COSTA RICA-3ra. Parte.

MORE… I did mention that Costa Rica lacks of good food, that does not mean Costa Rica does not have good food, it does but the general “Cultural attitude” is very simple and without much flavour, the good thing is that there are lots of Europeans and they contribute to the simplicity of the meals but with a lot of flavour. Costa Rica does have great fruit and great pizza in many places. However, we were really fortunate to have Luis’ family teaching us about Costa Rica’s cuisine.

Here we go…

Arepas.
These are almost like hot cakes and most Costa Ricans use sour cream, jam or cream cheese on top. Very, very tasty but what made them great is that they were prepared by Luis’ aunt.

Snug Harbor Seafoods Pasta.
This is a great memory of our 1st. Anniversary on the Road… Thanks Megon and Kevin for providing us with this wonderful can of salmon prepared precisely by Megon’s family business.
The recipe costs (including the can of salmon) $3.5 dollars and it is prepared as follows.

Ingredients:
1 Can of King Wild Alaskan Salmon
Pasta
Sour cream from Costa Rica (Natilla)
6 Cloves of garlic
1 Small onion
1 Red bell pepper or “Chile dulce”
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Preparation:
1) Open the can and enjoy the smell while you cook the rest of the ingredients. Tourists were gathering around at this point, locals were evacuating.
2) Cook pasta al dente, my favourite method as it keeps the taste of the pasta.
3) Dice 6 cloves of garlic as well as a small onion and a red bell pepper. Fry all the ingredients with some olive oil and add them to the cooked pasta.
4) At the end add the can of salmon along with the sour cream (Ticos call it Natilla) and slowly enjoy this wonderful salmon… of course with the addition of salt and pepper to taste.
5) If you do not know Megon and Kevin you can substitute the salmon for something else of your preference.
6) Good luck!!!

Thanks Megon and Kevin, we really enjoy the salmon!!!

Casado Mahi Mahi.
This was the typical casado from Costa Rica but including Mahi Mahi. We were staying at Hotel Verde Mar in Manuel Antonio and had Chef Oman Ramon Gomez Vargas producing this delicious dish for us.

A little bit of background to all this.
Chef Omar took some courses through INA and other Institutions in Costa Rica. Since 1956 he has been practicing the art of cooking and throughout his career he has participated in different activities and festivals, one of them was the IV Festival Gastronomico Internacional in San Jose, Costa Rica. His life has been dedicated to improving himself and staying updated by reading books like “Mi Cocina” by Auguste Escoffier and attending cooking courses constantly.
For Omar, Costa Rican cuisine is nutritious and rich; however the common Costa Rican tends to put together lots of starches in the same plate. For him it is easy to make perfect combinations since he appreciates the variety of fruits and veggies that Costa Rica owns.
He prepared this Casado that is generally found in a popular restaurant or “soda”; this same dish is found in first class restaurants with the name of Platillo Tipico Costarricense: rice, beans, fried or boiled plantains, salad, and meat.
Our Casado was composed of: Mahi Mahi or Pez dorado found in the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica perfectly prepared and juicy, rice, some veggies (chayote and corn), fried plantains, beans and Turrialba cheese. Fish was prepared with a simple recipe of Salsa Lizano, lemon juice and pepper.
This dish normally cost 3500 Colones, Omar made a bigger plate for us for 5000 Colones.
Omar says that his speciality is Gastronomy in general because everything he prepares tastes delicious… he is right!!!
If you are in Manuel Antonio or Quepos don’t forget to stop by Hotel Verde Mar which is located at 200 metres before the heart of Manuel Antonio, Omar will be waiting for you with proper parking and with enough speed to ensure he satisfies your appetite. He is able to prepare a typical Costa Rican dish as well as an International request.
verdermar@racsa.co.cr

Flor @ San Vito.
Bread is something we enjoy very much. We found a bakery in San Vito, in the South of Costa Rica, that had some spicy tasty baked goods and some sweet queques (cakes). The prices range between 300-1500 Colones depending on size and complexity. The owner and the staff are very friendly and helpful; don’t hesitate to make a stop here since they also have coffee… Enjoy!!!

