Quito Spice Market

After living here in Quito for four months the main thing my boyfriend and I missed from home was red pepper flakes. Don’t they have spices in Ecuador, you ask? Yes, they do. But no red pepper flakes. We tried the local markets, the supermarkets, the supermaxis, the mega maxi, the specialty food stores near Santa Clara trolley stop and the only trace we found of them was one lone flake in a giant empty glass jar. We asked the sales girl when she would be getting more in. She shrugged and continued eating her sandwich. After about 30 seconds, when she realized we were red pepper flake crazed and had no intention of leaving without an answer she slowly swallowed her food and said, “I don’t know. Sometime. Maybe.”

We were just about to give up when we heard word of a spice market way up North in the city a few blocks from the Y trolley stop. Desperate for culinary heat, we headed up that way and indeed found a large market two blocks East of the Y trolley stop. It doesn’t look like much from outside, but oh the beauty of the interior.






Gorgeous bright fruit and vegetables, tons of locally grown fresh spices, fish, meat, baskets, everything you could want. However we didn’t see any red pepper flakes…until we did.




And oh the joy of seeing their crushed, red, flaky, flakes of spicy yumminess. We bought a lot. We also bought curry, saffron, cinnamon, black pepper, chili peppers and all the spices we could dream of.


For you Korean, Chinese, and Japanese cuisine lovers there is also an Asian Market right next to the large market which carries seaweed, vermicelli noodles, all sorts of ramen, Korean sauces and Japanese sweets. Enjoy!