Post 3165
- 13 years and 44 days since I started this blog -
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| On my balcony in Cuenca, Ecuador, February 11, 2024. |
Read this once (it won't change for the rest of the trip(s): I'll be linking this post to Facebook. If that's how you got here, here's some background: About 13 years ago I started this blog as a food journal. I had a medical situation and needed to lose weight. Initially, that's all I did here: Journal my food intake and my weight. It contributed to helping me lose 20+% of my body weight in 6 months, and continuing has kept me on track since then. I started adding commentary after a while, but lately it has become infrequent.
While I'm traveling, I let go of the weight-tracking and food journaling (except for food shots when I've eaten something interesting or pretty. And that's where we find ourselves now.
Unlike previous years, I have no desire to partake in Cuenca's Mardi Gras celebration as I have every other visit.
Cuenca has a riotous Carnaval, beginning (this year) on February 8, and ending today, February 13. The celebration includes a lot of loud music, parades, and people spraying each other with cans of foam, and water guns, and, sometimes, water balloons and buckets of water.
I have been more active in the past, and have lots of pictures. This year, having acknowledged that I have changed from someone who is okay in crowds to someone who definitely is not, I choose not to participate. I wish that meant I was safe from water and foam attacks, but I can only do so much in that regard.
I've gotten bombed at least once every day since last Thursday, most frequently by drive-bys - kids in the back seat of cars, with arsenals of water and foam weapons. From my balcony, I can watch some of that action - and I'm glad to be above the fray. When I am. Which is, as I've said, only occasionally. I'm successfully targeted daily.
So it goes.
I haven't gotten as much playing time this week - only Wednesday and Thursday, but both ventures gave me good opportunities and plenty of playing time.
Wednesday at Bistro Yaku, I got to do some songs on bass and had good accompaniment from my friend Josep, an excellent bass player who can wield a guitar effectively as well. I thought it was a very sweet duet - his bass knowledge let him follow me easily, and with his rhythm skills, I was able to get a good groove going with just a bass and guitar. Sweet. After, Claudia sang some blues vocals, and again, we got some good rhythm going - good enough that we got some great soloing on wooden flute from the audience (actually, a member of the house band). And that was really good, I thought.
Next night I sat in again with the Blues Enigma Band at Wunderbar. Although it was supposed to be rehearsal time, we had a pretty good audience, and I trhink everyone felt the same as I did - that it was our best night since I came to town.
Before I get to photos, some scattered and random thoughts:
After experiencing some disappointments (talking about you, Cafe Ñucallacta, and Paradise Indian), I have found a couple of great new places.
Punjab Rasoi is my new favorite Indian restaurant in Cuenca (nothing will unseat my favorite places in Chiang Mai, but when I'm not there...). It was just all-around excellent, from the mango lassi served in copper goblets to the incredible entrees, there was nothing to criticize. Plus, it is a minute's walk from my apartment. A big win - after a good-but-not-great meal at Paradise, I was truly afraid there was no good Indian food in Cuenca. I needn't have worried - Punjab Rasoi is better than my former favorite ever was.
While Cafe Ñucallacta went from having my favorite not-made-by-me oatmeal in the world to some of the most gross porridge I ever tasted (not to mention what it looked like), I feared there was no restaurant making good oatmeal to take its place. So far, that's proven trueAs a result, my favorite restaurant oatmeal is now in Chiang Mai, where I have multiple places that were tied for second-place while I was still looking at Ñucallacta's as numero uno. Now, I give the crown to CM's Nice Kitchen.
But I did find a couple of new great places for breakfast: Bistro Solano, which got mentioned last week (and makes an appearance again this week, in Food Comments, below), and now Comer Senar Vivir (Eat, Heal, Live).
This pretty, neat, pretty little Venezuelan-run breakfast and lunch place, just 2 minutes around the corner from my apartment, has hit it out of the park on both occasions I've eaten there, with unique breakfast choices, excellently and beautifully prepared. See below, in the Food Comments.
Even so, that still leaves Cuenca in third place, behind Chiang Mai and Oaxaca City, for restaurant food; Oaxaca displacing Chiang Mai as my favorite food destination. Still, all these places have great food, and some of my favorite restaurants in the world are going strong in all three.
And now, some photos.
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| Doors and the Reverend: Claudia loves the architecture of Cuenca - walking with her means frequent stops for pics. And she has a special affinity for doors. She sees these photo ops, the doors she loves, and me. These are some of the results, |
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| Another sort of Rev and a door shot - this time, unposed. |
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| At Bistro Yaku. Above: Anthony, and below, his friend Maria. |
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| Why it's my GOAT café: That's Sinfonía Tostaduría y Cafetería's head honcho Diego, hand-picking through the latest batch of fresh-roasted beans to ensure that nothing imperfect gets cupped. That is some driven shit, right there. Everybody I've ever brought to Sinfonía has called it Cuenca's best cuppa Joe, but for me, it's the best I've had anywhere. |
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| When you walk around Cuenca, and it is so very walkable, you never know what you'll find. In this case, a bright red puppeteer, on a bridge by a river (Tomebamba). Claudia had some business with the puppet. She talks to everyone. |
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| I went to see the Mercury Blues Band at Nómada Bistro. Three of the best musicians I've heard in Cuenca. In particular, Frank Polo was absolutely incredible on the kit. The guitarist/vocalist/bandleader,John Chapman, as well as bassist/guitarist Christián Tonorio, were simply excellent. Amazingly, the group was only days old, having played their first gig less than a week before, with little rehearsal time. But the ensemble was amazingly tight, given that. A testimony to the high level of musicianship on display. They may be the best band I've heard in Cuenca, ever. |
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| Claudia added some vocals to street-performer and friend Arturo, busking next to Parque Calderon on Lundi Gras. |
And now, walking-around pictures:
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| Above, at the foot of the seven-story staircase that connects Calle Larga with the Tomebamba River, Parque La Madre, and El Vergel neighborhood (home of Sinfonía Café). Below, the view from the top of the stairs. |
Food Comment
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| I know a significant number of people who will not eat octopus. Unless it's for ethical reasons, I believe they haven't tasted a good preparation. To my total delight, Capitán & Co. my favorite seafood restaurant anywhere, now serves the pulpo! And while the meat per se wasn't superior to the best I've had (Portugal), this preparation, octopus in garlic and cognac sauce, was absolutely the best octopus dish ever. Even Claudia, who made a disgusted face when I mentioned eating octopus, enjoyed her little taste. Bravo, Orly! |
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| Newcomer Comer Senar Vivir, served up this Venezuelan breakfast (Desayuno Venezuelano), and completely wowed me. Best arepes I ever tasted (at 6 o'clock on the plate above), along with well-made and tasty pulled pork (3 o'clock), cheese, avocado (Noon), scrambled eggs and black beans, it was just... great! One of my favorite breakfasts. |
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| At Comer Senar Vivir, next time, we got the Fruit-Yogurt-Granola breakfast, with a side of scrambled eggs (5 o'clocl on th4 plate above), and, again, the quality was top-notch! The fresh fruit and home-made granola, along with the elevated scrambled eggs, left me fat and happy. |
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| Last week, I enjoyed going to the soft open of Bistro Solano and I've been there twice since. At the soft open, I left a suggestion that the vegan breakfast, which featured scrambled tofu, offer a scrambled egg option. When I saw that option appear on the latest menu, I had to get it. I was right - this is a nearly perfect breakfast (by the way, the bacon is a side-order, because, well, first, I'm no vegan or vegetarian, and secondly, bacon. It was perfect, in both execution and portion size. Yay, Debbie! |
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