Food

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This entire post is dedicated to the food that I have eaten so far. The names will probably be a little off, so sorry in advance.

First at the house. Lotty does not really like to cook, and when she does, its usually less traditional costa rican food. I know I talked a little about having pizza and pasta, but she has also made me chicken noodle soup and mac and cheese. For breakfast the first few days, she prepared a bowl of cereal, yogurt, fruit, and crackers, along with a glass of juice. I told her I really didn´t need that much for breakfast. But the cereal was also really nasty. So now she gives me fruit, yogurt, and juice. The fruits have been papaya, grapes, cantelope, and apples. For dinner, she has also made me a few more traditional dishes. For example, today I had this think like chicken sausage, but I don´t remember the name of it, with rice, beans, and a salad. A few days ago I had Costa Rican tamales. These are a little different than the ones that I have had in the United states because they are wrapped in banana tree leaves and have the mushy stuff that is in tamales, but also pieces of steak or chicken, vegetables, and rice. The other day, I went over to Lotty´s mother´s house which is right next door and in the same fenced in area. She is from El Salvador and so she cooks many traditional Salvadorian dishes. We had Pan dulce that was wrapped in corn husk and looked almost like a huge muffin. They also severd me Horchata, which is rice milk, condensed milk, sugar, and cinnamon. It was alright, but too sweet to drink a lot of. I was only able to have a few sips.

At the school, the food is a little different. It is a good mix between what American students would like and traditional Costa Rican foods. Every day there is a different kind of fresco. So far, there has been peach, watermelon, mango, and raspberry. I liked the peach and raspberry, but not so much the other two. Every day we have a marienda, which is a snack, and lunch at the university. The marienda is different everyday. They usually have a fruit and something else. Today, we had something that was like a bread pudding, but was in cubes and was a little thicker. It had a crumbled sugar top, and tasted a lot like french toast with cinnamon. It was very good. The other day we had these corn pancakes, that I was really not a fan of at all. But pretty much everything tastes good if you put this kind of tican salsa on it. I have no idea how to explain it, but it is not spicy at all and is delicious. I am going to try to bring a bottle home. For lunch, there has been all different foods. Theres been steak fajitas, tuna salad, quesadillas, and so much more. Everything is very good and is prepared by a group of chefs. They usually have gallo pinto with every meal, and I learned that I really like black beans.

I have also eaten a few times in the town. Every Sunday there is a market with fresh fruits and food. Last Sunday, I had a fresh mango and tried coconut water strait from the coconut. I didn´t really like the coconut water, but it wasn´t terrible. There is also a smoothie place called Anana´s which is amazing. It´s like a completely, all natural Jamba Juice. I got a banana, mango, peach, strawberry smoothie and was delicious. I have also gone to an icecream store where I had almost like an oreo, icecream, and chocolate and carmel sauce parfait. Today, I went to the panadería and bought fresh whole wheat bread that was the size of the bagel. It was very fresh and delicious. The restaurants here are very good as well. There is one called Cabana de Don Manuel. I´ve been there a few times and have ordered chicken quesadillas and steak fajitas. They surprisingly have very good french fries as well.

A very popular fruit in Costa Rica is papaya. I, myself, am not a huge fan of papaya. It does not really have a taste, but the texture is like overripe cantelope. Don David, the director of Conversa, showed me that if you squeeze lime over it, it actually tastes pretty good.

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