1) Cooking lessions for vegetarians
this one is for Linda, who asked specifically about smells and tastes!
Platanos are those large green bananas that are used for chips when fried in manteca, or the solid shortening made from date palm oil. Date palms are grown on the road outside of Parrita up to El Carmin. Some of the other things that grow here are sugar cane, which is sliced and chewed on to extract its sweet juice, coconut, avocado, tomatos, guyabana, lime, oranges which are green inside, pineapple, papaya, mango, peppers and those are only the trees or plants I have seen so far. The staple of the diet here is black beans and rice, which is eaten as the basis of every meal. Other things that are really plentiful are fish, cilantro, corn, chayotes - a type of squash - and every type of meat you can think of.
I learned how to make a mixture of tomatoes, onion, garlic and peppers cooked with eggs into a type of stewed tomato dish that is astonishingly good. I also got to try and got a rough recipe for some sweet fried corn pancakes that are great. Then there is the coffe, which is seriously delicious black with sugar.
Everything here is seasoned with salt, sugar and more salt and more sugar, and manteca is used liberally to fry just about everything. Since people are cooking mostly on stovetops - no ovens - and the American foods I have attempted to offer have been met with polite expressions of "que rica" or how rich! but not really eaten. A suprise was that these Costariccense I am staying with have not had guacamole! that the combination was novel to them, and they liked it. Everyone has a liquidora or blender, which is used for fruits and other foods. Papayas are really yummy here with lime and a small amount of water and a pinch of sugar...
1) The Hair of the Dog, or Why I won't drink Guaro again
Last night, which I decided would be my last night in El Carmin at least for a while, since I was feeling the need to explore, and the need for some quiet time,
my host family of Marie Alicia and her brother, Pancho, decided we should be partying me with a good sendoff. He bought some guaro, which is the local liquor which might be a common name for any hard liquor, because it comes in bottles labeled rum, vodka, or gin. We started with a half liter, and then Bryan, who was not drinking, wenet out for another liter. We were dancing to local campesino, or cowboy, music and some meringue. This old guy who introduced himself to me as I have 62 years old, but did not give me his name turns out to be a great dancer, and we are all dancing, and drinking, and they are singing. Bryan and I are doing meringue and the muchacho is very good. I am more blotto than I can remember in a long time, and i went really slowly, with my drinks mostly fruit juice. Finally, about 1 AM, we all go to sleep, mucho borracho /very drunk.
The next morning, I am not fast enough to get myself to my taxi driver Herman, who does not wait for me, and I have to get someone else to take me into Parrita. I am exhausted, and feel like my stomach has been set in a twist. My lovely family attempts to give me MORE guaro at the bar, which I make noisy protests against. Finally, I am in Parrita, having missed the bus to San Jose for the day, and will stay overnight in the little hotel which is $13 night, and a little funky, but at least doesn't have bugs. Tomorrow, I will go on to Zarcero, where I hope to find some Crestone buddies, Stephan and Danna. If not, I will explore a little, and then probably come back for a week or two to San Jose for some intensive Spanish langauage classes in a school with homestays. Will have more later, and hopefully will find somewhere I can put some of these photos up on.
posted by roni @ 2:31 PM
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