IPA Day

We set ourselves up today with morocho for breakfast. Morocho is like a sweet rice pudding only with large white mote corn in place of the rice. We took it at one of the stand in the Mercado Central, where it was served with sweet bread (pan dulce) in the shape of a bear's claw.

Morocho

After breakfast we guided ourselves around the magnificent historic centre of town, which is easily navigated by the churches. From the monastery of La Merced, we headed down to the church of San Francisco. The wonderful plaza in front of the church is home to a Fairtrade shop, which opens out at the back of the deceptively small premises to wind down narrow passageways under the church itself. The walls of the corridors are covered in Ecuadorian art and sculpture, and one wonders what previous use they were put to.

Underneath San Francisco church

Might want to put this away when the in-laws visit

Around San Francisco, there are small tiendas: hierbaterías selling medicinal herbs; confiterías, stocked with sweet treats;  piñaterías, festooned with colourful paper effigies whose sole purpose is to be beaten open at celebrations until their contents - typically sweets - spills onto the floor; and ferreterías...

Super ferrets?!

The latter was a disappointing addition to the row of vendors. Quite contrary to expectations of Super Ferretería being sandwiched between World of Weasels and Stoat Shack, it turns out that a ferretería is simply a hardware shop (or, more archaically, an ironmonger, as fierro means iron).

Whack Mickey Mouse in the face

Crossing the centre to Plaza Santo Domingo, in front of the Dominican church, we walked up Flores as far as the convent of Santa Catalina.

Santa Domingo

On the corner of Junín we had lunch at Dios no Muere ("God does not die"). These were apparently the last words of Gabriel García Moreno, the former President of Ecuador, as he lay dying having been slashed by a machete as part of an assassination on 6th August 1875. His body was smuggled into the walls of the convent.

At Dios no Muere we were presented with a perfectly serviceable, if a little standard, bean burger as well as an avocado/palmitos sandwich, both served with yuca chips. I hadn't yet realised today was IPA day, so I opted for a glass of Munay (9%) - a big and flavoursome 'roja' - from the selection of three house brews.

Yuca chips

After lunch we took a walk along La Ronda. Many streets in Ecuador seem to have two names - an old one shown on a tile, and a new 'official' one on a blue plaque. La Ronda is officially known as Morales, not after the president of Bolivia, but in honour of Juan de Dios Morales, the leader of the 1809 Quito Revolution against Spain - although nobody refers to it by that name. Once the heart of Bohemian Quito, it is now a collection of artisan shops by day and small restaurants and bars after dark. The artisanal heladería piqued my interest, where I selected  from their ever-rotating list of flavours manicho (chocolate and peanut) and the unattractively named caca de perro, which I shall leave as an exercise for the reader to translate, but which I was assured contained only toasted corn, panela and milk.

La Ronda

Caca de perro ice cream

As we reached Bandido Brewing, it dawned on me that IPA Day - an international celebration of the India Pale Ale style - was upon us and Bandido was offering a range of five hoppy beers - three from local guest brewers - on the taps, including Java's Cielito Lindo and Abysmo's Minotauro.

Returning to La Ronda after dusk had fallen, we found the character had changed completely. The artisanal workshops that had been open had mostly shut their doors, while the road was now filled with eager waiters beckoning people into warmly lit cafés for a hot glass of canelazo - the Ecuadorian equivalent of mulled wine, made from sugar cane spirit, naranjilla juice, and spices.

We found a quieter end of the street, where a cozy yet empty café did not brag about its offerings and yet served up a delicious canelazo. This was served with empanadas de viento - a trio of small puffy pastries, literally called 'wind pies' not because of the effect on one's digestion, but because they are full of steaming hot air that escapes and burns one's lips and tongue at the first bite. Aside from air, there is also a filling of cheese, and the crisply fried morsels are topped with (what else?) sugar.

Wind pies

The Ecuadorians' predilection for sweetening everything and anything is formidable. Nothing can escape a dash of honey, sprinkling of sugar, soupçon of stevia, or pinch of panela. However, the combination of savoury cheese pie and sugar works unexpectedly well together.