One of the first Bahraini friends I met since living in the Kingdom has been living in South America for about the last two years as a teacher. He started off in Venezuela, lived in Colombia for a while, and is now in Ecuador. It inspired me to share a story I posted on another blog chefkevo on Wordpress a few years back where I reminisced about my visit to Ecuador and gave a recipe for Seco de Pollo. The story and recipe follows...I hope you enjoy!
This time of year, back in 2008, I was in the midst of spending two weeks vacation in beautiful Ecuador. It was my first time in South America, and I was very fortunate to get an insider’s view on the country’s rich history and culture because my friend Bryan and I were hosted by our friend Patti and her lovely family. We also met up and traveled with our friend Malena, and reunited briefly with a few former work mates from the country. I am still grateful for the unique window into Ecuadorian life I was able to experience by staying with, travelling with, and reuniting with several friends I have from this amazingly hospitable and beautiful nation. I have been yearning to go back ever since, and I know someday I will.
A job at the Parker is what brought me from Oregon to California in September of 2004. The Parker was truly a uniquely glamorous and magical place. I was recruited to be a part of the opening staff after a $30 million renovation of the historic thirteen acre property. Built in 1959, the Parker was originally the first Holiday Inn in California. In 1961, singing cowboy Gene Autry bought the property to house his California Angels during spring training, and over the years he added some luxury touches, including a large two bedroom house for him and his wife Jackie, and named the place Gene Autry Melody Ranch. In 1994, he sold the property to his hotel director Rose Narva, a pistol of a woman, who transformed the place into an over the top, ostentatious old-Hollywood glam Versailles of the desert in conjunction with Hubert de Givenchy, and it became the Givenchy Resort and Spa. In 1998, Merv Griffin bought the place and it became Merv Griffin’s Resort Hotel and Givenchy Spa and a magnet for celebrities visiting the desert. Merv sold the place in 2002, where it sat idle for a while until picked up by hotelier Jack Parker (of Parker Meridien New York fame), who gave it the multi-million dollar face lift under the direction of designer Johnathan Adler. The property now boasts 144 luxury rooms including 12 private villas and the Autry House, beautifully lush gardens, a fire pit, croquet lawn, petanque court, an 18-hole golf course, a saltwater pool, state of the art banquet facilities, Norma’s and Mr. Parker’s Restaurants, The Lemonade Stand (where you can try one of my now world-famous “Muddled Lemons”), and an award-winning spa called the Palm Springs Yacht Club.
The Parker Palm Springs Lobby
It was really a remarkable experience being a part of the properties rebirth after the renovation and an honor to be part of the carefully selected opening team. The Parker quickly cemented itself as the place to be for the Hollywood A-list and international jet-set. We defined beauty without pretension while being beautifully pretentious. There was a colorful cast of characters both staying and working there. One element that made the Parker what it is today is the staff, many of whom were even more colorful and glamorous than our many celebrity guests. The Parker also made a habit of recruiting promising budding hoteliers from all over the world who had just finished hotel school. Over the years there, I worked with and became friends with some truly remarkable people from dozens of different countries including Ecuador. Oh boy, do we all have some great stories from that place…
Me with the Parker Crew out in Palm Springs
Ecuador is a beautiful country with wonderfully hospitable people. It is no wonder that several of the people I met from there while working at the Parker decided on hospitality as a profession. Most of the interns came out on an 18-month exchange program, and we had two waves of interns from Ecuador. On my visit to the country, I was lucky to have a reunion with two colleagues from the first wave of interns, and travel with two friends from the second batch. With the second batch of Ecuadorian interns came Patti and Malena. We became close friends while living and working in Palm Springs, and I was happy to go visit their home country with them on our summer break in 2008 along with my good friend Bryan.
As I said, I am very grateful to have had an insider’s perspective into their country by staying and traveling with them. It was also an added bonus to have had a reunion with our Parker friends and colleagues Karola and Sylvia as well. Years later, I am still fascinated by the beauty, food, art, and culture of their country. I remember trying to shake down the maid at the coastal resort Casablanca we stayed at with Patti’s family for the secret to her fabulous ceviche, drinking cocktails out of fresh coconut on the beach in Montañita, trying cuy (guinea pig) that Patti’s father cooked on the grill in their backyard, being on top of the world hiking and travelling through the Andes (and also climbing the longest set of stairs in Guayaquil…thanks Malena for teaching me escolar means stairs and not escalator!), whale watching in Puerto Lopez, hiking behind thundering waterfalls at the edge of the Amazon, centuries of beautiful architecture, stunning cathedrals, comfort food like arroz con pollo and bolones with a nice cold bottle of Pilsiner, the freshness of everything from the air and sea to things like milk, juices, eggs, and popcorn. Yes, popcorn. Bryan can attest to the fact that Ecuador has the best popcorn in the world. We even have had discussions on how to build an Ecuadorian popcorn empire to share our discovery! It’s hard to believe all this took place seven years ago! This post is a thank you to my dear Ecuadorian friends for sharing these experiences with me on their home turf as well as the many great times we shared together while living and working in Palm Springs. I hope to meet again soon to catch up.
Shortly after returning from Ecuador, I was craving for their amazing food. Malena and I tried our hand at making patecones and ceviche at my place in Palm Springs.
Today I give my hand at trying to make one of Ecuador’s nicest comfort foods, Seco de Pollo. It is basically a flavorful chicken stew slow cooked in a succulent sauce until the meat falls from the bone. I served mine with some arroz amarillo (yellow rice) which is basic rice cooked with a little achiote powder in the boiling water, and chilfles, which are fried plantain chips. I hope you enjoy my version of this favorite dish. It’s pretty easy to make, and all the ingredients cost around 8 Bahraini Dinar which is around $21 US. It will probably cost less in other countries, since grocery items are a bit pricey in Bahrain. For those of you with Parkinson’s or other mobility impairments, the sauce is pretty easy to do since you can cut the veggies into big chunks and send it through the blender. There is only a little dicing involved for the onion and garlic for the sofrito. I hope my Ecuadorian friends give it a go and give me some feedback on the recipe. I hope you all give it a try as well. It is simply amazing!
SECO DE POLLO
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
1 kg assorted chicken pieces
4 T oil
2 red onions, quartered
1 small red onion, minced (for sofrito)
5 garlic cloves, whole
2 garlic cloves, minced (for sofrito)
2 T ground achiote or annatto (if you can’t find, substitute turmeric to give a yellow color)
2 C beer (if halal, you can substitute water or chicken stock)
3 small tomatoes, quartered
1 large green capsicum, cut in chunks
1 Serrano chilli (or jalapeno or red chilli)
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch parsley
1 t oregano
1 t cumin
Method
Blend together the beer, quartered onions, tomatoes, whole garlic, capsicum, peppers, 1/2 bunch cilantro, 1/2 bunch parsley, oregano, and cumin into a smooth puree.
In a large saucepan or soup pot, heat the oil on medium heat, add minced onion, minced garlic, and achiote and saute for about 2 minutes to make a sofrito.
Add chicken and brown lightly on all sides, then add the blended puree mix.
Cook on low heat for about an hour and a half until chicken is very tender (the meat should be ready to fall off the bone) and the sauce has thickened. If the chicken is tender, but the sauce is not yet thick, stir in 2 teaspoons of corn starch into the sauce.
Add the remaining cilantro and parsley and salt and pepper to taste, simmer for another few minutes.
Serve with arroz amarillo.
Standing in between the clouds looking out towards Mt. Cayambe
Pacific Ocean Sunset in Montanita
