Special delivery in Cuenca

Oct 4, 2017 | 0 comments

By Edd and Cynthia Staton

Mug cakes aren’t the only food category where Cynthia and I arrived late to the party. A much more basic topic hiding in plain view has until recently eluded us for years.

Our daughter’s home in New Jersey is in that raising small children mode with which we’re all familiar. There never seems to be enough time and everyone’s always tired. So when we’re there visiting the drawer with menus from local eateries is often opened, a phone call is made, and shortly thereafter the doorbell’s ring announces that dinner has arrived via delivery.

We came to Cuenca in 2010 before the arrival of this home delivery idea. And truthfully the food scene was so abysmal then there wasn’t anything you would have wanted to order anyway. Fast forward to today when a remarkable explosion of culinary choice has blossomed.

We’ve seen the motorcycles with boxes on the back for making deliveries. We’ve even been in restaurants and seen boxes of pizzas going out the door. But somehow those observations never translated into our participation. I often say there’s a fine line between being in a groove and being in a rut. Perhaps, as with the story awhile back about the gas guy, we had fallen into the latter category.

About six months ago, after 6 1/2 years, we finally took the plunge and ordered a to-go pizza and Caesar salad from one of our favorite Italian eateries. As expected the delivery guy couldn’t find our building (the number is out of synch and no one seems to be able find it the first time) and I had to walk down four flights of steps to complete the transaction. But the food was wonderful and we’re sitting at the table asking, “Exactly why have we not done this before? The delivery fee is about the same as the tip we would leave and we didn’t have to go to and from the restaurant, wait for the order, wait for the bill, wait for the change–this needs to happen more often!!”

And indeed it has. In addition to the pizza place, a new gringa-run food delivery business called Grits Catering has quickly become an integral place of our weekly meal planning. Owner Jennifer Martin is cranking out some damned tasty food and we’ve been elated to wash a couple of plates, knives, and forks after a delicious meal instead of facing those plus a kitchen of dirty cutting boards, utensils, pots, and pans to clean up.

We’ve enjoyed shrimp and grits (What??), gourmet meatloaf and au gratin potatoes, barbeque chicken salad, shrimp po’ boys. I’m in fact writing this blog right now because we’re waiting for delivery of short ribs and mushroom risotto, and I can’t wait to dig in!

Between inexpensive local almuerzos and meal delivery our grocery bill and kitchen cleanup time have both been slashed. OK, we’re late to the party but the Staton’s say:

Party on!!

Edd & Cynthia Staton

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