Nomadic Narrative

I went to the Pejibaye Festival last weekend and I ate it! All of it!

Pejibaye is a fruit that grows in bunches on palm trees. I love it because it tastes a bit like a roasted chestnut. My taste buds are not alone. Around thirty thousand people gather in the small rural town of Tucurrique de Cartago, Costa Rica every year to indulge in all kinds of pejibaye-based products from cookies to empanadas to chicha, moonshine in English. Like any good fair-goer, I left no culinary delight, palm-fruit flavored or not, unsampled.

Stalls selling both cooked and raw pejibaye dotted the festival—cooked pejibaye is easy to get at any supermarket. A popular recipe is to peel them and top the halves with a dollop of mayonnaise. This does not help my mayo intake. (read previous post)

This was a chorreada, which is an elote, or corn, pancake topped with a little fresh cream.

There were long lines in front of this sizzling pot of pork…

…this is what they were waiting for—chicharrones—and they were delicious. There are also boiled green banana slices, and mandarin orange wedges to squeeze on the meat.

This is a pupusa from El Salvador and very popular at the fair nonetheless. These pupusas, made from corn, were filled with beans, cheese, a little pejibaye and topped with salad and salsa.

I passed on the rides.

Read a previous post about the amazing world of Costa Rican fruit here.