Costa Rica Food

I am still missing the food from Costa Rica! One of the supervisors brought in some Manzana de agua for us to try one day. The best translation they could come up with was water apple and they are the red fruits in the picture. It was a crisp fruit and reminded me more of a pear than an apple. The picture was taken in the market and I swear most of the fruit there was new to me. I would love to have tried it all!

One of the days for lunch they took us to a nearby shopping mall to eat in the food court. I wasn't excited about eating at Subway, Quizno's McD, etc. and asked which place might have more traditional Costa Rican foods and they led me to a restaurant that I can't remember the name. This plate is what I ended up with, along with a Pepsi Light. I can't remember what any of these dishes are called, but it was all so delicious.

Two of the CR managers got a combo #1 from Taco Bell and while the grilled stuffed burrito was just like home, the side order of nachos was not. They serve the meat, cheese, sour cream, etc. on top of french fries (and yes I did get some later in the week and can confirm that it was wonderful!!!). Even with eating one fast food meal I still managed to lose weight last week because of all the walking and the predominance of fresh fruits, veggies and seafood.

Oh and every breakfast we had gallo pinto (essentially black beans, rice and cilantro) with our eggs and coffee. They serve it with sour cream and tortillas and I've been craving it enough that I finally have some recipes printed to try it on my own. I grew up eating pinto beans and rice, but really I think I like the black beans better. And a nice benefit of gallo pinto in the mornings is that I stayed full until lunchtime. I loved the gallo pinto so much that when we were at the airport on the morning of our departure we had breakfast in the food court there. I chose Burger King purely because they had a BK Pinto on the menu - gallo pinto, sour cream and corn tortillas - for only $3.00. My last chance to eat it in Costa Rica and I wasn't about to let it slip away! :)