Esmeraldan cooking is closer to Caribbean and West African food than to anything you find inland in Ecuador. The defining ingredient is coconut milk (leche de coco), and the regional specialities all use it: encocado (fish or seafood in coconut sauce, served over rice and patacones), tapao (steamed fish with green plantain), and cazuelas (a heavier seafood stew thickened with peanut). Local plantain dishes — bolones, patacones, and bala (a sweet-savoury plantain dumpling) — are everywhere.
The best places to try them are the small cevicherías and family restaurants in Las Palmas and along the malecón. Markets serve the cheapest and often the best food: ask for encocado de pescado or encocado de camarón.
Coconut sweets and tropical fruits — guanábana, zapote, borojó — are sold from carts everywhere.