Cuenca High Life

During one of my many long walks last week, this one in quest of a good picture framer, I happened upon an excellent new Cuban restaurant. I was just a block off  Avenida Remigio Crespo, terra cognita for most of Cuenca´s expats, and it was time for a beer and a bite. Habana Vieja is... [More]

A dozen coins tumbled away from the shoes of the elderly white-haired man who was standing on a corner in Cuenca, Ecuador. Cuenca is a beautiful city in the southern part of the country that is now a magnet for expatriates looking for a place to retire outside the United States. "Let me h... [More]

by Susan Schenck Sometimes, just once in a while, I miss some things I could easily find in California, land of health products. One of the products I couldn't find for the longest time was coconut oil/butter—a very healthful food. As I write in my book The Live Foo... [More]

For nearly two decades, if you wanted Mexican food in Cuenca, you had only one choice: El Pedregal Azteca (“The Rocky Aztec”), where María and Juan Manuel Ramoshave been serving authentic northern Mexican cuisine since 1989. Located in the heart of El Centro on Gran Colomb... [More]

by Susan Schenck Cuenca has a new restaurant serving raw gourmet dishes! Nectar, which opened on October 28, is a vegetarian tea house and gallery located on Benigno Malo 10-42 between Gran Columbia and Mariscal Lamar (on the second floor) and is open from noon to 6 p.m Tuesday through... [More]

Save your appetite for noon on Sunday afternoon.  That’s when the doors open on Cuenca’s 17th Annual International Food Fair at the Mall del Rio Convention Center. In addition to Ecuadorian comida tipica, the fair will feature food from Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerlan... [More]

The Coopera, an organic-agriculture, financial-services, and social-support cooperative based in San Joaquin, a village on the western outskirts of Cuenca, was established in January 2004 by eight founding members with a total investment of less than $50 (each contributed $6). Today, it has more t... [More]

by Susan Schenk It seems like yesterday. The close friend of a friend of mine was dying of AIDS and he related to me the agony of being on his deathbed. “At that point, I think I would just call for Dr. Kevorkian,” I remarked. “No, you’d be so su... [More]

by Susan Schenck Before moving to Ecuador, I had been a very strict raw vegan for six years — until I started getting deficiencies. My brain didn’t function without DHA and B12. I also lacked vitamin D and K2 for the bones. A vegetarian diet doesn’t work for everyone &mdash... [More]

by Susan Schenck “Cadelaes, Casa del las especias” is a great little store in Cuenca that has top-quality items, as well as some obscure items unavailable elsewhere. For one thing, they have the best walnuts in Cuenca. I'm a fan of walnuts because they have a higher rat... [More]

by Susan Schenck Cacao (chocolate in its pure form) may be one of the planet’s greatest sources of nutrition. As state in my book, The Live Food Factor, “It’s high in magnesium, making it a powerful brain food and natural laxative. Ten percent of its contents are antioxidan... [More]

by Susan Schenck What is a health-conscious, primarily raw fooder to do when hunger strikes while shopping or running errands downtown? At the risk of creating massive inflation for my favorite Cuencano snack, I’ve decided to share this incredible secret with you. You’ve se... [More]

by Susan Schenck The raw-food movement is growing fast in the U.S. And there are plenty of reasons for it. Humans are the only animal that cooks food. Cooking began only 20,000 years ago, very recently compared to humankind’s 2.5 million years of existence. This is also when the ... [More]

Mixx isn’t merely a new ice cream shop in a city and country full of ice cream shops. It’s a world-class operation, with a great location on Plaza de San Blas, state-of-the-art equipment, and flavors limited only by the raging imagination of the Canadian proprietor, Tom Carbone. ... [More]

Cuenca's Easter soup, fanesca, is considered to be the best in Latin America and it is a tradition among Cuencanos to have at least one bowl of it during Holy Week. It will be served in mercado food courts and in many restaurants around the city until Easter Sunday. After that, ... [More]

I've never seen anything like it. At least not without a coupon or a comp or a cook in my own kitchen. El Nuevo Paraiso comes about as close as you can get to a free lunch.   I met Jim Rathjen there who, chatting (or more like shouting over the max-volume TV and the blar... [More]

Editor’s Note: Deke and Shirlee arrived in Cuenca for the first time on a two-week visit to Ecuador in early March 2010, and Deke promised himself he’d expatriate within a year. After he and Shirlee visited Cuenca for a month in October, Deke went home to Reno committed to keeping th... [More]

La Vina, serving good hearty Italian for a decade at the corner of Luis Cordero and Juan Jaramillo, is a favorite of gringos. Shirlee and I were there on a Friday night when four parties at the five tables in the front room were Americans. La Vina’s menu is monolingual, though it&rsquo... [More]

In our month in Cuenca, Shirlee and I made it a point to visit the four gringo-owned hangouts, along with two locally owned restaurants, one a tradition and the other a hit with gringos.   The first haunt is also the restaurant you should try on your first day in Cuenca. Remem... [More]

We didn’t sample either of the two American fast-food operations in Cuenca: Kentucky Fried Chicken and Domino’s. (Nope: no McDonald’s or Burger King, Taco Bell, or even Starbucks.) I’m not prejudiced; I’ll try both when I go back (Lee at Carolina Bookstore claims Domi... [More]

The mid-day repast in Cuenca, typical of Latin America, is a big meal and a big deal. It’s long, starting as early as 11:00 and continuing till as late as 4:00, and many shops, stores, offices, and museums close between 1:00 and 3:00 for the leisurely lunch. And you can d... [More]

[Editor's Note: This is the debut restaurant review from Deke Castleman, who spent a month in Cuenca recently and delved deeply into the dining environment. Deke'll be the new food dude at CuencaHighLife, but we encourage anyone and everyone with a dining tip, restaurant review, marke... [More]

Rosa Martinez used to stroll to the local money transfer office in Corona every week to send $200 to her family in Cuenca. She still goes to the Delgado Travel office, but not to send money. Instead, it is she who collects a little cash from those family members in Cuenca. "My hus... [More]

The following article by Calvin Trillin appears in the November 2010 edition of Conde Nast Traveler. Trillin, a senior editor at the New Yorker magazine, wrote a cover story for that magazine about Cuenca in 2005. (See www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/09/05/050905fa_fact). "But ... [More]

Referred to by a travel magazine in 2008 as Cuenca’s version of Rick’s Café of Casablanca movie fame, the Eucalyptus Café is easily the city’s best known restaurant and bar among tourists and foreign residents. Lonely Planet rates it the “Pick of Cuenca&r... [More]