La Tamalera

La Tamalera means the woman that makes Tamales. You may wonder what a Tamal is, but no reason to get impatient. I’ll get to that all throughout this post.

Tamales are one of the most time-honored Christmas traditions in Costa Rica. Like the rest of Latin America, tamales are a principal part of Christmas dinner. In Costa Rica, tamales are made from corn flour and are filled with many different ingredients, such as potato puree, rice, vegetables, garlic and onions, and shredded pork or chicken or beef, all wrapped in banana leaves and tied with string into squares, and boiled.

Christmas traditions in Costa Rica

After last nights party I slept in. Something that resulted in it being very warm already (26C) when I woke up. So… I decided to sleep some more.

When I woke up again it was already 1pm and Roshy y Mami had started making Tamales.

Roshy and I were put into the time lengthy job of cleaning the banana leaves so they were all clean of dust and other stuff, preparing them for using.

Roxana washing Banana leaves

Me washing Banana leaves

mami started cookinge the meat and the vegetables for the filling and the broth.

Meat cooking and preparing for Tamales

Then we prepared the fillings.
We used Carrots, Prunes, Olives, Red bell peppers, Green peas, raisins and potatoes cut in stripes.
Not to forget:  For each tamal a peace of meat.

Carrots prepared to be used as filling for Tamales

Mami preparing La masa (the dough)

How to fill a Tamal

Mami filling tamales

Once the Tamales are filled, bundle them up two and two and put in a huge casserole for cooking. They now need 1-2 hours of cooking.

Finished Tamales – Wrapped and ready for cooking

Tamales cooking over open fire outside in the yard

Of course, this was a lot of work and a lot of effort inside today, however it was an excellent way to spend the day with my family and learn one of the most popular traditions for christmas.

And.. For dinner. Tamales.. Yummy :D

Our Christmas Portal

For the full recipe to make Tamales go to my Recipe blog

Holidays in Italy. Starting in Rome

So this morning I was up and out of bed early to get to the airport in time for my flight to Rome. At the airport was the longest checkin queue I have seen in Gardermoen ever. Fair enough, there were technical problems and electricity prolems that caused the luggage not being chartered of to the right airplanes, but still… However the security scan was over quickly.

The flight was uneventful and done in 3 hours and when I landed my friend Anni had sent me a text message saying she was waiting for me at the airport. Together we took the train to our respective stations and checked in to each our hotels nearby each other. The funny thing with Anni is that we met by chance in the beginning and once we started visiting each other, we suddenly realized that; Hey, we have met in so many countries… Actually one country per time we have met. We need to make it into a sport. So we continued and this is the 9th time we meet, and the 9th country (We have met at 2 airports as well outside of these 9 times, but they don’t count as they were in the international zone).

I was dead tired and Anni had a spa treatment so we each had a nice sleep before we were meant to meet up tonight, but I did have a afternoon walk first and found this amazing food store called Eataly where they sold only best quality products of everything. I haven’t seen so many cheeses gathered in one place before.. Oh so yummy.

Fresh Pasta at Eataly, Piramide Train station

Ham and Cheese department at Eataly. Yummy!

I met Anni at 8pm and we went downtown to have dinner at this lovely Restaurant close to via Veneto, called Lo Stil Novo. Just by giving us complimentary Prosecco when arriving I liked this place. The Prosecco was a Vettori from Valdobbiadene. Lovely.

For a starter I had baked aubergine with Mozarella, Parmesan and Aubergine sauce. It was delicious.

As a Primi Piatti I had seafood spagetti and with it we had a Corte Sant’Alda white from Valpolicella Ripasso, Campi Magri. Lovely combination.

My main course was Duck on vegetables and it was really good. The wine to go with it was lovely, but I forgot the name of that one.

We took a cab home and by that time it was quite late already.

In a total today I walked over 17000 steps and had a very, very nice day!

Dinner @ Daniel et Denise

For Dinner today Anni and I went to another highly rated traditional restaurant called Daniel et Denise.  Another excellent choice by Anni.

