"In Ecuadorian cuisine, soups are paramount to a good meal. On weekends here it’s possible to trace the whole of Ecuadorian costal food through sopas: acidic bowls of encebollado, a tuna and onion soup, and creamy sopa marinera with mixed seafood and peanut sauce. More adventurous eaters should try the untranslated soups: yaguarlocro, a surgeon’s bucket of delicious tripe, intestines, liver, lungs and tongue, or creamy potato soups punctured either with boiled librillo — tripe made from the soft third stomach of the cow — or grilled tripe. There’s also arroz marinero, a good paella-ish seafood rice, and outstanding chaulafan, a fried, assorted-meat rice dish openly wearing Chinese influence on Ecuadorian cooking." - Jonathan Nunn