Liliana’s Pizzeria y Restaurant @ San Vito.
This pizzeria is famous in the country. We were here in 2005 and really enjoy the food and Italian accent. This time we could not forgive ourselves if we missed the excellent service and products they offer while being in San Vito. We had a large pizza (14 pieces) of De La Casa Pizza (meat and tomato sauce, cheese, bacon and mushrooms) and a Bavaria beer from Costa Rica. Pizza was 6700 Colones and beer 1200 Colones. These prices are plus 13% sales tax and 10% service tax. Worth it? Absolutely…

Rainy San Vito.
Yes it is rainy, really rainy but cooking is always a pleasure especially when nothing else can be done. Pasta is a staple but there are always variations to cooking pasta; we recently found this tomatoe sauce that is very convenient because it comes in a small plastic package and it is not heavy. Remember, when on bikes, the lighter the better. I have to say that in Costa Rica we are fortunate to find products in small sizes and light containers, I love it!!!

Ingredients:
Pasta
Salchichon ahumado (kind of sausage)
Salsa de tomate Ranchera Maggi
Cloves of garlic
1 Small onion
Broccoli
Turrialba cheese
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Preparation:
1) Cook the pasta al dente and use the hot water to simmer the broccoli.
2) Dice the onion and garlic and with a little bit of olive oil cook these ingredients, add the salchichon (cut in pieces of the size of your preference). Once all these are cooked add the tomato sauce.
3) Add this mix to the pasta.
4) Add broccoli in the side. Brian does not like to mix his pasta with broccoli, that is why is better just to place it in the side. I was really happy to finally find good broccoli.
5) Add cheese to this combination, salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!!!

COSTA RICA-2a. Parte.

We continue in Costa Rica, gathering some ideas not just for humans…

Happy jumping Alaskan Salmon-Quiche.
This was spectacular and we did not have to go to Alaska to enjoy it, although I would go in a heart bit. Megon cooked this wonderful and economical meal for an evening full of good things… We made the mistake of bringing to the table some bread as an appetizer, totally unnecessary; the quiche was enough and more than enough. She shared with us her recipe and it is basically smoked can salmon, spinach, onions, cheese, milk and salt. It cost her about $5 dollars and the four of us ate 2 pieces each, well served. As usual, I kept a piece of mine for the next day, Brian obviously jealous about my decision got to enjoy Deya’s leftovers the next day…

Shitz’ pot.
Pets are not like family in Costa Rica, it hurts to see this. It hurts even more to see that they only eat once a week in a lot of cases. Why would anybody want an animal, especially a cat, if the animal is going to be ignored? Yes, I understand Costa Rica is wild and that there are lots of things to be eaten in the jungle but cooking for someone or “something” carries a lot of love…
Shitz’ pot is made with a bag of small chicken parts (770 Colones = $1.54 dollars) and some rice (maybe 100 Colones = $0.2 dollars). The parts are boiled with the rice and Shitz has food for a week. How hard can that be? I mean, Brian was insisting that I should keep some of that pot for him and I had to convince him that he gets more than just Shitz’ pot…
I really like and enjoy Shitz, I would take her with me but unfortunately I don’t think cats travel very well on a motorcycle.

Pejibaye.
Mireya and Eli, our friend’s parents, have been very helpful with us and we have learned from them a lot about Costa Rican food. Here we have a pejibaye, which is a relative of the coconut, is one of Costa Rica's most unusual treats. Pejibayes grow in clusters on palm trees, like miniature coconuts. The part that you eat would correspond to the fibrous husk, while the hard pejibaye seed, when cracked open, reveals a thin layer of bitter white meat around a hollow core. The bright orange or red pejibayes are delicious boiled in salted water, then peeled, halved and pitted and eaten alone or with mayonnaise. Their flavour is difficult to describe, they are not sweet, but more a combination of chestnut and pumpkin with a thick, fibrous texture. I really liked them. They can be purchased at markets or taken from the farm (our case); if purchased they cost between 1000-1500 Colones/kilogram, if cut from the farm then you just need to go out to the back of the farm and find an old grown palmito tree and take some pejibayes.

