My name is Layla Pujol, my family and friends call me Laylita. I was born in Vilcabamba, Ecuador and currently live in Luxembourg. I spent several years in the US, both in Austin and in Seattle, and our family recently moved to Europe. My recipes are inspired mainly by traditional Ecuadorian dishes that I grew up eating in Ecuador. However, my love of food – and therefore the recipes posted here – go beyond Ecuador and include anything from Latin America, my mom’s spicy New Mexican cooking, my grandmother’s homemade Southwestern dishes and Texas style BBQ, my husband’s (and his family’s) delicious French food, new dishes introduced by my amazing group of international friends, and of course the great variety of seafood, vegetables and fruits available in the Pacific Northwest.
I am currently working on my first cookbook, which will focus on delicious Ecuadorian recipes (adapted to my style, of course!).
The longer version of my story
My approach to cooking and general instructions for using this site
Additional contact information
Photo and content use
Recipe development, product reviews, disclosure, and advertising
Privacy policy
If you have any questions or comments you can leave them in the comment section, or you can email me directly layla at laylita dot com
Layla! I am loving your blog, as I lived in Cuenca and traveled Ecuador (Vilcabamba y Loja included!) I fell in love with a myriad of Ecuatoriano specialities that your website has helped me re-create for my family and friends back in the states. The one thing that is missing though…humitas! If there were anyway you could post a sweet & moist humita rellena de queso recipe, I’d be eternally grateful! Thanks so much for the awesome work you’re doing and I agree whole-heartedly with your naranjilla statement!
You are a very talented cook, writer, and photographer. Your family is lucky to have you! You should publish. I will be back. :)
Hola Layla,
You have a beautiful blog — you’ve done a lovely job on both the text and the pictures. I’m going to add a link to your blog on mine (Eat Real, http://www.realfoodforrealpeople.blogspot.com). I look forward to reading more!
All best,
Sandy Smith
Hello!
My name is Inese and I work for the Latvian Fisheries and Marketing Centre. We are popularizing the heartiness of fish products in our homepage http://www.edzivis.lv. I would like to ask your permission for republishing some recipies and photos from your homepage, of course with putting references to your site.
Best regards,
Inese Caune
Hi, I was probably running in dumb mode and didn’t realize until now that your main page is in English. Way cool. Congrats again
Don Lucho
Hi Farida, I need to add that option. I just have the feed subscription right now (https://www.laylita.com/recipes/feed/), but I can add you manually to the subscriber list until I get that set up. Thank you.
Layla, how do I subscribe to your page? I can’t find Posts RSS.
Hi Beth, Thank you for your comments. Chicha de jora is made from fermented corn so it has that fermented taste, and you can use it for the stew, you can also use the chicha limena, but since it has added spices you might adjust the amount of spices and panela you use.
I just love your site! Ther recipes are fascinating and the photos are both instructive and tempting. I tried the goat stew with some meat from my local farmer’s market. I used a cup of passion fruit juice instead of naranjillo and beer instead of chicha–trying to keep it local out here in the burbs, ya know. It was so good I thought I’d go for authentic ingredients at the international supermarket 18 miles away. They had something called “chicha de jora” (tastes like vinegar; is it vinegar? is it spoiled?) and also “chicha limena” (it’s pretty–made with purple corn–fruity, spiced, sweet). Is either of these products what I need to make the goat stew?
Hi Ariel, I have llapingachos on my list of recipes to post soon. The roasted crunchy corn is called tostado, and I’ve been told that you can find Peruvian maiz cancha in the US and use it make the tostado, I need to do some more research on the process.