Oct 10, 2008

Chagall in Costa Rica: The piece “Circe” is part of the exhibit “Odyssey” of Marc Chagall lithographs opening Saturday at Calderón Guardia Museum, in San José's Barrio Escalante. See www.ticotimes.net/culture.htm for more.

Courtesy of Banca Promerica

A “tropical wave” – weatherman-speak for rain, rain and more rain – is likely to traverse Costa Rica today, said the National Meteorological Institute yesterday.

Meteorologist Evelyn Quirós said the weather system, called an onda tropical in Spanish, will start early morning on the Caribbean side and sweep across the country, with the chance of becoming a tropical storm after it spills over into the Pacific Ocean by early evening.

Saturday and Sunday should see scattered showers typical of the late rainy season, but no more onda, she said.

The wave is common for October but puts a damper on efforts to rebuild some 300 homes, many in Cartago and eastern San José, that were soaked and pummeled in last week's heavy rains and runoff from overflowing rivers. Dozens of families took shelter in churches-turned-dry-havens, as emergency officials issued “green” and then “yellow” alerts – first and second weather warning levels – and emergency workers raced to evacuate residents and begin rebuilding.

A weakening Hurricane Norbert headed toward Mexico's Baja California yesterday, while Tropical Storm Odile – which as a low-pressure system dumped on Costa Rica last week – gained steam off Mexico's Pacific coast, the U.S. National Hurricane Center reported.

Instead of re-planning their annual carnival, municipal officials of Limón, on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast, say they will focus on acquiring a dump to avoid future problems with city events.

Health Minister María Luisa Avila shut down Limón's carnival – originally set for this weekend – for the second year in a row because of the “lamentable” state of the Caribbean port city's trash collection, which she feared could cause another outbreak of dengue fever.

Limón Mayor Eduardo Barboza said the town won't be submitting a new logistical plan to the minister to reschedule the carnival.

Instead, the town will try to locate a landfill closer to their city than the one they currently use, which is 100 kilometers away. The distance means that trash piles up in Limón's streets, attracting mosquitoes and, according to the minister, “a ton of rats.”

“If they had a low-risk farm for a dumping site I'd have had no problem giving them permission,” Avila said. “They have a million and one excuses.”

The mayor said they had trouble navigating the rules for buying and regulating a trash dump, but now they hope to buy a landfill site in nearby Tomatal before the end of the year.

Charlie Wanger, a real estate agent in Puerto Viejo for more than 10 years, said several clients contacted him about properties in Talamanca that could be used for waste disposal after Limón's trash problem made national news last week.

MANAGUA – Nicaragua is set to add a digit onto its seven-digit phone numbers, following the path of Costa Rica earlier this year.

The switch to eight digits is slated for April 1.

The measure, announced this week by the Nicaraguan Telecommunications and Mail Institute (TELCOR), comes at a time when phone numbers have run out, mainly because of the rapid growth in the mobile sector.

Just as in Costa Rica, Nicaragua will add “2” before landline numbers and “8” before cell phone numbers, TELCOR said in the state-published La Gaceta.

Costa Rica tourism numbers could grow 8 to 9 percent by the end of the year, according to the Costa Rica National Tourism Chamber (CANATUR), which considers this rate “more than satisfactory” in the face of a global financial crisis.

“It isn't the (11 percent) growth figure of 2007, but taking into account the conditions at this time, having an 8 to 9 percent (increase) is more than satisfactory,” CANATUR President Gonzalo Vargas said.

Vargas pointed out that worldwide tourism figures are averaging 2 percent increases, putting Costa Rica “2 to 3 times above the world average.”

He added there may even be an opportunity to profit from the crisis: North Americans who normally visit Europe may be seeking closer, cheaper travel destinations.

He also underscored upcoming events in the industry that could provide a boost. Some 32 Tico tour companies are set to participate in the Central America Travel Market fair this weekend in Nicaragua and 100 more will take part in Expo Manuel Antonio, from Oct. 23 to 26 in the favorite central Pacific Costa Rican hotspot of the same name, Vargas said.

Costa Rica, a country of 4.5 million inhabitants, hosted 1.9 million visitors last year who spent some $1.9 billion.

