Word of the Day: Picado

Picado is the past participle of the verb 'picar', which can mean a number of different things in Spanish. In Costa Rica it is used in this participle form as an adjective to mean 'chopped'.

For example, if you help out a Costa Rican in the kitchen, she might ask you for chile picado, which just means chillies (or peppers, depending on what type of chile--picante or dulce--it is) chopped into small pieces.

Another popular use of picado is to mean 'scrambled', as in 'scrambled eggs'. It took me a while to start asking for 'huevo picado' instead of 'huevos revueltos'. (Please note that the singular 'huevo picado' is what I typically hear in restaurants, perhaps because in Costa Rica scrambled eggs are not a main course, but a side dish for a Costa Rican breakfast.)

Word of the Day: Manteca

Manteca is essentially 'lard'. It's not exclusive to Costa Rica, but foreigners in the country will quickly take notice of this fatty staple. Costa Ricans will fry just about anything and everything in Manteca. Manteca has traditionally come from animal fat, but has recently comes from the next worst thing, palm oil. Just like animal fat, the majority of the fat in palm oil is saturated, which is bad for your heart. Costa Ricans will hear occasional news stories encouraging people to make the switch to vegetable oil, but manteca is well ingrained into the culture.

While I am often critical of manteca, it's only fair to point out that many Americans (myself included) have a diet that's much worse than the typical Costa Rican diet.