One cultural difference in Costa Rica is that the people shop on a daily bases rather than a weekly bases like we do in the U.S. Celsy usually stops at the super mercado in the mornings during her daily walk to pick-up the day’s worth of groceries. This morning before she headed out the door, she came and asked me what “manteca” was (an ingredient in the cookie recipe.). The English word for manteca is shortening. I thought that everyone must know what shortening is, but I was wrong. My attempts at trying to explain to her what this is, was not going well. I finally resorted to looking-up shortening online and showing her a picture. This too did not help. Of course, the only pictures that came-up on google were “Crisco” brands – a foreign brand in Costa Rica. I finally explained to her that it was vegetable oil in a solid consistency. She said she understood – I wasn’t so sure.
Next on the morning’s agenda: teach Cellsy how to use her new facebook! Her son, Carlo, helped her set it up last week, but she still didn’t really know how to use it. She was so cute. She had me change all of her privacy settings so that NO ONE can find her on facebook. She kept setting-up scenarios with “Juan etcetera” to ask me questions. Celsy: “If Juan etcetera sees me at the grocery store and somehow hears my name, then goes onto facebook and types in my name, can he find me? If Juan etcetera finds my facebook, but we aren’t friends, can he go and look at my friend’s pictures? That’s so dangerous. Ok, ok, can Juan etcetera send me an email?...”
On my way to school, I stopped at the grocery store to see if I could buy some shortening – not feeling too confident about my earlier communication with Celsy regarding this matter. Surprisingly, I found a little can of Crisco at the grocery store! The price: 2,500 colones ($5.00). Right next to it was a costa Rican brand that said: manteca (ah ha! So I was using the right word!) for $400 colones ($.80). The price difference made this a very easy decision and I bought the Costa Rican brand.
I gave Celsy the shortening when I got home after school, and she said: Oh, yes! That’s it! Our ancestors used to use this stuff! (haha!). I’m so glad that I bought it, because she had purchased vegetable oil thinking it was manteca. ☺
Cooking with Celsy was so fun! We talked about different cooking techniques and cultural differences. For example, Costa Rica is not an oven culture. Almost everyone has an oven, but they only use them to make cakes and to cook a turkey at Christmas time. Most ovens are used for storage. Celsy uses hers to store pots and pans. Instead, they use the stove and microwaves. She was surprised when I told her that at my house, we cook almost every dinner in our oven. I think the concept is that ovens are old-fashioned and Microwaves are the ovens of modern times.
For some reason, the cookies turned out nothing like they do when I make them in the U.S. Perhaps it was because we mixed it with our hands? Or possibly because we made our own chocolate chips by chopping-up chocolate bars which had raisins inside? Or maybe it was the fact that we guesstamated on most of the measurements? I’m really not sure! We placed the dough (which turned out to be a dark brown shade. When I make it at home, it’s light brown, almost white. The finished product looks burnt, but it wasn't. It's just because the dough was brown...) into balls and placed it on the pan. After about five minutes in the oven, the dough had spread all over the pan making one thin, giant cookie cake!
Ok, not what I was expecting, but still good! Celsy and Willy were so excited! As we were sitting down to dinner, Celsy was singing: “Vamos a comer las galletas! Vamos a probar! Wahooo!” (we are going to eat the cookies, let’s try them!) At dinner Willy said to Celsy: “You learned how to make these, right? Because Abbey won’t be living with us forever.” Haha! I told them that even my little brothers can make these cookies and they were surprised at this as well. (In Costa Rica, the men are very “machisto” and there is a large distinction between “women’s jobs” and “a man’s work”. Men never cook! Especially not young boys! Makes me proud of my brothers ☺ ). 
Well friends, that about sums up my day! Now it’s time to work on some homework, go to bed, and then start all over again!! More to come tomorrow! Buenas noches! ☺
No comments:
Post a Comment