Rainy season is in full swing in the Central American tropics. Past is the season for fruits such as the beloved mango and cantaloupe. It is, however, time for another product to be widely available at low prices all over the country. Though present year-round, yuca (Manihot esculenta) is more abundant this time of year. The tuber goes by several different names in English, including manioc, cassava and tapioca.

The root vegetables of many New World areas have a long history attached to them. Archaeological evidence reveals their use by aboriginal groups in Mexico, Central America and Brazil as early as 3000 B.C. Griddles for baking cassava bread dating back to almost 2000 B.C. have been found in South America (see story on facing page). In these ancient cultures, cassava historically played a social role, such as in religious ceremonies.

Croquette, Anyone? Enyucados are a traditional Costa Rican dish made from the historically important cassava root.

Marco González | Tico Times

According to one legend from the Tupi Indians of the Amazon, a mother with no food watched her child starve. When he died, she buried him under her hut. That night, a wood spirit known as a mani came and transformed the child's body into the roots of a plant that grew up to feed future generations. The plant was called mani-oca (oca meaning “root”).

Yuca – not to be confused with the English yucca, which is a plant of the agave family – appears to have been cultivated mainly in two areas: the semi-arid regions of the Yucatán Peninsula and adjacent Guatemala, and northeastern Brazil. While practically unknown in temperate regions, the plant is native to Brazil and is a staple for more than 600 million people in Africa, Asia and Latin America. As is true of most staple crops, yuca is almost all starch, containing up to 35 percent carbohydrates, only about 1 percent protein and almost no vitamins. The tubers can be boiled, baked, fried or dried, and are used to make flour, breads, tapioca, sugar, laundry starch and even alcoholic drinks.

One yuca plant can yield 20 pounds or more of tubers, which can be stored for a long time. Plants are grown from stems with buds, and the tubers are ready to harvest after about 18 months.

An ideal crop for the tropics, yuca grows well on dry and wet soils, produces roots in poor soils, is relatively resistant to insects and fungal pests, requires a minimal amount of agricultural effort and has a high yield per unit area. The world annual production of yuca is more than 158 billion tons, mostly used for human consumption and animal food.

Of the hundreds of known species, two types of yuca are mainly grown today. “Bitter” yuca, which has a high concentration of cyanides, is used to make glues and industrial products. “Sweet” yuca, or low-cyanide yuca, is produced for consumption. Processing is complex, because most varieties of the tuber contain potentially toxic concentrations of these cyanogenic glycosides that are reduced to innocuous levels through cooking. Yuca should never be eaten raw, and it must be cooked at temperatures of at least 200 degrees F to eliminate hydrogen cyanide byproducts.

Yuca plays a modern role as an industrial product in starches, adhesives and textiles. Brazilian researchers are currently studying its possible use in the production of dextrose and certain alcohols. Yuca may be processed into flour or boiled to create gelatinous tapioca pellets, which are used as a thickening agent in pies and other desserts.

In Costa Rica, yuca may be present at dinner tables around the country. It is made into fries, pies, tamales or the famous meat- and/or cheese-stuffed enyucados, deep-fried croquettes often topped with a sauce. It is especially present on the Caribbean coast, where its fried form accompanies many traditional dishes.

In West Africa, particularly in Nigeria, yuca is commonly prepared as eba or gari, grated and fried and then mixed with boiling water to form a thick paste.

Yuca is heavily featured in the cuisine of Brazil. The dish vaca atolada (“mud-stranded cow”) is a meat and cassava stew that is cooked until the root has turned into a paste. Pirão is a thick, gravy-like gruel prepared by cooking fish bits (such as heads and bones) with yuca flour. In farofa (lightly roasted flour), yuca combines with rice and beans to make the basic meal of working-class Brazilians. Farofa is also a standard side dish for feijoada, the famous meat-and-beans stew. Boiled yuca is made into a popular sweet pudding, and deep-fried mandioca is a popular snack.

No matter how you cook it, yuca is destined to play a role in New World and new Costa Rican cuisines. Surprise yourself with one of the world's oldest delicacies.