Which came first: the chicken or the bean?

After spending many long, agonizing minutes racking my brain for a witty title to my blog about my time in Costa Rica, I finally decided to go with El Gallo Pinto*.  What is El Gallo Pinto? I am not an expert in Spanish**, but I can tell you that El Gallo Pinto literally translated is "The Speckled Rooster".  I hope this explains any gratuitous pictures of roosters or chicken motifs that I may decide to include in my blog in the future.  Also, at this point I would like to give a shout out to my people in the Chicken Club, particularly the Albuquerque, Little Rock, and Oklahoma City wings. *** ****

However, Gallo Pinto has an even deeper meaning when it comes to Costa Rica.  It is a mixture of rice, beans, onion, and cilantro that is the quintessential Costa Rican comfort food.  If you google "Costa Rican cuisine", pictures of gallo pinto will pop up in much the same way that hamburgers appear when you google "American cuisine".  It is eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (but mainly breakfast).  I am under the impression rarely does a meal go by that the mixture of rice and beans does not make an appearance on the table.  Ironically, there is no gallo pinto in gallo pinto (If you don't believe me, ask the Pennsylvania Dutch).

It is mainly for this second reason, that it is something that very near and dear to the heart of Costa Rica, that I selected it as my title.  However, I am not going to lie; I also kind of picked it because I thought that I could have some fun with the chicken reason, too.

In closing, I want this blog to be a place a where I can share my experiences with you, and maybe we can do a little laughing, crying, and huffing and puffing (what I tend to do when I get annoyed) together.

* I also take credit for the names Tico Suave and El Gallo Printo


**And I may never be thanks to my lead tongue and its inability to flutter for the "rr" in Spanish, probably a trait that I got from my mother's genes (My sisters and I like to blame her for the inconvenient traits such as a lack of a vertical jump, a low top speed, etc.)

*** Inside joke, Grandpa will enjoy that wing pun

****Note overkill, I will stop