Palmito tree, pejibayes at top.

Mamón criollo.
This bitter-sweet fruit is kind of weird. I could not find a lot of information about it, I can only tell you that I liked tasting it but I will not buy it in the future. Good experience!!!

Fried yuca chips.
Yuca, which I introduced you to in the last report, can be used to make fried chips; the only difference is that you have to cut round chips because the fibres of yuca are quite hard in its longest side, therefore regular fried chips are not an option. Once you fry them you can add some Tajin (lemon zest) or simply a little bit of salt. Delicious and economical: 350 Colones for a kilogram of yuca.

Pura Vida drink.
This is the typical Costa Rican drink. It is made with a liquor called Cacique (aguardiente), another liquor (melocoton), orange and pineapple juice and syrup. We paid a little too much for this, but we were having our first vacation in our first year of travels. At Baldi Hot Springs we paid $9 American dollars. Crazy eh!

Tom’s Pan German Bakery, Nuevo Arenal.

Brian and Deya are known for liking food and riding anywhere just to try a new item; I know one thousand kilometres are nothing but we will ride that amount of kilometres just to try a piece of pie…
This time we went by a German Bakery but it was raining really hard and getting dark, we were in our way to our friends’ farm and could not take the time to stop because we still needed to find “the place”.
For two weeks we can only think about this bakery and finally we made the decision to go back and find it. I am glad we did because going for 180 kilometres was a breeze and what we got there was unique. I have to say that Costa Rica does not lack of anything but good food. This German Bakery is awesome. We tried couple of items: Bratwurst sandwich, plate of specialty cheeses and meats, bread, baked goods… but there is more… Prices are reasonable and the owner, Tom, is a very interesting fellow and an expert on his field.
www.tomspan.com

Brian making bread with Tom? Yes...

Moya’s, Nuevo Arenal.
We found some amazing pizza in Nuevo Arenal, I can say the best pizza we have ever had. This place, Moya’s, is owned by a Costa Rican who worked somewhere else making Italian pizza and came back to his town to give back to the community. A pizza is 5000 Colones and enough for two people. They have a good selection: Pizza Mayan Blanca (grilled chicken in a creamy white sauce with asparagus and mushrooms), Canadiense (Canadian, I can’t imagine what goes in it), Escupe Fuego (I imagine this one is spicy since the name means Spit Fire), Chismosa (Gossiper), etc.

Happy Brian!!!

COSTA RICA-1era. Parte.

Finally we feel we are in a civilized country, I may say… Dani invited us some beers: Imperial made in Costa Rica now. Pretty good, although I don’t know the price yet. I do know that 1 Canadian dollar = 500 Colones.

Gallo Pinto.
This is the best Costa Rican typical dish; it is basically a mix of rice with beans and usually fried plantains on top with sour cream. Cooking it is cheap and you can add any spices you want; typically Costa Ricans add cilantro (or culantro is called here), onion, garlic, soy sauce. Beans are easy to boil if you are at a place where there is a real stove, boiling beans in our little stove is not a choice, but there are always cans of beans at any grocery store.
A pot of Gallo Pinto for 7 people costs around 1000 Colones = $2 dollars…

Alaskan buddies’ dinner…
Alaskans in Costa Rica, yes… and I am sure I did not impress them with this simple dish but I am going to publish it more for the enjoyment we had than the actual recipe, the enjoyment of sharing with great people.
This is basically rice cooked with some veggies: broccoli and cauliflower in a rice cooker. A little piece of already marinated chicken made for a good side. The mango salad was the best for me, although too spicy for Megon… sorry!!! The mango salad is really simple: mangoes, cilantro, tomatoes, avocados, onion, spicy peppers, lemon juice, salt to taste and there we go… Let me tell you, Costa Rica has great fruit and lemons… I love them.

