La Comida Tipica de Costa Rica, Nicaragua, y Honduras

This is a very special installment of "La Comida Tipica" for three reasons. First, it's the last one.

Second, it combines three countries. I would like to say that there's a good reason for this, but really it's because I drafted all the remaining blog posts for the trip already and forgot to draft "comida tipica" entries for Nicaragua or Honduras. Because as far as I can tell Blogger doesn't allow you to insert an entry before the end (thanks Sergei and Larry), if I were to create them now they would be all out of order--and we just can't have that now can we.

Finally, it's special because I would like to dedicate this entry--and the whole series--to my good friends Adam and Susie who got engaged in Costa Rica while I was away. Adam and Susie are a fantastic couple and, as serious foodies, are the inspiration for this series. They're going to have a delicious life together.

Costa Rica

Here is a typical Costa Rican breakfast, called gallo pinto:

Some tacos for lunch:


Casado con bistec:


A typical variety plate:

This is a "soda" which is a typical Costa Rican fast food restaurant:

Nicaragua

This is the most typical food of Grenada, called vigoron. It's yucca with fried pork skins and slaw served on banana leaves.


And, here's a fried stuffed taco:


This is tamarind-flavored juice, modeled by Jaser and Guadelope:


And, this is the kiosk where I got the vigoron and juice:



Here's some real legit Nicaraguan street food. These two I got at the famous Masaya market. A pork taco-type thing with some chocolate drink in a bag:



This was an entire meal I got behind the big church in Grenada. It was dirt cheap and delicious, and they even had tables set up outside.


And desert:


Here are some typically Nicaraguan drinks. This is Flora de Cana, a rum-like drink made from sugar cane and drank with coke.



Here's one of the two popular Nicaraguan beers, Tona. The other is called Victoria and the joke is that every Nicaraguan guy has at least two girlfriends.



Honduras

My primary activity in Honduras was a trip to the Mosquito Coast to canoe into the jungle. For the first night, I stayed in a coastal Moskito village called Raista. The proprietor was named Elma and she served us the most delicious lobster in red sauce with rice and fresh bread:


As you can see, it came from Elma's Kitchen:


After Raista, we took a motorized canoe up the Rio Platino to another indiginous town called Las Marias. From Las Marias, we hired guides and hiked into the jungle.

We had to purchase all of our provisions before the trip, even though our guides were going to bring their own food and do all the cooking. The food was incredibly cheap and we tried to explain to the head guide that tourists like us would gladly pay double for the food if the guides just brought it themselves and took care of everything; but he didn't seem to get it. Anyway, here's where we bought our food:


And here's the breakfast our guides made for us in the jungle. Rice and beans are essential elements of every meal. They fry the uncooked rice in shortening before cooking it in water. We also added a packet of chicken soup mix for flavor. On the right is a pancake-like thing made of flour and lots of shortening (they love the stuff). It was a bit bland, but certainly weighty.



And, here's some fish I had in Las Marias:


And the family that hosted us in Las Marias and served our food:


Finally, here's the popular beer in Honduras. Like most Latin American beers, it was unremarkable.

La Comida Tipica de Panama

Panama's cuisine is not what I would describe as "inspired." It is heavily rice and beans based, and not very strong in flavor.

Here are some shots of the most typical Panamanian "comida" there is. Rice and meat with beans or another side.

This is a very typical Panamanian dish called hojaldres con carne ahumado. It's basically deep fried bread with deep fried beef jerky--and it's delicious.



This is not exactly "typical" Panamanian food, but it was the best meal I had in the country--and perhaps the best meal on the whole trip that wasn't Argentine steak. It was a beautifully cooked and crusted tuna dish with wasabi mashed potatoes and a ceviche appetizer that I enjoyed in Bocas del Toro with my German friends Jenny and Claudia:

Shifting to the other end of the culinary spectrum, I couldn't resist this imitation McDonald's. I know this seems crazy to folks in the U.S., but this place was way more downscale than the original.


Careful blog readers will recognize this as my own chicken parmesan from the previous post. Obviously not typical Panamanian--but I cooked it in Panama and this is my damn blog so shut the hell up.


Finally, another non-typical dish that had to make the cut. The Peace Corps volunteers in Panama are always passing through the city of David in their various travels. Well, they've discovered that a particular casino in David offers a huge plate of nachos for a very reasonable price. Eating lunch at the casino has consequently become a popular Peace Corps pastime. I was fortunate enough to join them one day:

La Comida Tipica de Colombia

Fruits and Juices

Colombian cuisine is perhaps best known for its spectacular variety of fruits--many of which make delicious juices, and some of which can´t be found anywhere else.

