Josh and I took a super early morning flight to Guayaquil so that we would get there early enough to see some of the city. Guayaquil is a pretty large city and the most populous in Ecuador. There are lots of different neighborhoods to explore so as soon as we dropped our bags off at our hotel, we took a taxi straight to the Malecon, the riverfront area.
There are lots of food stalls all along the Malecon, and we couldn’t decide where we wanted to eat. There were many different options to choose from but we wanted to stick with typical Ecuadorian cuisine. We ended up going ordering from Tenedor de Oro, which I think is a chain because we saw several of those stalls all the way down the Malecon. We hadn’t eaten breakfast or lunch on the plane and we were starving since it was early afternoon at this point, but we had dinner reservations already so we decided to just split an entree and two sides.
We started off with two cold Pilseners, which are Ecuadorian beers. Not bad, a bit light though in flavor. We prefer darker and hoppier beers. In afternoon heat though, these beers really hit the spot.
What's better than cold beers on a hot day?
I was excited to see salchipapas on the menu, as I had just tried them at Pio Pio (post coming later) and absolutely loved them. The french fries were ordinary but they were hot and freshly fried. The hot dogs were cut into the shape of baby octopus, which I thought was cute. That also gave the hot dogs more surface area to crisp up when they were fried, and I really liked this dish.
Salchipapas - hot dogs and french fries
The ketchup, however, was really strange! It was pink and almost translucent, with little specks in it. It was also very sweet and mild in tomato flavor. I definitely prefer Heinz over this ketchup.
Fluorescent pink ketchup
Our other side dish was fried plantains, which we call tostones in NY but they call patacones in Ecuador. These were also freshly fried and not too starchy but they didn’t give us any sort of sauce to go along with them. We asked if they had any salsa picante, or hot sauce, and they seemed a bit confused. We ended up with a little container that I think had mayo and ketchup and some sort of chili sauce mixed together. Not exactly what we were hoping for, but it wasn’t terrible.
Fried green plantains (tostones/patacones)
Our main dish was arroz con pollo. It was tasty enough, kind of like fried rice with peas, carrots and peppers mixed in, but there wasn’t a whole lot of chicken. They gave us a huge platter of it though, more than enough for the two of us, and it came with pieces of maduro (sweet plantains) on top that I enjoyed a lot. The dish kind of needed a bit more salt but I liked that they sprinkled fresh herbs on top.
Arroz con pollo
Overall it was a nice quick “snack” and a good introduction to Ecuadorian food. The total for this feast? $7, including the beer. Unreal! They use U.S. Dollars in Ecuador so no need to exchange money or worry about conversion rates. I’d definitely recommend this place to anyone visiting Guayaquil for the first time. Sitting outside next to the river on the Malecon was a scenic and relaxing way to get acquainted with the city and the cuisine.
Tenedor de Oro
Guayaquil, Ecuador
Here are a few highlights from our walk along the Malecon:
