Restaurant: El Rincon Quinto
Location: Holloway
By Boeing: 6835 miles
By Boris Bike: 4.7 miles
For many, South American cuisine is characterised by Mexican spice. The first taste of the continent tends to be a burrito or fajita bursting with strong flavours and leaving a tingling heat on the roof of the mouth. So it is something of a surprise travelling throughout the region to find that the food is marked by simplicity rather than complexity. Many of the more traditional, rural countries, such as Ecuador, follow simple staples of the country rather than the exotic experimentation of cosmopolitan cities like Rio, Buenos Aries and Mexico City.
Ecuador is a small county by South American standards and yet within its modest borders it contains almost every eco-system on the planet. Dense rain-forest, tropical beaches and snow covered volcanos are all part of its natural landscape and provide a rich variety of ingredients for the dinner table. These include Guinea Pigs, Cuy, though being popular pets these are rarely, if ever, seen on an English plate. Ecuador is in many ways an insular nation, not reaching out culturally or commercially far from its borders. For this reason it is something of a curiosity. As I travelled north on the Metropolitan Line I felt like an adventurer.
The Holloway Road is a long and largely featureless North London thoroughfare where fried chicken take-aways, betting shops and shabby pubs predominate. But as I found a Bolivian tucked away on the Old Kent Road so I was delighted to discover an Ecuadorian oasis as a welcome refuge from the anonymity outside. El Rincon Quiteno has been serving up plates of pork and patacones (re-fried plantain) for seventeen years and has a humble, welcoming ambience. More of a cafe than a restaurant it attempts to serve both as a Sandwich Bar for students at the nearby London Metropolitan University and as an authentic eatery for the city’s South American diaspora.
With only five or six tables leading onto a busy, open kitchen it has a warm, homely charm. Sitting towards the rear of the space I saw some familiar dishes on the menu, with many borrowed from neighbouring Columbia, a recent stop on my journey. Rather than a basket of bread I was served a big bowl of popcorn. This traditional appetiser was the beginning of a truly topsy-turvy meal, where the dinner almost seemed to be served in reverse. My starter, Marudo Frito con Queso, fried ripe plantain with cheese, looked like a savoury banana split, though without the cloying sweetness of ice-cream or the floral matchstick umbrella that bathes it all in shade. As the Fork and Flag journey unfolds I find cultural echoes in the most surprising of places. The fulsome, filling fried plantain reminded me of the Canadian cheesy chip dish of Poutine.
After the starter i took time to take in the surroundings. Above my head was a map of Ecuador masquerading as a clock flanked by a couple of pictures of timeless agrarian scenes. On the far wall were a couple of musical instruments, one of which looked very much like one used in the Cuban band at Floridita. Another was like a curved banjo with etchings of AmerIndians hunting with bow and arrow. Seeing my interest the owner explained that sometimes they clear the tables away and play impromptu concerts. Despite my protestations he insisted on taking it off its shelf and showing it to me. “Our ancestors have played this for centuries”, he said proudly. Seeing a fixing on the back I asked him what it was for. “It is how you plug it into the electricity,” he replied. I wondered whether the whicker sandal stapled to a wooden beam overhead was in fact made of polypropylene.
For the main course I chose Fritada Con Mote, deep fried knuckles of pork, that came with boiled corn and plantain fritters. The plate was large and loaded with carbohydrates and calories. Most South American meals can feed a small family and Ecuador wasn’t any different. The pork was marinated and moorish with the corn and plantain providing bulk where bulk wasn’t, in truth, required. It was wholesome and hearty with a complete absence of pretension or presentation.
A major part of a South American meal is the accompanying music. So far on this journey I’ve enjoyed Bolivian Panpipe electro, Brazilian Bosso Novo and Cuban Cha Cha Cha. They have all been upbeat with a relentless rhythm making the meal little more than a sideshow for the dancing to follow. But in Ecuador, without a dance-floor, the music was slower and more subdued. The waiter explained that the songs were romantic ballads and laments, popular with older generations who like to reminisce about the past. Younger generations, he suggested, found these songs a little dull and depressing. Indeed a young Ecuadorian in tracksuit and trainers quickly put his earphones in when taking a seat near the kitchen. While the pace of change is slower away from the capitals on the continent with an international profile, it is coming nonetheless.
