The story
Helado de paila is credited to Rosalía Suárez, who began making it in 1896 as a teenager in Ibarra, in the Andes of northern Ecuador. She set a copper pan, the paila, on a bed of straw and ice carried down from the slopes of Imbabura volcano, then spun the pan while stirring fruit juice until it thickened into a sorbet made without milk or cream. Factory ice has long replaced the mountain ice, but the hand-stirred method is largely unchanged. Her descendants still run the Heladería Rosalía Suárez in the centre of Ibarra, serving flavours such as blackberry and soursop, and the city is known nationwide for these sorbets.
Also known as helados de paila, Ecuadorian pan ice cream, helado de paila de Ibarra.
On the Meridish menu
Helado de paila was the dessert course on menu No. 25 on October 25, 2026. Its clue in the game, which hints at the place without naming it:
Fruit sorbet stirred by hand in a copper pan set on ice. A teenage girl invented it here in 1896, using snow carried down from a nearby volcano.
In Meridish, every dish is pinned to the town or city most widely credited with creating it. A guess within 25 km scores all 100 points. How scoring works.
Sources
- tastingtable.com/947826/helado-de-paila-the-ecuadorian-ice-cream-you-should-know-about
- eltelegrafo.com.ec/noticias/sociedad/220/helados-paila-ecuador-ibarra
Food history is often disputed. Think we've pinned it in the wrong place? Tell us at hello@meridish.com, ideally with a source.
