Subject: Culinary

Informant: Daniel is originally from Guayaquil, a city in the coast of Ecuador.  He is an only child and has just received a diploma in Business. He has lived in California for the past four years, but will be returning to Ecuador in the coming month.

Original Script: Unfortunately, the coast of Ecuador suffers from extreme social inequality. However, these circumstances lead the locals to become extremely resourceful with the little they had. One of the few affordable items in Guayaquil is Plantains. Because of this, there are around 100 different plantain based dishes. This gave the locals the opportunity to diversify their culinary while still maintaining affordable prices.

Background information by informant: Each dish tastes uniquely different, and provides such a distinct palette that you cant even believe that they all stem from the same simple ingredient.

Thoughts: The brilliance of a culture comes from the ability to maximize the available resources in order to make a living. In this way, locals from the coast of Ecuador not only succeeded, but also created a wide range of distinct culinary options with the same basic and abundant resource they could find.