Category Archives: Food

Budget Nomads is beginning an occasional series of stories with recipes that focus on food found at street vendors and small restaurants.

At a recent  stop at a roadside bar and grill, one of the plates included pickled bananas. A couple of us in the group thought they were great, others in our Gringo Posse were not so impressed.

I talked to the Tica cook in the kitchen of the little restaurant and she told me that the treat is not common in all quarters, but in some areas of the country, it is more popular than the omnipresent plantains on the tipico plate.

They have a tart-sweet flavor that complements the cabbage salad that accompanies every meal. Alone, they are a little tart.

Pickled Bananas
3 bananas, peeled and sliced into discs
1 tablespoon of mustard
1 tablespoon of vinegar
3 cups of boiling water

Put the mustard and vinegar in a dish and add the bananas.
Mix until they are thoroughly covered.
Boil the bananas for three minutes and serve.

By Vicki Barnes

As we countdown the days until our next trip, I’ve been reflecting on a trip we took to Costa Rica a few years ago.

On our first morning in Costa Rica a couple of years ago, we sat down to breakfast as a small eco lodge where we had spent the night. Our hosts, Carmen and Miguel, kept a pen of happy laying hens down at the back of the property so we were assured that breakfast would be fresh.

There was a small communal dining area for the smattering of guests to eat breakfast, which was included in the price of the room. But, unlike places in the US where the first meal of the day is included, there were no stale bagels or unwieldy waffle makers.

Three small tables with plastic table cloths, a rabbit-earred television set tuned to Buenos Dias, Costa Rica and the sounds of Carmen bustling around her 2 by 4 foot cooking area.

The smells were delicious, but unfamiliar. 

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