Food
www.qns.com I LIC COURIER I NOVEMBER 2019 31
“How good can it be? There are no Ecuadorians
there,” I thought to myself practicing culinary contempt
prior to investigation. Good enough to garner a glowing
review from the Times it turns out. I’m a little late to
the party, but I’m doing my best to eat my through the
exquisite Ecuadorian cuisine that makes up the menu
of this restaurant whose name means Melania’s corner.
The Melania in question is family matriarch, Lucila
Melania Dutan, whose son Nestor Jazmani Dutan and
his siblings Jennifer, Alex and GiGi run the place. Nestor
takes care of the front of the house and is also responsible
for the decor in the cozy modern dining room, which
features at least a half dozen stuffed alpacas, which have
become the restaurant’s de facto mascot.
Bolon mixto — a golden deep fried orb of plantain filled
with mozzarella and chicharrón — hailing from Guayaquil
in the Costa, or Pacific Coastal region, is a great way
to start off. It is a revelation: The golden mantled crust
yielding to an interior studded with bits of fried pork and
filaments of mozzarella. The secret, Nestor said, is that
it’s made fresh and fried twice. It takes about 15 minutes
to prepare but is well worth the wait. Llapingachos, a
specialty of the country’s mountainous Sierra region,
here filled with mozzarella are also excellent.
While you’re waiting for your bolon, munch
on tostado, crunchy salty kernels of pan
fried corn that are a popular snack in
the Sierra region. Should you choose
to order Ecuador’s national dish ence-bollado
— a ruddy, fortifying stew of
generous hunks of tuna, yucca and
tomatoes topped with pickled onions
from which it gets its name — save some of
the kernels. They make for an excellent add-in
as does a generous squeeze of fresh lime.
Back home the dish is a popular hangover
cure said Dutan. “I’ve tested that a couple of
times. It does work it makes you full the day after when
you’re super hungry. It immediately cures it,” he said.
Mariscos mixtos, also a renowned hangover cure, a
ceviche comprised of octopus, shrimp, and bass cooked
in lime is excellent and has been a family favorite for
decades. It’s served Costa style, with tostones, thick
planks of fried plantains, that can be used to make
an Ecuadorian seafood bruschetta of sorts.
“I would refuse to, like, fight about that because it doesn’t
make any sense. At one time we were all one country.
People like to fight about it,” Dutan said with a laugh when
asked whether ceviche was invented in Peru or Ecuador.
His Mom may be responsible for the mariscos mixtos,
but he and his half sister GiGi take the credit for ceviche
vegetariano, a surprisingly delicious combination of
quinoa, garbanzo beans and cherry tomatoes.
Many of the restaurant’s best dishes, including seco
de chivo a dish from the Costa region, are found on the
Tradicionales section
of the menu. It’s a
rich earthy goat stew
cooked with Cerveza
Pilsener — an Ecua-dorian
beer — and pas-sion
fruit pulp, which tem-pers
the goat’s muskiness.
“People eat it over there at
7 a.m.,” Dutan said. “It’s not a
breakfast dish, but it’s a hearty
dish that will keep you full
during almost the whole day.”
Dutan who lives in
Flushing these days grew
up splitting his time between Ecuador and Queens and
his passion for his heritage shows in Rincón Melania’s
décor. Several large tapestries featuring indigenous
women known as Otavaleñas wearing traditional hats
line the dining room. A wall of photos, including one
of people enjoying almuerzo — or midday meal — in
his cousin’s hometown of Azogues lines one wall.
“Almuerzo is really popular here Monday through
Friday, so I wanted to express that,” Dutan said. The
photo on the bottom featuring folkloric dancers in
native dress may look like it was taken in Ecuador,
but Dutan confirms that is was shot in Queens. “That
was our grand opening,” he said proudly.
Rincón Melania
35-19 Queens Boulevard, Long Island City
718-361-1905
Encebollado — a hearty fish stew that is Ecuador’s
national dish — takes well to a few squeezes of lime.
Rincón Melania's vibrant ceviche mixto, featuring
shrimp and octopus and the mighty bolon filled with
pork, plantains, and mozzarella.
The po-tato
croquettes
called llapinga-chos,
a specialty of
the Ecuador’s moun-tainous
Sierra region,
here filled with mozzarella
are also excellent.
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