May 07, 2007
Let's Call The Whole Thing Off
The best part of our trip was discovered on the first day. A drink called Michelada (at first I thought it was a Michilada but someone told me the easiest way to remember the name was to think of Michelle). When we arrived, sweaty, dirty and very tired, our friends Roberto and Jose picked us up at the airport and drove us to our hotel.
According to Roberto it was the hottest day ever recorded for that particular day of the year. It was rather toasty and humid and the air had a smoky smell that I associate with Argentina. Ah, it felt good to be back in a Latin country. For Costa Rica, Roberto was a very calm driver, but you couldn't pay me to get behind the wheel. The first few hours in a Latin country are always an adjustment and I had to look around the buildings and streets and not think about abject poverty. The architecture is completely different down there with lots of low, squat houses and cement. Once you hang around you see the beautiful insides of these homes and learn that the people focus much more on culture and flora and fauna than we do in the chilly North.
Roberto and Jose wanted to show us around a bit and take us out for some food but they also understood that we had just been on a long, sleep-deprived, red-eye flight. We went to the hotel and had a nice nap and a shower before they came back and drove us around. AmigaBoy spent two summers in Costa Rica with his family some 20+ years ago and so there was a large bank of stories Roberto (and many, many others I found out through the course of our stay) knew about him. Turns out AmigaBoy used to talk a lot about Chicarrones, a dish of fried pork with tortillas. Apparently there was a bar that my boy really liked back then called the Chicharonerra, well known for its pork dishes and also, according to him, the beer they served.
So of course the first thing we did with Roberto and Jose was find a good restaurant, up on the top of the hill outside of Heredia (a suburb of San Jose, Costa Rica) that had good Chicarrones. Aside from the great pork, we all ordered a drink that I intend to work into all my Summer dinner parties.
This is not my picture, I found it on flickr and you can see the whole series of this person's Michelada experience by clicking on the picture.
You take a very cold beer mug (we had ours in Weiss beer glasses), salt the rim, pour into the bottom the juice of one lime, add some ice, serve with a very cold beer (preferably something from Mexico or Central America) on the side. Add beer, use a small straw or spoon to stir the juice up into the beer. Drink! Man, oh man, so refreshing and good, especially on a very hot day. I hear that one or two of these improves one's ability to speak Spanish.
I have since learned that many people also add a dash of Worcestershire sauce or hot sauce for additional flavor. Some other interesting food things I learned: A casado (means wedding) is a dish with a filet of some type of meat, yucca, gallo pinto (a mixture of black beans, rice and savory spices), salad, and occasionally tortillas; a gallo (rooster) is any small bite you make with meat wrapped in a little tortilla and is usually served as an appetizer; and generally Costarricences don't eat spicy food.
Provecho! (Enjoy)