This edition of Full Belly Files was originally emailed to subscribers on July 1, 2022. To receive Matt Kettmann’s food newsletter in your inbox on Fridays, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.
This is my last Full Belly Files until September, unless my evolving trip to strike-struck Ecuador is completely canceled.
If all had gone as planned, I would have toured a farm and vineyard in the mountains east of Quito, Ecuador, yesterday, and dined last night at a lakeside place called Nuum Gastronomia , whose Instagram page — full of indigenous Andean ingredients, treated in gastronomic ways — is as exciting as anything I’m seeing stateside. Tonight, I’d be leaving my loft in the historic heart of Quito to eat at another place called Quitu Identidad Culinaria , which might be the most cutting-edge restaurant in all of Latin America.