(Road) Avocado Part 2: La vida es Buena en Ecuador!

I love to travel. I grew up in a military family, so I think somehow all that enforced change seeped into my cells and somehow transformed into a desire to seek out new things.
However, as we know, travelling as a vegan can be tricky. So when I went to Ecuador with my mom earlier this year, a good third of my suitcase was food: instant soup, protein bars, shake'n'go smoothie powder, dried fruit... let's just say I brought a lot of food with me. But I brought a lot back home too, since I ate very well for most of my trip.
When we registered for the group tour (we went with GAdventures, by the way, and while this won't be a full-colour ad for them, I can't recommend them enough) we were told I may have trouble during the homestay part of the tour. I won't get into all of it quite yet--waxing poetic about all the delicious things I ate will definitely take more than one post--but the homestay portion was definitely not the hungriest part of my tour.
On my second day in Ecuador (my first day involved a challenging meal at a Chinese restaurant, normally a good option for vegans, in my experience, and "not much" egg), I had an amazing vegan ceviche. I knew about ceviche from Terry Hope Romero's Viva Vegan but my attempt at mushroom ceviche from that cookbook's recipe fell flat. I was delighted to have vegetable ceviche made with peppers, mushrooms, onions, cauliflower, tomatoes and more--served with thick ripe slices of avocado. Heaven! I had veg ceviche a few more times in Ecuador, and soon found it was usually served with a unique regional twist--but more about soon.

Reuben Sandwich with a capital S

I bought Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day a couple months ago. It's awesome, and the pictures make my mouth water, but I hadn't made anything from it yet. Until today, of course. On an impulse last week, I bought sauerkraut and pumpernickel bread from the grocery store thinking of the One World Reubens from the cookbook. Something about toothy seitan and sour-crunchy sauerkraut got my tastebuds in a tizzy. But today when I started making them I realized I didn't have all the ingredients. So I made the seitan with a couple cheats, substitutions and flavour tricks. The sauce too--it was supposed to include a half or dozen or things I didn't have, so I fudged it with mayo and hot sauce, giving my version an almost neon pink hue. Then of course I forgot to add the sauce before I grilled the sandwich, so the slice next to the sauerkraut got soggy. However, I managed to hold off eating this gorgeous veGANwich until I took a picture and then was able to dig in. It was everything I dreamed it would be. The reuben is one of those sandwiches that definitely lets you know you're eating an entire meal. It's not a sandwich, it's a Sandwich. Even if you make a mockery of the original recipe ingredients, respect the reuben--and then eat the hell out of it.