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From INSIGHT GUIDE's "Ecuador & Galapagos" - in their own words:
There is no single Ecuadorian cuisine, but several different ones corresponding to the geographic regions of the country: Costa, Sierra and Oriente. And, as in most countries, there are "high" and "low" cuisines: what you'll find in good restaurants is quite different from what most people eat in the countryside and what you'll find in market booths and small cafes throughout the country.

Staples and highlights:

• rice and potatoes
• fruits of all kinds including passion fruits (aya-tacso, maracuya and granadilla are just a few varities, sweet custard apples (chirimoyas), tart tamarinds ( tamarindos), mangos, etc.
• Pacific flavors: ceviche made of shrimp, lobster, sea bass, crab, oysters and mixes of these; corvina (fish) made a variety of ways
• Tastes of the Oriente: potatoes, yuca, rice, river fish, palmitos
• Sierra cuisine: potatoes in many sizes, varieties, colors; soups of a variety of denisty and ingredients; corn
• Quinoa, often called the "miracle grain", native to the Andes; most often included in soups but can be a side dish

"From Pet to Pot" - in the words of  INSIGHT GUIDE:
If you'll settle for something smaller than a sirloin, try guinea-pig (cuy). Until the arrival of the Europeans, cuy was the main source of meat in the Andes.   Every family had guinea-pigs running around the kitchen, and some still do. Cuy is eaten only on special occasions, when one is scooped up, killed, gutted, cleaned, rubbed with lard and spices, put on a spit and roasted in the fire or baked in the oven. If you can bring yourself to try cuy, you'll find that there's not much meat, but what there is is delicious, and, as the Ecuadorians put it, what else are guinea-pigs good for?

Some popular dishes:

• locro de papas - potato and cheese soup
• mote: corn burst with alkali
• llapingachos: fried potato and cheese patties
• humitas: tender ground corn steamed in corn leaves
• empanads de morocho: a ground corn shell fill with meat
• ceviche: marinaded fish and seafood
• patacones: thick fried plantain chips served as a side dish
• yuca: manioc or cassava root