Cooked fish. Raw fish. Fish in amazing shapes, colours, sizes and tastes. All delicious, and for just a dollar or thereabouts. With 2,500 species of fish in about a 300km square area of its coast, it is no surprise that chef Gonzalo Davila Trueba?s eulogy of Ecuadorian cuisine opens on the high seas. Perhaps justifiably so, for Ecuador also includes the Galapagos islands, by which the warm El Ni?o meets the cold, low salinity Humboldt current to concoct a unique ecosystem that teems in plankton and attracts sea creatures in vast parade of shapes and sizes. And with no part of the country more that five hours awaay from the coast ? despite the high Andes, second only to the Himalayas in height, splitting the country almost midway ? seafood is omnipresent ? in breakfast, lunch and dinner, in soups and salads and in almost all cuisines.
?We have seafood raw with lemon, boiled, grilled or fried, but not spicy,? says Trueba, who has been running a restaurant specialising in seafood for 40 years in Quito and is in India to promote a festival of Ecuadorian food at Delhi?s Taj Mahal Hotel till November 23. The spice comes from another ubiquitous accompaniment to the cuisine, aji (pronounced axi), which is a kind of chili sauce. Lobsters, prawns, crabs, mussels, shrimps, oysters ? especially one called spondilus, molluscs, clams, besides a host of fish from big ones like balena to puffer, surgeonfish and groupers, there?s a lot of fish waiting to be sampled.
The most famous of Ecuadorian seafood preparations is the ceviche, points out Trueba. It?s a seafood dish marinated in lemon and onions, which along with fresh chopped coriander, can be found in most preparations of the country! A raw bowlful of onions could be a dish in itself. Consumed mainly as a marinated appetiser, it is Ecuador?s most popular export and is usually accompanied by popcorn, corn nuts and fried bananas. Incidentally, the ceviche has variants in most Latin American nations, a clear reflection of the historic links with Iberia.
?Everybody eats.? That?s a proud assertion that Trueba makes while pointing out the abundance of food in his tiny nation. Evidence is forwarded to support the theory. The continent is the home to hundreds of varieties of potatoes and chillies, not to speak of cereals and fruits no one has seen outside of the new world. ?Though food habits are changing, especially from the influences from the US, traditionally, everyone in our part of the world has eaten extremely well,? he says. He points to the top of a table for six to indicate the size of the pork served up in his new restaurant, Mare Nostrum. ?Food sizes are often big in our country, from pineapple to bananas and cereals. And with dozens of varieties in each.
Fruits also include granadillas, a passion fruit cousin, or pitahaya, yellow dragon fruit ? you see the pink, Chinese variety at restaurants here, orito or finger bananas ? about half the size of the usual ones, tuna, not the fish but a prickly, luscious pear variety?
While pork, beef, lamb, rabbits and cuy, or guinea pigs are the most common meat types, you could also get bulls testicles or anticuchos, the heart of a cow. And other exotic meats. Accompany them with an amazing variety of cereals and breads, often merging into each other. And then there are the salads. ?You get heaven after eating the Quinoa salad,? says Trueba while pointing to another one that he says is ?eaten anytime and everywhere?, the chulpi chocho salad, prepared from these two cereals.
Trueba admits the mushrooming of global food chains has affected the culinary culture in his country, the only one to be named after a line of latitude, he still points the amazing array of indigenous food that a visitor could gorge on while on a trip. A slice of which is on offer here.
Half a world away is another land defined by its seas. Norway, with one of the most extensive, rugged sea coasts in the world, is also home to one of the richest biodiversities of marine culture. While smoked salmon may be almost synonymous to the country, there?s also herring, cod, halibut, mackerel, trout, sardines besides a host of other sea creatures like mussels, scallops and lobsters.
Presenting some of these fish preparations, albeit with a few other dishes, earlier this week at the embassy for his country in India was Geir Skeie (pronounce it how you like, but remember the name, for this 25-year old chef is being touted as the next big thing in the culinary world). ?Everything about our cuisine is natural and fresh,? says this young blond man as he whipped up a sit-down dinner for 300 guests ? in the main a large slice of salmon followed by a main course of halibut! ?About 40% of our cuisine is fish, which is prepared traditionally in many different ways. So while there is steamed or boiled, there are also preserved, salted, pickled and fermented fish.? Hailing from the western town of Bergen, Norway?s outlet to the North Sea, home to fishing treasures, Skeie has also honed his skills in France and Denmark.
?Of late there has been a lot of international culinary influence in Norway, so today Mediterranean dishes or sushi are popular, especially as we have so many different varieties of fish,? he says. Our cuisine is more fish based than say of other Scandinavian countries like Sweden, he points out. But in today?s busy life, traditional food habits, especially in big cities has been replaced, and lunch is usually cold, a sandwich on the go. Dinner, at 4 or 5 pm (they start their work day early in those cold climes), is the main meal, where fish or meat is accompanied by potatoes and brown meat sauce. Dairy products and a whole lot of berries ? cloudberry, strawberry, lingonberry, blueberry are favourites along with apples. But it?s seafood that excites this young chef, and given the natural riches the waters surrounding his land have, it will be no surprise to keep seeing him innovate to present enticing dishes.