Cocinando

The other night we went over to Dr. Vargas' (a professor here at CATIE) house for a cooking and Spanish lessons.  Dr. Vargas' wife hosted the event and invited our group (the SSS), the MIST students from UNT, and some local Latino students who are trying to learn English.  We were separated into two groups, one to cook the main entreè (which would be a local Tico dish) and the other to cook the dessert (which was US-based).

Denisha and I were part of the entreè group because we wanted to learn how to cook a meal local to this area.  Another important part of the activity was the fact that when we were in the kitchen cooking, we were to use only our non-native language, which allowed us to practice our Spanish and the local students to practice their English.  Although I was a little nervous about this at first because my Spanish skills are a bit lacking, it ended up being really fun and I happened to learn a lot.  It was also great just interacting with some of the local students and learning a little about their lives growing up in Turrialba.

We made Chilifrio, which included rice, pork, avocado, and a salsa like pico de gallo.  I am vegetarian so they made mine without the meat, which was nice.  We also fried some pineapple, which they added into mine to make it more hearty, but all of the Ticos just ate separately.  The fried pineapple was DELICIOUS!  Here is a pic of the finished product.  If you are curious about the recipe, here is a link to one: http://ticotimes.com/costa-rica/chifrijo-recipe.  For dessert, we had apple fritter (although I did not eat any as I am not much of a dessert person).  Overall, one more great night in CR!