The Amazon: Ecuador’s rainforest kitchen
East of the Andes the land drops into the Amazon basin. The food here is cooked in leaves, over fire, by Indigenous peoples who have lived with the forest for thousands of years.
- Spanish name
- El Oriente
- Towns
- Tena, Puyo, Coca, Macas
- Staples
- Yuca, river fish, plantain, palm
- Peoples
- Kichwa, Shuar, Waorani and others
A kitchen of leaves and fire
The signature cooking method of the Ecuadorian Amazon is the maito: fish, often tilapia or river fish, with palm hearts or mushrooms, wrapped in large bijao leaves, tied and cooked over embers. The leaves steam the food in its own juices. It is served on the leaf with boiled yuca and plantain.
Yuca is everywhere. It is boiled, fried, and chewed and fermented into chicha de yuca, a mildly alcoholic drink that is central to hospitality in many Amazonian communities. Visitors are offered it, and accepting matters.
Flavours you won’t find elsewhere
- Guayusa, a holly leaf brewed as a caffeinated tea. Kichwa families traditionally drink it before dawn and share their dreams.
- Chontaduro, the orange fruit of the peach palm, boiled and eaten with salt or honey.
- Ishpingo, the dried flower cup of an Amazonian cinnamon tree, used in highland colada morada.
- Chontacuro, the grilled grub of a palm weevil, eaten as street food in Puyo and Tena. Optional.
Cacao country
The Ecuadorian Amazon is one of the places cacao was first domesticated, thousands of years ago. Ecuador is now a leading grower of fine-flavour cacao, and its single-origin chocolate is the easiest way to taste the region from the UK.
Taste the Amazon from home
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Going there
The Ecuadorian Amazon is unusually easy to reach. Lodges along the Napo River are a short flight from Quito to Coca, or a few hours’ drive down from the Andes to Tena. Community-run lodges, owned by the Indigenous peoples whose land they sit on, are the best way to visit, and the most likely to put you in front of a maito.