Eating Like A Tico

The staples of the tico diet are rice and beans (arroz y frijoles). A typical meal or casado usually consists of mixed rice and beans, meat (generally chicken or fish), a fried plantain, and an ensalada which can include any combination of fruits and vegetables. The national dish is gallo pinto. According to wikipedia, "The name gallo pinto means 'spotted rooster'. When the beans and rice are combined, the rice gets colored by the beans, and the mix results in a specked appearance. Nicaraguans traditionally prepare it with small red beans, while Costa Ricans usually use black beans. Beans are slowly cooked until the juice is almost consumed."

Having recently discovered our tico heritage, we are diving headlong into a steady diet of rice and beans. We generally drench our rice and beans in lizano salsa (pictured left of Spanish's meal). Lizano salsa is better known as cowabunga sauce due to the fact that it is pretty cowabunga. We stocked up on tico food at the local super mercado, which by the way was not local or super. We have heard that the best food is found by stopping local delivery trucks to pick up fresh fish, chicken, bread, fruits, and vegetables from various trucks. We aren't privy to the truck schedule, and it will be time consuming to stop each truck individually. Yet the lure of amazingly fresh local food is too tempting to ignore. Apparently the beer truck is off limits. Beer distribution is monopolized in Costa Rica, and the beer truck is accompanied by an armed guard to protect this cash business. Bummer.
The local liquor is guaro. "It is a clear liquor made from sugar cane, and therefore has a slightly sweeter taste than comparable liquors. Guaro is a popular alcoholic drink in Costa Rica, although in many places guaro can refer to almost any liquor. guaro is made by a distillation process of sugarcane juices, resulting in an alcohol that is clear in color and has a slightly sweet flavor.
Sometimes guaro is referred to as a "soft vodka" because it has a lower alcohol content than vodka. In Costa Rica, the goverment nationalized the manufacturing of Guaro in an effort to quell the clandestine production of liquor. The "Fabrica Nacional de Licores" (National Liquor Factory) was founded for this reason, and currently produces the only legal brand of Guaro, the Guaro Cacique." For our purposes guaro is Spanish for "cheap booze that mixes well."

Click COMIDA for more information regarding the tico diet.