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Street Cart · Hand-Churned Sorbet

Helados de Paila

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The sorbet is still churned by hand in a copper pan set into a bed of ice and straw, a method invented in Ibarra in the 1890s and largely unchanged since.

Fresh fruit pulp and sugar are hand-stirred in a wide copper pan sitting in crushed ice and straw until it freezes into a bright, dense sorbet. Vendors in Ibarra's main square scoop it fresh to order.

Why it's made this way: Helados de paila were invented in Ibarra, and the city remains the dish's undisputed home in Ecuador.
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Part of World of Street Food — 690 dishes from 118 countries. Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below. Photo credits.