It was my husband’s birthday a couple weeks ago and it was also about to be Valentine’s Day, so we treated ourselves to a nice night out at a restaurant here in Quito called Foresta.
I don't usually write about food here, but a friend of mine requested a report (Hi Dominic!), so I thought if I was taking the time I might as well really do it and put it up here. If this is something you enjoy, let me know and I'll try and do it more often.
Foresta offers tasting menus of 3, 5 and 7 courses. We got the 5 course option. Their mission is to highlight not only Ecuadorian cuisine, but to highlight the biodiversity endemic to Ecuador. The country has mountain highlands (where we live), the Amazonian jungle and an oceanic coast, so there are a lot of plants and animals from which to make food. They offer fully vegetarian versions of their tastings as well
Dinner started with an amuse bouche of four bites. This wasn't considered one of the courses, thankfully. Honestly, I can't remember what was in these, but I can tell you that every bite felt a bit surprising in a good way. I do remember that the third from the left was a smoked fish and the last on the right was some sort of Ecuadorian version of Serrano ham. A great start to our meal, for sure.
Like a lot of South American countries, Ecuador has their own takes on ceviche. What's served here is a version from the town of Jipijapa (hippy hoppa - one of Jeff's favorite words). Interestingly, Jipijapa is not situated directly on the coast - it's a bit inland. It would be interesting to find out how they have such a famous ceviche. Anyway, Jipijapa ceviche is know for infusing peanut sauce, which is the white-ish liquid in the base of this vessel. We both agreed that this was the best version of Jipijapa ceviche we'd ever had (and one of the best ceviches in general). The two long pieces are plantain shoestring fries. I'll also note that plantains here are not as sweet as I've been accustomed to in the past.
Next course was a ragout of different types of mushrooms foraged from the Amazon, over some sort of little doughy fritter. There was also a piece of duck in there. On top, a blue corn chip and a Palo Santo foam. That's a lot to break down!
Palo Santo is the name for a fragrant wood that people burn as a type of catholic incense here. You can buy little bundles of the wood outside churches. It has a very distinct smell, a little like eucalyptus.
I kind of felt that the duck wasn't necessary, which also made me think that this menu was very vegetable forward, which was reinforced by the next dish.
The next course featured this quinoa/wild grains salad and a piece of deliciously cooked fish. I can't remember the type of fish the server named, but it was a white fish. Jeff doesn't like cooked fish, and he said he really like this piece and remarked on the fact that he couldn't believe that he finished his piece over the following couple of days. It was barely seasoned and served with a passionfruit sauce that was not too sweet.
The quinoa and fish being served separately made this course feel a little disjointed. It almost felt for these last two courses like the tasting menu might have been designed as a vegetarian menu, and then the proteins were added as afterthoughts. I don't really have much of a problem with this. Everything was still delicious. And I feel like vegetarians usually get the short end of the stick where the menus are planned with meat and then the meat is taken away and the dishes don't feel complete. I guess I'd rather that something felt tacked on rather than something feeling lacking.
The main course was a skin-on chicken thigh with boiled and crunchy hominy, a pumpkin puree and purple corn dust and a corn chip. Corn plays significantly in Ecuadorian cuisine and the corn here is not sweet like in the states, so this dish felt very appropriate.
Last was a profiterole with cinnamon ice cream and I think it was also a mango/passion fruit gelee. Cinnamon is also really common in Ecuadorian cuisine and a lot of cinnamon grows here.
It was served with this liquid cocoa drink. It was a little like hot chocolate, but nothing like hot chocolate? It was room temperature and a little gritty, which both sound off-putting, but it was really tasty and unlike anything I'd tasted before. Not as sweet as typical hot chocolate either.
We had wine pairings with our meal and fortunately the wines were not Ecuadorian. Ecuador hasn't figured out wine yet. We haven't had wine that we really like here, but we've tried a few that were okay.
After dinner, we had one more cocktail, because we wanted to make the night last a little longer. The weird effect of my camera makes these cocktails look a little tiny, but they were regular size. I can't remember what these were, but they were also delicious. There was a new bartender in training and she said that it was her creation. I think they might have had Campari in them?
So that was our night! There's me standing outside the bathroom with a crazy dramatic mirror. I hope you enjoyed this meal recap. Share your thoughts if you have any. Leave me a tip or become a member if you'd like to support me on my journey. That's what this whole Buy Me a Coffee site is for.
-Brian