Chicharrones...ahhh

Well, I had not wanted this to be in italics, but this stupid software won't let me get rid of it. As good as Google is on their other software you would expect something better from them than this piece of ....

That said, we'll get on the to post about Chicharrones. In South Texas we think of Chicharrones as fried pork skins. We found that Chicharrones are different here. Laura and Neil, we are scheduling a trip to La Trapiche while ya'll are here. You'll love it.

Here Chicharrones are good cuts of pork - sometimes tenderloin. It is boiled to render the fat and cook them, then finished over a wood fire to crisp them up and add a little flavor. They are served in large chunks with fresh lime wedges, yucca, plantains and jalapenos pickled without the seeds. It is great - except for the yucca. Yucca is not especially bad, its just not especially good - I can do without it. They also serve an appetizer of potatoes (kinda like home fries) cooked with mild peppers, onions and chunks of chicken. They serve it with corn tortillas and call it picadillo. It is great. If I were a few years younger I would consider opening a Chicharronera in a college town in Texas. I know it would be a cult favorite very soon. (notice the italics and non-italics switches off and on at will)

We have a couple of pictures with more to come. These are of the kitchen.

First they boil the pork here. Notice this is behind the place on a slab. There is no health department - a chicken pen is behind the photographer as this picture was taken. I'm not too concerned about it. At least it doesn't have the chemicals and stuff that our meat has in it. And it tastes sooo goood.





This is the wood fire for finishing the Chicharrones. Notice I always capitalize Chicharrones? That is out of respect - they are so good and it was so unexpected. When it was recommended I thought "we'll try it, but I don't think I'm going to like it." Was I ever wrong.




We'll have more pictures later. The whole establishment is open air and very interesting - not unusual in Costa Rica, but interesting to a Norte Americano. (See we are back to non-italics???? Shannon, I am trying to learn to use Windows Live, but its going to take some time - you know the old-dog-new-tricks thing.)