Coastal Breakfast · Fried Plantain Ball

Bolón de Verde

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Order a 'bolón mixto' and you get both cheese and chicharrón in the same ball; many Guayaquil cafés open before dawn to serve them.

Green (unripe) plantains are boiled, then mashed and hand-shaped into a dense ball around a filling of salty cheese or crumbled pork chicharrón before being pan-fried until the crust turns golden. Coastal breakfast stalls in Guayaquil and Manabí serve it split open with fried eggs and a mug of coffee, often before dawn.

Why it's made this way: The name comes from bola, 'ball', and the dish grew out of the coastal provinces of Manabí and Guayas, where green plantain was a cheaper everyday staple than wheat bread.