Fanesca

Fanesca is a soup traditional to Ecuador. Its components and preparation vary from one region of the country to another, if not from one family to another. It is typically prepared and served only in the week before Easter. It is a rich soup, with the primary ingredients being figleaf gourd (sambo), pumpkin (zapallo), fava beans and twelve different kinds of grains (chochos, abas, lentils, peas, corn and other) representing the disciples of Jesus, and salt cod, cooked in milk, due to the Christian religious prohibition against red meat during Holy Week (the week before Easter). It is also generally garnished with hard boiled eggs, fried plantains, herbs, parsley, and sometimes empanadas.
Fanesca is consumed mid-day (the largest meal of the day is generally consumed mid-day within Ecuadorian culture.) The making and eating of fanesca is generally a social and/or family function.
==External links==
*Fanesca recipe 
*Calvin Trillin, "Speaking of soup", The New Yorker, 5 September 2005. Trillin travels to Ecuador to experience true fanesca. Re-printed in The Best American Travel Writing 2005.
Category:Easter food