Honestly, I had no idea how naive I was as a result of growing up in our perfectly filleted, Saran-wrapped, Styrofoam-supported world. After all, when I go to the meat counter in the US, all I see is food – enticing, mouth-watering, nicely trimmed meats ready for the grill.
But here in Ecuador? I SEE DEAD THINGS! Good god, man. Did you know chickens have heads and feathers? (Not to mention big claws that later may be seen floating to the surface of your soup bowl.) And the fish – the FISH – they stare back at you with glazed over eyeballs from the tops of slimy counters, hopelessly pleading to be released back into the wild ….It’s creepy!!!
But if you are hoping to cook up a nice burger, or some fried chicken or perhaps some fresh grilled tuna, you will have to enter “Slaughter Alley”, or as the locals prefer to call it, “El Mercado” – Saturday’s open-air market. (Oh… and It’s open all right…to every flying, crawling, skulking creature that nature can sinisterly dream up!) Jan and I still can’t stomach the authenticity. We try to be casual about the whole affair (really, we do), but we’re not fooling a soul. The vendors all know the tell-tale signs of the unadjusted – weanie newbies like us who scurry past them, eyes diverted, pinching their noses tight while vigorously swatting at tenacious flies only to be seen exiting the market completely empty-handed.
(Where the hell is Costco?????)
earlybirdinecuador 