At the Restaurant we ordered a lovely bottle of Red Wine by Georges Duboef called Prestige Julienas which was excellent.

For my appetizer I ordered Calf’s head cooked in a court bouillon with ravigotte sauce and Anni had sweetbread (which I was fortunate enough to taste – Both was lovely).

As my Main course I had Angus beef sirloin steak fried with black pepper and flambed with cognac, but at this point I forgot to take pictures of the food because it was so delicious. :D

Another excellent dinner on this our last nights in Lyon.

Dinner @ Le Garet

Today Anni had booked us dinner at Le Garet which is a Restaurant that serves very typical food from Lyon and the area around Lyon.

As a main course we had Rilette d’Oie (Tender Morsels of Goose) which was absolutely amazing. To accompany our meal we had a wine called D’Ampuis by E. Guigal which is a local wine from the Cotes de Rhone district.

The Goose Morsels were delicious with pickels and we just enjoyed it utterly too much eating all we could. We also had a really fun time watching the guy at the next table who seemed to find the food just a bit too weird for his taste. He had ordered something as simple as pigeon and struggled with it.

We, on the other side, had ordered calfs brain sauteed in butter after poaching in a court-boillon served with steamed potatoes.

It was another lovely meal in company of my dear friend.

For dessert we had Ice Cream with liqueur which was lovely.

Another lovely meal at another great restaurant! Awesome food!

Lunch at Le Bistrot de Lyon

For Lunch Anni and I went to Le Bistrot de Lyon where we had a lovely lunch with wine.

I started out with a Foie de Gras as an appetizer and Anni ordered a seafood plate that looked amazing. They had decorated it absolutely beautifully.

Anni with her Seafood plate ;D It looks amazing! Doesn’t it?

My main course was a rabbit leg with gratinated potatoes. It was so lovely.

That lunch was just awesome !

Lunch @ the Bonaparte Bridge

While we were roaming around at the local market we decided that todays lunch would be from only things we found at the market. In addition to the vegetables, flowers and fresh fruit they also sold a lot of prepared, ready to eat, warm lunches!

I bought my lunch from this man who prepared a lovely chicken stew!

We sat down and had the beautiful view of St Johns Cathedral in Old Lyon and Basilica de Notre Dame de Fourviere on the Hills of Fourviere.

 I had also bought myself 1 oyster to try out as I always heard a lot about Oysters, but never tried it before!

And … to be honest… I don’t know if I have to try it again. The first of the two I tasted for just the taste of the Oyster and it just tasted salty water. Not really good at all. The Second one I tasted with Lime and this was a whole lot more tasty, however it might be the lime… :D I might just taste it again at another occation to see if I can learn to love it or if I just don’t have the taste for it.

Here enjoying the Chicken Stew with a lovely view of the Saône river under us and Old Lyon behind us.

Anni had a blood sausage for lunch, however, Anni had decided we should enjoy our meal with wine!
We had no Wine glasses so Anni had to turn a bit creative with the Evian water bottle and a knife:

And suddenly we had 2 lovely Evian wine glasses:

For dessert we enjoyed these awesome tomatoes: They were so sweet I don’t think I have even tasted such sweet tomatoes before.

It was a truly lovely meal and very nice to enjoy the outside as well! We even had the pleasure of the sun peeking out behind a layer of clouds to welcome us and bless our meal.
A truly nice meal and a nice day!

After lunch we continued walking around in Old Lyon.

The Sunday Market and Walking in Old Lyon

This morning Anni left for breakfast and work while I slept in to relax. I took off just before 11 to look around before I was to meet with Anni for lunch. I crossed the Bonparte bridge to get to Old Lyon where I had a look around in the streets and then I went to the Art Market before I crossed the Maréchal June bridge to meet Anni. We went to the big Sunday Market where we picked up lunch.

They had all kinds of lovely fruit,

Cheese,

Meat (Rabbits),

Mushrooms,

Fresh Cooked Chicken.