A casado… married? Nope… It is a dish…
For 2800 Colones = $5.6 dollars you can get a super meal that can feed 2 people. We had this great meal at Restaurante La Diligencia in Rio Frio Sarapiqui in Costa Rica. This is Seoni’s favourite restaurant in the area. Yes, Seoni… a great friend who is hosting us at her family’s farm down here. I recommend a casado anytime. Ours had chicken for meat but you can pick from a series of main dishes and as you can see in the picture you will get rice, beans, salad and a boiled plantain… and a big jug of juice…

Mireya’s heart of palm…
Heart of palm, also called palm heart, palmito, burglar's thigh, chonta, palm cabbage or swamp cabbage, is a vegetable harvested from the inner core and growing bud of certain palm trees. Costa Rica produces a lot of this delicious item. It is costly because harvesting in the wild kills the tree. Heart of palm is often eaten in a salad, sometimes called the "millionaire's salad." But it is also eaten with eggs or fried in many ways. Mireya made a great Costa Rican dish with palmito; she fried some onion and cilantro, added diced palmito, seasoning (chicken broth) and eggs. A big pot for 7 people costs 2000 Colones = $4 dollars. Great deal even though palmito is expensive.

A la putica… que picoso…
This is Eli’s favourite phrase: “A la putica”, I will let you find out what this means. Eli knows how to grow food, imagine that… a lot of us are ignorant about it but he is not and taught us a lot about the land where he grows his own food with passion and dedication…
He produces these amazing mix of three different peppers with vinegar of Guineo (type of banana); vinegar of Guineo is produced when bananas are pealed and put in bags to ferment, the liquid is then collected and used to marinate the peppers… A medium size bottle of this mix costs around 600 Colones = $1.2 dollars… And Eli will make one for us to take… Love it!!!

Aquí solo mis chicharrones truenan…
Another dish that only Eli knows how to prepare. Here it is a Costa Rican man who knows how to survive and survive well, one to invite if you are going camping.
Chicharrones in Mexico are pieces of fried skin pork but here it is any piece of the pork well fried and crispy. He just used cilantro, garlic and oil to season this tasty pork… With about 6000 Colones = $12 dollars you can feed 7 people with this typical dish…
A bit greasy therefore no pictures were taken, could not get my camera out… besides I can only lick my fingers and could not stop digging into the pot…


Fresco…
Fresco is any drink in Costa Rica that uses fruit, water and a bit of sugar. You can combine simply lemon juice with water, or blend couple of mangos with water… and some sugar if necessary, place it the fridge and take the jug out when lunch is ready. My favourite so far is “fresco de limon”. One lemon is 30 Colones = $0.06 dollars.

Other discoveries at the farm…
We found yuca, which is known as Cassava, a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae (spurge family) native to South America, is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates. Nigeria is the world's largest producer of cassava. Cassava is the third-largest source of carbohydrates for meals in the world. It is classified as sweet or bitter, depending on the level of toxic cyanogenic glucosides; improper preparation of bitter cassava causes a disease called konzo. Nevertheless, farmers often prefer the bitter varieties because they deter pests, animals, and thieves. This can be simply boiled or fried… I really liked it especially since we get it fresh, here at Luis’ and Seoni’s farm…

We also found Guanabana, known as Soursop. Its flavor has been described as a combination of strawberry and pineapple with sour citrus flavor notes contrasting with an underlying creamy flavor reminiscent of coconut or banana. The price of this fruit is 1000 Colones/kilogram… about $2 dollars/kilogram… really tasty.

HONDURAS & NICARAGUA.

We basically went through these two countries fast. You may wonder why, easy… Tired of being chased by criminals and finding fake police. However, we had to spend a night in Honduras and a night in Nicaragua and found couple of things we can add to the Road Sandwich.

