Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I live in Costa Rica and ooh, where to start? For the most part, I've learned to cook/bake most things that are important to me, and upscale restaurants in the city have really delicious international food. It's mostly American junk food and local specialties that I crave. I'm originally from Philly, and I miss freshly baked artisan bread from a local bakery, hoagies stuffed with super thin deli meat (especially pastrami and corned beef), and cheesesteaks. I miss any type of American street food -- funnel cake, kosher hotdogs, soft pretzels! Even stuff I *never* ate, like corn dogs, can spark a craving. Whenever I visit family back in the States, I always go out for cheap Chinese food (lo mein or moo shu) and ultra cheesy pizza.

It might sound strange, but in my country, everyone drinks oatmeal cold, with milk (or water, but I can't stomach it like that). It's definitely cheap and filling, and comes in regular, chocolate and vanilla flavors. I like to throw mine into a banana & pb smoothie -- really fills me up!

The Costa Rican dish is called gallo pinto (not pinto gallo), but I think the McDonald's version is called the McPinto. It's not too bad, though I'd prefer gallo pinto from a Mom & Pops any day.

I'm so excited to see this post! I always spy the pitaya at the local farmer's market (I live in Costa Rica), but have never purchased it. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it costs about $4/kilo here, which is far more expensive than other amazing fruits that we have ($1/pineapple, $1.50/kilo passion fruit, etc.). Now that I know, I'll double-check that it's the red-fleshed variety, and "invest" in a kilo or so - looks delicious!

Just a tiny thing, but negrita can refer to any "small," "female" thing. In this case, I believe that it's a small, black (chocolately) cookie, where cookie is la galleta (a "female" noun). On the other hand, plenty of things in Latin America are politically incorrect, so it's a possibility. Either way, it looks yummy!