Chifle

The cuisine of Ecuador is based on different uses of fried bananas, such as the chifle, which serves as a companion in the Ecuadorian breakfast.

Early 19th-century travelers on ships entering and leaving the port of Guayaquil were served chifle (instead of bread) with meals, including breakfast, and discovered its use as a snack food.

[5] In the rural social environment of the Ecuadorian coast, principally in the provinces of "Montubio" cultural origin, "chiflar" was a vulgar and colloquial term that means to "whistle" with the mouth in a notably sharp sound by pinching the bottom lip and pushing air out from the lungs, resulting in a strong sound (sometimes pleasant or unpleasant) to catch the listener's attention.

In the Montubia ethnic culture of the coast of Ecuador, this sound was popularly used to call family or close kinsmen from long distances.

It is known as chipilo in Bolivia; plataninas in Guatemala; nenthrakayyi varuthathu or plantain chips in Kerala, South India; mariquitas (English: lady bugs) in Cuba;[6] in Puerto Rico platanutres,[7] platanitos in the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, and tostones or tostoncitos in Venezuela.

More recently, both ordinary and specially flavoured chifles have entered the European market as "plantain chips", produced and distributed by Fyffes of Ireland.