Beer is always a great meal or a great part of the meal. Honduras produces beer “Imperial”, tasty and refreshing, especially after a long day of riding and BS. The price is $30 Lempiras which is equivalent to about $1.57 Canadian dollars. 1 Canadian dollar = 19-20 Lempiras.

We also had a meal way out of our budget but at that time at night and under the circumstances we were, we had to find a safe place. The good thing is that we had great company… Dani… thanks so much for the days spent with us…
This meal cost us 150 Lempiras and supposed to be a typical meal… we shared one and it was not fantastic but was good.

Nicaragua’s beer was deserved: Victoria. We saved some money from those stops where we were asked to “pay” fees to fake police. There is an easy way to avoid this and it is by not breaking any rules and knowing what should and should not be paid for, if there is not receipt is probably wrong…
30 Cordobas per beer, equivalent to about $1.3 Canadian dollars. 1 Canadian dollar = 22-23 Cordobas.

EL SALVADOR.

Again, after an exhaustive day the first thing we found is beer, “Regia” beer. Tastes fine and it is pretty inexpensive. Let me tell you, in El Salvador they use American dollars as currency since 2001. So a six pack costs $3.9 USD.

Second thing we found really delicious and inexpensive was “Pupusas”. Its name comes from the Nahuatl “Pupushahua” which means stuffed tortilla. This is the Salvadorian dish par excellence. These are corn or rice tortillas stuffed with pork, beans, cheese, chicken, etc. They are served with a special pickled cabbage on the side and a tomato-based sauce. They are so popular that you can find them anywhere at any time. You can have a pupusa for $0.40-$0.75 USD. Accompany this with a milk shake of real frozen fruit for $1 USD each shake.

We also found cookies and bread, the sweats… those sweats. It will take me two days riding to get rid of the unnecessary stuff. A bag of cookies can be found for $1-$1.5 USD, but they are so delicious and well made. You can get 6 pieces of delicious bread for $1 USD.

A Mexican torta can be found here for $3 USD… Delicious with pastor meat and hot sauce. Brian’s favourite dish so far.

GUATEMALA.

We are excited about trying what Guatemala produces and as long as they have hot peppers we should be ok. Hot peppers keep us from getting sick.

First thing we found is beer, “Gallo” beer. Tastes more like a low profile American beer but it will do… It is also expensive in comparison to Mexico of course. A “Gallo” beer (small can) goes from 8-9 Quetzales, 7 Quetzales = 1 Canadian dollar or 1 Quetzal = 1.55 Mexican pesos, that sucks!!! I never thought Mexican Money would be worth less than Guatemalan Money. Oh well, it is what it is… And of course at the border you get a lower exchange rate that you could at a proper exchange place.

Second thing we found very peculiar is tortillas. Tortillas are very small and thick and the “Tortillerías” are places where people make tortillas by hand rather than machines. You can buy 5 tortillas for 1 Quetzal.

We made some “molletes” which is basically a bolillo with beans, cheese on top and pico de gallo (in this case without cilantro). Bolillos in Guatemala are called “pirujos” which in Mexico this word means male prostitute. Pirujos go from 0.5-1 Quetzales.

We had a typical Guatemalan breakfast, it was awesome!!! For 24 Quetzales we got: fruit, beans, cheese, eggs and chapin coffee. Chapin coffee is a watered down coffee and if you want to upgrade for a real coffee you have to pay extra, sorry I did not ask how much extra but I did not care because we wanted to try what Guatemalans normally consume. The owner of the restaurant is German and let me tell you, there are lots of Europeans down here, I can see why… Guatemala is very pretty!!!

We cooked some tortas con huevo (tortas with eggs) and used up all the little bits we had.
Ingredients:
Pirujos
Boiled eggs
Chiapas cheese
Tomatoe
Avocado
Onion
Hot sauce

Preparation:
1) Add the Chiapas cheese to the pirujo and then the eggs in slices.
2) Add some avocado, tomatoe and onion.
3) Add hot sauce of your preference and enjoy.