For a first-timer, the best way to explore Ecuadorean food is with one of Sol de Quito's combo platters. The montanero ($13.99) features a thick hank of way-garlicky sausage; a heap of meat chunks fried to super-concentrated porkiness; a bowl of plain brown beans; a pounded and breaded beefsteak; two comical cocktail franks that never saw the inside of a can, quizzically forked at both ends like snake tongues; a mesa of rice, sculpted by a pint plastic carryout container; and a pair of poached eggs that, when you cut into them, spill liquid gold over everything else. The "mountain climber" (as the name translates) is way more food than one person can eat, but two can scale its heights... More >>>