#39 - Costa Rica

We've been to Costa Rica and have had a local (the wife of the caretaker of the property we rented) prepare us a meal of traditional Costa Rican food, so this wasn't uncharted waters at all. We decided to go simple and with the most commonly eaten food in Costa Rica - Gallo Pinto (beans and rice).

It order to make fully traditional gallo pinto we had to try and find Salsa Lizano, a Costa Rican sauce that is a staple on the tables of every restaurant we visited there. Unfortunately, despite Jack and my tour of multiple store aisles in Victoria, we couldn't get our hands on any. Some quick research led us to the discovery that a reasonable substitute is Worcestershire Sauce so that's what we went with.

Gallo pinto is eaten multiple times a day, but most traditionally is associated with breakfast. We therefore chose to have it with a fried egg and avocado (much to Ruth's disgust). Despite my general dislike of beans, this meal was actually really good!

Given the simplicity of the meal, I decided to try and make a dessert as well. I found a recipe for an orange cake, which looks and tastes like a pound cake. It was also pretty tasty. All in all a successful return visit to Costa Rica!