It was amazing to just stroll around looking at all the fruits and vegetables, the meat, the flowers, the jam and all the other beautiful and tempting stuff. And then there was the smells from the food they were making at the market. All so lovely! I would absolutely recommend you to visit the market if you are in Lyon.

Anni and I picked up our lunch before we found a nice spot to have Lunch at the Bonaparte Bridge.

After lunch we went back to Old lyon, where we walked around to enjoy the sunny day and do some shopping (me at least) at the Pylones store, peek in some of the cute little stores and just look around.

After our visit to Old Lyon we crossed the Maréchal June bridge again and went for Ice Cream at Regal Glace. They had lots of Ice Cream in lovely colors and tastes. We sure enjoyed.

After our stop at Regal Glace we went back to the hotel and there we relaxed before we went for Dinner at Brasserie Le Nord.

Dinner @ Jeremy Galvan

One of the highlights of this trip was to experience the gastronomic highlights of France and in particular the region of Lyon. Anni had done some excellent research work and she had booked a table for the two of us at the Jeremy Galvan Restaurant for our first day.

First of all.
The interior of the restaurant and the decorations are perfectly matching and gives a very warm and cozy impression.

We ordered the special menu with 7 courses and the wine menu to go with it and it was absolutely stunning! This was such an excellent choice I didn’t want to stop eating!!!

Our first excuisite food meeting with the French culture and boy were we happy!
A gastronomic highlight of dining!

First we were served a lovely appetizer which both looked and tasted delicious!

Cheers! Anni with Champagne from Ruffin et Fils.

Then we were served our first course.

Carpaccio with red wine sauce, Paté of Pesto and a mussel in foam Sauce.

Even the bread that accompanied our dishes were delightfully presented (and tasty).

Cheers! Me with a White Wine from Chateau de Fosse Seche called Arcane.

Cepes Mushroom with Foamy Cheese and Red Wine Sauce. It was so delicious. The 2 sauces together tasted like Chocolate… Mmmmmm. My mouth runs in water just thinking of this…

Then came the turn to a lovely Fois de Gras with a sweet Vinagrette Sauce and small roses for decoration.  We were served a lovely Crozes-Hermitage red wine from 2011 to accompany the food.

Scallop on a bed of Foamy Cheese Sauce with Crosne (a root vegetable commonly seen in Asia).

Steak with Foamy Cheese Sauce and Truffled Potatoes with a red wine sauce.
We were served a lovely red Mas Peyre wine called Maury to go with the food.

Cheese with a Sweet Honey/Vinegar Sauce.

Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse.

Apple / Pear Cream for dessert.

The best thing about the restaurant is that when I showed our waitor for the night my list of allergies he asked to borrow it to show the chef. The chef just kept it until all dishes were served to make sure I got something else delicious if any of the ingredients I can’t have were in the original dish I was supposed to have.

THIS gets MANY extra points from my side !!! We left a good tip here!

Lunch @ Bistro “Le Bouchon aux Vins”

After having settled in the hotel room Anni and I went hunting for food. The hotel receptionist recommended a nice street not so far away from where we were located and off we went. We were both quite hungry by now and we chose a restaurant called Le Bouchon aux Vins in Rue Merciere.

For my first meal in France I had this amazing Duck Risotto.

It was actually SOO good I think it is the best risotto I ever had! The Risotto was perfect. The Duck was perfect and the sauce was perfect. If I could I’lld have this Duck Risotto every day for dinner!

We also had a lovely wine with it and it was quite a lovely meal!

The Restaurant itself had a great atmosphere and the waitors were very helpful.

A lovely place!

Anni enjoying her coffee:

Dinner and movies with friends

2 of my friends came over for dinner today and we made a lovely dinner.

Daniel and Junko

On the menu there was Deer Ribs, Parsenip Mash, Sweet Potato Mash and salad.

It was so delicious that I felt rather stoned after and my guests too. It was one of those happy meals :D

We ended the night watching the movie Paul which was super funny !