A table-top affair: New relationships spiced with lemongrass, turmeric and plantain
Photo by KAPs Place
Posted on my personal blog July 9, 2012
Interning for The Tico Times in San Jose, Costa Rica has me in a new world of adulterous relationships. A few of my soirees:
-There’s a relationship with San Jóse; this means courting a city of a million people and all our pollution, garbage, traffic and noise.
-There’s a relationship with my guy in Montana via email and video chat; this means lonely nights and solo dinners.
-There’s a relationship with the newspaper editors; this means not all editors edit equally.
But for all the frustrations of the above affairs, I do have a new warm and bright lover: my apartment’s kitchen.
It is a spacious room graced with blue and yellow mosaics, exotic fruits painted on the wall and a plethora of cooking materials. After a day traveling, interviewing or working at the office I can come home to Mr. Kitchen’s embrace of olive oil and garlic. Though I share him with five other male roommates, they are mostly respectful of the room being my dominion. Here I have discovered a few culinary delights that will be traveling on with me.
Plantains in Feria Verde, Barrio Aranjuez. Photos by Hannah J. Ryan
Turmeric from Finca Luna Nueva. Photo by Hannah J. Ryan
Lemongrass from Feria Verde, Barrio Aranjuez. Photo by Hannah J. Ryan
PLANTAIN
Acquired from the fruit man on the corner of the block.
These large, veggie-esk bananas grace most Tico dishes. When a plantain is green, just started to yellow, tostones chips are made by frying the ends of thick chunks of the fruit, squashing them and then giving them a second toast. When very ripe, diagonal slices of plantain cooked in a fry pan with a little butter-coating are my favorite. Called maduros, these go great with a breakfast of eggs, black beans and coffee. Or with lunch. Or dinner.
TURMERIC
Acquired from Finca Luna Nueva.
After meeting a dynamic American woman on a bus, our brief conversation placed me in her care on the organic ginger and turmeric farm called Finca Luna Nueva. There, among many wonderful things I learned and tasted from the rainforest, was ground turmeric root. It went into smoothies, rice, chocolate, eggs and fish. A hefty jar of the red-gold substance came back to my kitchen and it has found its way into my pita bread, hummus and vanilla yogurt. It casts a bright yellow on all it touches and there’s talk of health benefits.
LEMONGRASS
Acquired from the farmer’s market.
The Feria Verde, or Green Fair, is one of my favor events here. This organic Saturday farmer’s market brings foodies and sane produce from around the country. Yet, as a solo cook I can’t munch through giant bunches of greens before they go bad. A new friend had a brilliant idea of splitting our purchases. Yesterday this landed me with a fist full of lemongrass. Never having cooked with lemongrass I hit the blogosphere and found tea recipes. As I type steeped lemongrass stalks, honey and a mini dash of turmeric warms my face. Tomorrow, lemongrass sautéed spinach?