Here are two shot I was able to take at the grocery store before I was politely informed that taking pictures of the food is not permitted (didn´t really get an explanation of why, but wasn´t going to push my luck).

In this picture, going clockwise from the top left, we have maracuya (yellow, aka passion fruit), granadilla (orange), something I can´t read from my notes, papyuala, lulo (orange), and higo.

Clockwise from the top left in this picture, we have tomate de arbol (red), guayaba (green), curambola (green) on the right and more tomate de arbol (orange) on the left, feijoa, curuba, and more guayaba.

Here is some beautiful papaya:

This is juice from lulo, served to me by the Aristizabals.

This is the curuba fruit, found only in Colombia. I was using it to make juice at the EcoVillage.

Regional Specialties

This is ajiaco, the specialty soup of the Bogota region. It is made with chicken, corn, and potatoes and served with capers and cream. The Aristizabal family provided this treat for me, which was absolutely delicious.

This is bandeja paisa, the typical dish of the Medellin region. It is made with rice, beans, fried pork, a fried egg, and served with fried plantain. I actually didn´t like this too much.




Breakfast

This is a typical breakfast of the Medellin region, called paisa calentado. As you can see, it´s plenty to fill you up ion the morning--eggs, rice, beans, sausage, cheese, and two types of bread.



This is called huevos pericos, and it´s a scrambled egg breakfast served by the Aristizabal family.

This is a breakfast tamale served to us on the train on the way to the Catedral de Sal.

These rolls are called almohabana, and they are extremely buttery and delicious when eaten hot.











Street Food/Fast Food


I was riding on a bus in Bogota when I saw this out of the window. It looked so enticing, I had to backtrack and find the store.



Here´s what the actual food looked like. I was a bit disappointed because there was lots of rice and not as much freshly cut pork as I´d hoped. But, what the hell, it still came from inside a whole pig.



OK, this is probably the most truly ¨typical¨ food around. Throughout most of Latin America, roasted chicken on a spit (what we´d call ¨rotisserie¨) is wildly popular. You can get it almost anywhere. Fried chicken is a close second in popularity.



I don´t know how typical these things are, but they were awesome. They´re called torta choclo con queso, or basically a fried corn cake with cheese in the middle. I got one of these for breakfast in Medellin and it was incredibly tasty and filled me up for hours (for something like 50 cents).




Seafood

Seafood is very popular throughout Colombia, especially the coastal region. Throughout my stay I enjoyed extremely tasty fried fish (often talapia, but various kinds).

This fish is called sierra and it came as part of a typical lunch, which I enjoyed with Marcela´s parents in the town of Chia outside of Bogota. The lunch started with ajiaco and came, as you can see, with rice and salad on the side. Interestingly, many Colombians do not drink anything with their food. They will eat their entire meal and then sip a drink afterwards.

This was one of my favorite meals in Colombia. It is a shrimp ceviche--cooked shrimp mixed with mayonaise, ketchup, onion relish, and served with crackers. This cup cost $3 right outside the walled city in Cartagena, and was enough to fill me up.

Finally, here´s a shot of a simple fried fish meal that I enjoyed often during my stay. This one was from my adventure with Carlos outside of Medellin, and I´m pretty sure it was talapia. The best fried fish meal I had actually came on Playa Blanca, but I neglected to take a picture of that one. Sorry for letting down my demanding fans.

At the EcoVillage

While spending time with my friend at Aldeafeliz, the EcoVillage outide of Bogota, I enjoyed many meals and snacks with the residents.

This is a typical ¨calentao de frijoles con patacones y ensalada.¨

And, here are a couple of snacks. On top are chicharones, or friend chicken skin. Below is jalea de guayaba con queso (guava jelly with cheese).

Fancy Dinner at Andres Carne de Res

Avid readers will remember the culmination of my last, charmed, day in Bogota at Andres Carne de Res--where a drunk man bought my friend Mafe and I dinner. Well, here´s what we ate.

I had--what else at a place called carne de res--steak. It came undercooked in the midde but on a sizzling pan so I could sear it to my taste (slightly less undercooked). Perfect.

Mafe is a vegetarian, so she this nice italian fried cheese dish. I can´t remember what it´s called, but it was delicous.

Dessert

Finally, it´s always important to leave room for dessert. I didn´t do that much searching for typical desserts, but Marcela´s parents introduced me to some when they took me out to lunch. After dining in Chia, we stopped at a dessert place in their hometown of Cota.

Clockwise from the top we have tiramisu de cafe, leche asada, and torta de tres leches (with a dulce de leche-type sauce). My favorite was the leche asada, which basically means grilled milk.