When abroad-ers first arrive to the country that
they’ll spend the next few months in, they tend to have a few goals in mind.
Maybe something like, learn the language, take risks, open themselves to new
opportunities, mingle with the locals…etc.
These are very logical goals.
Yet, being the food
obsessed person that I am, my mind is never off of the thought of my next meal
or the next thing that my mouth could potentially love. So obviously, a primary
goal of mine, when I first arrived to Costa Rica, was food related. I am
striving to find meals that I enjoy (try finding food that I’ve disliked here,
that would be easier) and then accumulate as many of those traditional recipes
as I can for later use! I want to make sure that when I cook for myself back at
home, I’ll have some tasty Costa Rican food options to choose from.
Whether I'm at a soda,
a small family-owned restaurant, or at home with my host family, there is an
abundance of food that looks and tastes remarkable (probably because most of it
isn’t very healthy…but that’s beside the point).
Since it’s not common
to ask a restaurant for recipes to their meals, I decided to ask my Mama Tica
for the recipes to her delicious delicacies.
You would assume that
this would be an easy feat, right? That the conversation would sound something
like this:
Me:
hola mama, podrias darle las recetas a algunas de las comidas que has hecho
recientemente?
-
Hello
mama, could you give me the recipes to some of the meals that you have done
recently?
MT:
si Megan morado, por supuesto!
-
Yes
purple Megan, but of course!
(She calls me “purple megan” ever since I dyed the ends of my hair purple)
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Womp.
No...
Life would be too
simple if that were the case.
The language barrier
wasn’t the problem, because I totally know my Spanish food lingo. More like she
has the recipes memorized but does not know the exact amounts, rather she
throws food and spices in, and judges it by taste.
Well, this complicates
the process to accomplish my goal.
So what does one do at
this point?
1. Give up, possibly sulk a little, and
look up Costa Rican recipes online. Hope that the food tastes similarly.
2.
Hang around the kitchen whenever she’s
cooking, and slyly note all that she puts into each meal.
3.
Call her “loca” (yes, we’ve gotten to
that point in the relationship where teasing is acceptable) and get her to
write down the recipe as similarly as she can to the original.
Well, the third option was
what I opted to do. As of right now, here are the few recipes I was able to squeeze out of
her...so far:
To start off with the
simple stuff:
Maracuya juice:
Simply cut the maracuya, passion fruit, in half. Scoop out the seeds and the
surrounding gelatin and put both in the blender. Add water, ice, and sugar if
preferred. Blend until smooth.
“The best batido ever”:
Add coconut cream, bananas, pineapple, milk, honey, ice. Blend until smooth.
Pollo dulce:
Grill chicken. Heat and mix brown sugar and tomato sauce. Add the mixture to
the chicken.
"Tico Tacos": Take Chalupes, Refried beans (1/4 onion, diced,1 clove garlic, diced, 1/4 bell pepper, diced, 4 cups cooked or canned black beans, pureed,1 lime/ juiced, water), lettuce, diced tomatoes, diced avocado, beef that is covered abodo sauce.
The recipes that
require more work:
Arroz con Pollo
&
Salsa de tomate