HUECAS! Best Restaurants in CUENCA Ecuador on a Budget

Some of the best restaurants in Cuenca Ecuador are "huecas." These little hole in the wall restaurants serve traditional Ecuadorian food, open after 5pm and have killer aji.
I always stay at the CASA CUENCANA. It's affordable, Ecuadorian owned and so clean and comfortable.
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Here are 7 huecas in Cuenca that you'll want to try (addresses below!).
At the Los Sandwiches de Doña Piedad you can try a pernil sandwich. It's made similar to hornado where it's a slow roasted pork. It comes in a simple white bun and of course you have some aji and coco drink for $2.60.
One pernil sandwich isn't enough so go to El Vecino, which means neighbour. This family run spot has been around for generations. The aji they use is different. It's a cream base. This one is $1.50. It's really good. Worth trying both.
Huecas are all about eating traditional food in Cuenca. But did you know hot dogs are considered traditional and super popular in Cuenca. La Tropical been around for 53 years and I'm actually at the very first location, which is called Dispensa Tropical.
They're only a dollar and they do it a little bit differently. It's actually a chicken hot dog cooked on like a rotisserie served with mayonnaise and pickled onions.
One of the most popular street vendors in the city is now one of the best restaurants in Cuenca, Las Piezas del Maño. This guy is known all over the city, everyone knows him and that's because he first started as a food truck outside of the university. And he's famous for his hot dogs, for two reasons, one, because they always have a second meaning.
In fact, his name means Maño’s Wieners and how he names his hot dogs: big weiner, little weiner etc.
So the hot dogs are actually steamed alongside the onion and tomato and then topped with mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup. This and a coco drink is $1.50.
The last hot dog restaurant has an English name “My Favorite Dog”, but everyone here calls it La Ventanita. It's a steamed hot dog with shredded cured meat on top of it along with onion, mustard, mayonnaise. Ecuadorians don't like to stand in line, but they do here.
Soda Margarita is known for two things: Salchipapas and secos. Secos have quite an interesting story, and it comes from the fact that at lunch in Ecuador, you have almuerzo, it’s a set lunch. And there were two different courses, but in Guayaquil it was very hot. And so when the British came here, they didn't want to have a hot soup to start their lunch.
They only wanted the second course. Not knowing Spanish they just kept saying second but Ecuadorians not knowing English thought...didn't know what they And thought they were saying seco. And so this dish is far from dry, which is what seco means.
Pinchos in northern Ecuador are called chuzos here. Chuzos Alexandrita is in southern Cuenca. The only restaurant that is not in Cuenca's historic district. I wanted to try molleja or chicken heart. You can also get chicken feet called pata, chicken neck, choclo con queso, paisa etc.
00:00 Introduction
00:46 Los Sanduches de Doña Piedad
02:07 El Vecino
03:19 Dispensa Tropical
05:10 Las Piezas de Maño
06:28 La Ventanita
07:32 Soda Margarita
10:00 Chuzos Alexandrita
Dona Piedad: Juan Jaramillo # 1-119
El Vecino: Bolivar y Tomas Ordoñez
Dispensa Tropical: C. Mariscal Lamar 10
Maño: Av juan Iñiguez entre Av 10 de Agosto y Alfonso Moreno Mora
My Favorite Hot - Dog: Manuel Vega y Juan Jaramillo
Soda Margarita: Estevez de Toral y Pio Bravo
Chuzos: Av Américas y Mexico
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