Food

The typical food in Costa Rica is rice and beans. A la breakfast they are mixed, together with some onion, pepper and coriander, and called "gallo pinto". The painted rooster, as the literal translation is, is served with sour cream, scrambled eggs and fried plantains if you are lucky. A la lunch the rice and beans are instead served separate and called casado (meaning married, even if they now are divorced on the plate) with meat or fish, and hopefully those sweet, oil dripping plantains again.

Kiara is the one in our family who enjoyes this kind of food the most. She is a massive fan of the black beans which she picks out one by one, and when there is none left she continues with the rice (still the one by one method.) Junia and Alma are unfortunately not that easy to please any longer, and the standard kids menu (fries with fish sticks/ breaded chicken) is altered with plain scrambled eggs. Today they were out of fries where we ate lunch so Alma's mid day meal consisted of two bags of ketchup. 

We usually eat lunch out, and dinner time is 

a) too early b) too chaotic for most restaurants so then we eat at home. I remember Richard Tellstrom (meal reseacher) saying that the average Swedish family had 10 standard dishes they altered between. For families with children the number was down to five. During our last months here we have served 

1. "cheese soup" (broccoli soup with as many vegetables smuggled in as possible, in the mixer in order to make sure not one tiny piece of carrot is visible, and top with cheese)

2. scrambled eggs with a) carrot sticks (Alma), b) boiled carrot sticks (Kiara), c) avocado (Junia)

3. Pasta with tomato sauce (tried to sell it as ketchup sauce as Alma is an extreme rasist when it comes to her pasta - she wants it white.) 

With all that said, we have had some fantastic food this trip. And scrambled eggs, chips and ketchup means both protein, carbs and vegetables, right?