llapingachos

Last night, for our Spanish class, part of the homework was to prepare a typical Ecuadorian dish with our families to share with the class. Nora’s mom brought us to the Supermaxi, or supermarket, for the first time and it was kind of overwhelming, especially in the fruit section. My assignment was to make llapingachos, which are sort of like latkes, but instead of shredding the potatoes, we mashed them. My host mom was kind of caught off-guard and did not expect to spend the evening making something unfamiliar, but the whole family ended up joining in. We peeled potatoes to salsa music and talked about the upcoming holiday, the latest novela (soap-opera) and native foods / fruits of Ecuador. The seven-year-old, Pedro, alternatively worked on his homework and corrected my Spanish, while Maria Gracia made hand-made valentine’s day cards… This morning we got up at 6:00 to finish the dish and I was pretty frantic and ended up jogging to school with the Tupperware full of llapingachos and made it just in time. For lunch, everyone shared their dish and the recipe with the class and it was great to try such a variety of Ecuadorian dishes.