What are we Eating in Costa Rica?

Jaco, Costa Rica

A whole lot of rice and beans. And usually chicken. Our current diet was inspired by the only offering at a local restaurant we went to and by the obvious local proclivity for rice and beans. A whole aisle at the relatively small grocery store is dedicated to bags of rice and a good sized section to beans too, even though neither item comes in many varieties. There is white rice and either red or black beans. I actually had never cooked dried beans before except to turn pintos into refried beans and it turns out that a simple pot of black beans is way easier and smells a whole lot better as it cooks, especially if you simmer them with a bunch of cilantro in the pot. Except don't expect to eat the cilantro when the beans are done, that bunch of cilantro is not a pretty sight at the end of a couple hours . I have also experimented with throwing an onion in there and garlic cloves and a pepper, and once all of the above, and each batch has turned out great. Next time I am putting in an orange. So yeah, we cook beans, rice, and chicken two or three times a week and eat the leftovers every day until we make more.  The chicken doesn't typically last through to the last meal of beans and rice. I have no stockpile of Costco sized spice containers here so seasoning is all salt, pepper and the local Lizano salsa. Which isn't 'salsa' at all in the sense that an English speaker means salsa. Here it just means 'sauce,' and this particular one is a sort of tangy, sweet and spicy chili salsa, but the bottle is sincerely labeled 'Salsa,' as if there were no other.  And we have made it through 3 containers so far. We have experimented with different sides, including potatoes roasted with the chicken, chopped cabbage, corn or flour tortillas and a pico that we just make ourselves and add chayote to now.  Chayote is a funny looking little squash that tastes a little like a cucumber. We roasted some once, but my favorite way to eat it is chopped up raw and added to our pico. We tend to consume our main meal around two in the afternoon, which leaves the evenings open for going to the beach or whatever without worry of preparing a lot of food  and then we can just have a snack in the evening. Last night we had fried tortillas and lechera (sweetened condensed milk). Erin taught us about that treat when she returned from Mexico, so I suppose it is a Mexican thing, but the ingredients are easily available here and I may have eaten 3 three last night before we sadly ran out of lechera. Everyone eats their own breakfast. Fruit always. Fionn likes cereal, but she has to make do with local brands that are not her standards. Liam is working his way through a pancake mix, which also is not a brand we know. Ronan frequently eats the rice and beans from the night before. Kris and I usually scramble eggs, because the eggs at the grocery store here are fresh-from-your-best-friends'-chickens quality and I can't get enough of them. And we have slowly been trying every variety of store bought cookie on the shelves, except for the Oreos cause we know what they taste like.