The Bonus Word that gets you Free Stuff in Ecuador

Nice word. I hadn´t hear that one, although I don´t shop much at the fruit or vegetable markets since I don´t know what to do with most of it. Here is my Oxford Spanish dictionary entry.

yapa femenino (Cono Sur, Perú familiar) small amount of extra goods given free; ¿no me da la yapa? aren't you going to give me a bit extra for free?; me dio una manzana de yapa she threw in an apple for free (familiar); te cobraron con yapa they really ripped you off o swindled you (familiar)

How much do mangoes cost at the fruit stands?  I ask this because in PA we just had available mangoes from Ecuador selling for $1.25 each.  They are as good as any other mangoes we usually get from Mexico or Central America, but none are quite as good as the sweet Filipino mangoes.  I also noticed at $6.99/lb we now have frozen sea scallops available from Peru.  Does Ecuador do any seafood exports?

Mug:

Re seafood: Ecuador is a significant exporter of shrimp, to the US among other countries. Also, there is a big cannery in Manta, so there must be exports -- I think it's for tuna, but I'm not swearing on that. I know they sell a lot of tuna in the stores there, which in Spanish, I find it amusing, is called 'atun'.

Re mangoes: My Filipina wife looked down her nose at all mangoes other than those called 'Manila' mangoes in the US stores. When I brought some Central American mangoes home after a shopping trip, she tried to be nice about it, but it was made clear that I had screwed up big time.

Sorry, can't recall the price -- I don't eat many mangoes.

BobH wrote:

Mug:

Re seafood: Ecuador is a significant exporter of shrimp, to the US among other countries. Also, there is a big cannery in Manta, so there must be exports -- I think it's for tuna, but I'm not swearing on that. I know they sell a lot of tuna in the stores there, which in Spanish, I find it amusing, is called 'atun'.

Re mangoes: My Filipina wife looked down her nose at all mangoes other than those called 'Manila' mangoes in the US stores. When I brought some Central American mangoes home after a shopping trip, she tried to be nice about it, but it was made clear that I had screwed up big time.

Sorry, can't recall the price -- I don't eat many mangoes.

Thank you.  Your wife knew what she was talking about, the Manila mangoes are too good to go back to Western Hemisphere mangoes.

mugtech wrote:

I also noticed at $6.99/lb we now have frozen sea scallops available from Peru.  Does Ecuador do any seafood exports?

Ecuador exports of fish and seafood have dramatically increased in the past decade.  The main exports of such include shrimp, swordfish, tuna, corvina, tilapia, squid, flounder and sardines.  More than half of these  exports go to the United States.  (ecuadorexports.com)

The world's largest exporter of farmed shrimp is Thailand.  (Wikipedia)

mugtech wrote:

How much do mangoes cost at the fruit stands?  I ask this because in PA we just had available mangoes from Ecuador selling for $1.25 each.  They are as good as any other mangoes we usually get from Mexico or Central America, but none are quite as good as the sweet Filipino mangoes.

Sweet, ripe mangoes were selling today here in Quito for one dollar per bag of five at a street stall by Mercado Santa Clara.  The color of the inner fruit is an intense orange.

I, too, used to overpay for mangoes* in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

cccmedia at the Expat Fruit Desk, in Quito

* Major dictionaries indicate that the plural of this fruit can be spelled either with an "e" or without.  We suspect that Dan Quayle would prefer the version that includes the "e."