First of all, best wishes to all for a Feliz Ano Nuevo, a most healthy
& Happy New year!
Another night in Quito brought us to the old town restaurant La Purisima in
the colonial Teatro Bolivar. It has less than a dozen tables and is very simple
and the tables are wood. but what's worse is the chairs are very hard wood.
Glass walls look out onto the pedestrian mall and give you a chance to see
everything that's going on outside.
My stomach was in bad shape but I'm still going to report on what everybody
else had.
Will ordered a Paico Sour, which is a Ecuadorian version of the Pisco Sour
with a different type of liquor but sweeter, so I'll avoid those. The one
appetizer of goat stew empanadas which both Sam and Will wanted to order was
unfortunately not available.
There were not a lot of other items that seemed exciting and many of them
were seafood so Sam wouldn't have those, so the guys just decided to order mean
courses when we saw how large they were as well.
Adorable warm black and white corn tortillas arrived with spicy tomate de
arbol salsa (that awesome tree tomato I have come to adore) sauce and I managed
to eat one of them and they were delicious, of course without the hot
sauce.
Will chose the oven roasted Pork Brisket which was cook for 6 hours in
Ecuadorian spices and beer and came with garlic and ginger fried rice which he
declared to be an absolute winner.
Samuel chose what was called a sirloin tenderloin in Creole sauce which was
a scallion and tomato sauce which he loved, but unfortunately it arrived
extremely rare and had to be sent back for a recook. It returned cooked to a
perfect temperature and everybody was happy except for me because I couldn't eat
anything. Each main course said that it came with a "salad to share," which in
reality was a vegetable and that night it was a sauteed squash with spices,
which will like very much but Samuel would not try even though he adores squash
especially with spices. Will also declared the Club beer local to Ecuador an
excellent choice.
Since they were no appetizers it seems logical to choose dessert and are
very sweet waiter offered up his suggestion and both of my co dinner guests
chose the Good Thursday Black Tart which apparently is an Ecuadorian delicacy
with a recipe going back 400 years and made from some 25 ingredients. Will
described it as a combination of fruit cake, Rum Baba and dulce di leche.
I'm glad I got out and got some fresh air as we walked to the restaurant, a
mere 8 or 9 minutes from our hotel, but I was sorry not to be enjoying all these
wonderful new tastes with my family.
