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FRESHFARM MVT Market Vendor Ana’s Twist Makes National Headlines!

Friday April 5, 2024

A recent New York Times article profiled a labor-intensive traditional Ecuadorean soup called fanesca that is prepared and served specifically during Holy Week in the lead up to Easter Sunday. The soup contains at least 12 ingredients and toppings, to represent the 12 Apostles, and typically includes several different types of beans, corn, rice, and squash broth along with toppings like fresh cheese, hard-boiled eggs, cod, fried plantains, and spicy red pepper. The people (mostly women) responsible for making the soup for their communities often pull all-nighters to ensure that all the ingredients are prepped and ready to eat in time for the holy days. However, the article goes on to say that Ana Garcia of FRESHFARM MVT Market’s very own Ana’s Twist goes above and beyond to prepare a recipe that can be enjoyed throughout the year stating:

Other cooks, like Ana García in Alexandria, Va., want people to buy the soup throughout the year. She makes a vegan version — using plant-based dairy, zucchini and cabbage, along with other traditional ingredients — every day at pop-ups and farmers’ markets through her business, Ana’s Twist. In Quito, where she’s from, she even introduced a sweet version of fanesca at the ice cream shop she owned with her husband.

On Good Friday, people will eat only the soup. “It’s a lot,” she said.

Ana shared on Ana’s Twist’s Instagram that “we are proud to let everyone know our culture and how blessed we are preparing this in USA”.

Ana’s Twist can be found weekly at the FRESHFARM MVT Market at the corner of 5th & I Streets NW on Saturdays from 9am-1pm. Pick up her fanesca or any of her other vegan soup offerings, along with empanadas, fruit sorbets, and cassava bread next time you’re there!

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