BENIHANA - ECUADOR STYLE

The other night Chuck, Nancy, Jim and I went out to dinner at a wonderful place called "Otabi." This is the Ecuadorian version of Benihana. If you have ever been to a Benihana in the States you know that half the fun of the meal is watching the chef prepare your food in front of you.

We arrived early and were the first ones in, so got to choose our spots around the large gas grills. Here's a look at the menu:
(remember, these prices are in dollars - the local currency).

Chuck ordered the Chateaubriand, Jim ordered the spicey prawns, Nancy ordered the salmon and I ordered the combo seafood plate with salmon, prawns and calamari. We also had several orders of fried garlic and mushrooms - Oh Baby!

Here our chef is adding some oil to the garlic slices.

And turning the prawns:

Lots of action as he turns the meat and seafood, and adds various sauces.






Veggies ready for the grill:

Now he adds the plates to the corners of the grill to warm them up:



The Chateaubriand is plated up:

Yes, it was as good as it looks!

And the garlic was so yummy that I ate too much and it nearly did me in the next day:

After this sumptuous meal we were full, but ordered dessert anyway. The choices were (grilled) banana, pear, raspberry or strawberry. We got everything except strawberries. Look how pretty these are - and who would have thought of grilling raspberries?

Here are the bananas and pears being grilled:


The final products - YUM



Although this wasn't the cheapest of Ecuadorian meals, it was still very reasonable for what we got and a fraction of the price of Benihana. I have been to Benihana and can tell you the show here was just as good - maybe better since we got the chef all to ourselves!

Until next time,
Audrey