiny bit of history of the city.  The Spanish settlement, Cuenca (full name Santa Ana de los cuatro rios de Cuenca), was founded April 12, 1557 by the explorer Gil Ramirez Davalos.  The town was named after a city in Spain by the then Viceroy of Peru, Andres Hurtado de Mendoza.  Cuenca achieved its independence from Spain on Nov. 3, 1820.

So, all the events roll  into a week long celebration for the city.  There are all sorts of other festivals around the town to celebrate these special days.  There are concerts, dancers showing the local customs, handicrafts, a big rodeo on Saturday night, and even carnival rides (but they didn't pass inspection by the city but are still running).   

Yesterday afternoon, we went to a small local arts fair.  I had heard there were more than one location for these fairs.  Our taxi knew of this one and it is where we were dropped off.  It really was small and only had about 50 vendors selling their hand made items.

Small covered vendor tables

 

A vendor selling their ceramic & wooden items

 

A roof tile that is hand painted

 

A wooden clock decorated with leather flowers

 

Wooden plate hand painted $20

Everyone was in the mood of the festivities!

 

One vendor selling beautiful potted plants

 

These were straw type flowers & hand made

 

This young beauty was having her picture done in charcoal by an artist but she wasn't very happy sitting there.  She had one single tear on her right cheek.  Her mother was a vendor selling music CDs.

 

It didn't take Ed and I long to walk around the whole "art festival" and see all the vendors.  There were also vendors selling leather handbags, belts, all sorts of knitted items and some stuff I think my youngest grandchildren could have done better at making.

 

 

Ed had the name of a restaurant he wanted to try in the Old Town.  We grabbed a taxi and headed into old part of town (about a mile away).  It turned out the restaurant wasn't opened so now we just walked around looking for a nice place for dinner.  

There are more beautiful churches in the city then I can count

Typical street scene in the Old Town area.

 

We decided to try dinner at the San Juan Hotel in their Rosa Bella Restaurant

 

You had to walk all the way through the lobby of the hotel to an outdoor courtyard for the restaurant.

 

The courtyard for the restaurant was all under cover of a wide wooden roof & they had patio gas heaters.

The walls around the courtyard was all hand painted in beautiful scenes.

 

 

We were started off with nice rolls and butter

 

Ed tried their French Onion soup - it wasn't at hot as it should have been if it had been served in a ceramic deep dish.  There were tons of their sweet onions & cheese.

 

Ed liked the Merlot they served by the glass. 

 

We both selected their Sea Bass Marinara - but it was NOT a tomato based broth - but a mild seafood sauce with small clams, mussels and tiny calamari in the sauce.... very good.

Neither of us had any room for dessert, so it was time to head back to the condo.  With all the festivities going on in town, it wasn't easy getting a taxi.  We had to walk a couple of blocks to a bigger cross street before we were successful.

When we arrive at the condo entrance into our building, this is what greeted us.

There was a party for the children that lived in the building from 6:00 until 8:00 with magic, music, games and treats.  Then, the few children that live in the building, went door to door for candy from the residents.  I think we had about 10 kids total.  It was fun to see them all dressed up in their costumes.  Everything was quiet by 8:30PM so it was back to watching a movie for us.

 

 

Happy Days in Cuenca,

Peggy