Ladies' Lunch

While the informal (infamous?) Atenas Mens Club was busy at their blackjack tournament last week, some Vista Atenas ladies decided to go out for lunch.

We went to Mar & Tierra (sea and land) seafood Restaurant and Bar, not far at all from Vista Atenas on ruta 3. This is the former Bar Rill. Their phone number is 2446-5733. I could not find a web page for them but they are on Facebook. I don't know their hours of operation but they certainly do lunch and dinner.

The restaurant has been renovated and looks nice and open.

Now to the menu - I was only interested in seafood so didn't look at anything else. I ended up ordering the seafood soup and was very glad I did. Big bowl, the broth was excellent. Swimming in this little sea of goodness were clams, shrimp, fish and squid. Lots of cilantro, which I like. When I got near the end, I was sorely tempted to just tip the bowl up and finish off the last of the broth.

Next time we are there, I'm going for the garlic seafood. Total bill for me: six thousand colones or about $12.00 and that included an iced tea. In Vancouver, the bill would have been double and that's just for lunch.

I'm not sure exactly what the other Vista Atenas ladies ordered but I do know the portions were very generous.

Just one teeny tiny caveat: the delivery to the table of all the dishes was not consistent. Some of us were almost finished when others were just getting their order. Maybe this will improve as time goes by. We were a fairly large lunch table that they weren't expecting. Book ahead is good advice and only fair to the restaurant.

Here are some photos:

 

Lots of orchids!

 

Vista Atenas Senoras

 

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Chinatown, San José, Costa Rica

On Tuesday, June 10, 2014, the informal Atenas Men's Club organized a bus trip to San José to have lunch at Restaurant Dragon Oriental and then shopping at the Asian stores. This time, ladies were included. I was on the bus, so I passed the "ladies" qualification.

Our group gathered at the central park in Atenas at 10:00 am and away we went. Our bus was an air conditioned tourist type vehicle with a personable driver (they are always really nice). I brought a small cooler with me in case I purchased frozen dim sum, which I was hoping to do.

We ran into some road paving delays, but nothing serious, and lots of time had been allowed to include any such eventualities.

Restaurant Dragon Oriental is located on Avenida 2 between Calles 7 and 9 (200 meters east of CAJA) on the second story of the building, and there is an Asian mercado below. The hours are 11:00 am to 10:00 pm.

Our group filled up three very large round tables. Those of you familiar with Asian dim sum restaurants know what that looks like. The table tops here spun around a la Lazy Susan style. I asked to see the dim sum menu but was stymied by the Chinese symbols and the Spanish words so we ended up ordering from the regular menu which had English translations. Also, the prices had been blacked out on the dim sum menu so we didn't know what anything cost.

We decided on Szechwan prawns and Peking duck. Both were very good although the Peking duck was different then what we are familiar with. It did not come with pancakes in which to wrap the duck pieces and green onions which are used to brush the hoisin sauce on the duck. Instead, it was served with steamed rice and an excellent sauce. Portions are very large and we had lots left over for take away.

In addition, we each ordered a Tsing Tao Chinese beer. Big bottle but low alcohol content - nice and cold though. Service was friendly.

Lunch over, everyone headed off to do some shopping. I splurged on different frozen dim sum items, some condiments, a bamboo steamer, sticky rice wrapped in leaves, kitchen towels and so on.

While waiting on the street with another lady from our group for our bus home to arrive, we were approached by a group of businessmen - Asian and Tico - I suppose in their mid-50's. They chatted us up, asked where we were from - and one Tico said to me, in English, "Are you married?". I had spied Lance approaching us and pointed at him and said, "Si, mi esposo!". My bold Costa Rican friend said "Never mind!" and we were all laughing.

Nothing like a little ego boost to end an excellent day.

Many thanks to Tony for organizing this event. Unfortunately, he was unable to join us so further thanks go to his lovely wife, Rose Mary, for taking up the reins and to my husband, Lance, for helping out also.

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American Football in Costa Rica/Fútbol Americano

On Saturday, April 26, 2014, a group of us went to the Costa Rica American Football Super Bowl VI - 1st Division. The two teams playing were the Santa Ana Bulldogs (the team we were rooting for) and the Toros. The coach of the Bulldogs, Lee Coleman, lives in our town of Atenas. The team has a bulldog as a mascot - "Big Papi II" - who is at every game. The Bulldogs are also known as "the Dawgs".

The Bulldogs won 20 to 8. The Toros had been undefeated this season until this game. The game was played at Estadio "Pipilo" Umaña in Moravia ("estadio" is "stadium" in English).

The trip was organized by the informal Atenas Mens' Club - thank you Tony and Jim for all your work. We met in front of the Catholic Church in Atenas around noon and boarded a large, air conditioned bus for the trip to Moravia (San José area). Everyone (there were twenty-two of us) had brought stadium cushions, sunblock, sunglasses, umbrellas, water, snacks. We were not sure what the stadium was going to be like.

I am sorry but I do not know the name of the bus company. However, our driver was very personable, the bus was comfortable and it is so nice to let someone else do the driving, especially in the San José area, and after the game when it was dark and we were all pleasantly tired.

As it turned out, one side of the stadium has a roof so we were shielded from the sun and eventually the rain. The stadium cushions were most welcome because the "seats" are just long rows of cement.

The private league, American Football Association/Costa Rica Federation of American Football was created in 2008 and given international representation in 2010 by the Costa Rican Institute of Sports and Recreation. So, as you can see, American football is quite new here.

I had been to a couple of football games in Canada but they really didn't interest me. Our seats were high up in the stands and I never could figure out what everyone was doing - all that moving up and down the field, players piling on top of each other.

At this Super Bowl, I had a great time. We were at the 45 meter/50 yard line, about three rows up and could see all the action. For the first time, I started to understand how football is played. It's a rough game! Especially after the rain storm when the grass field became muddy and wet. The stadium is in a residential area and several footballs were kicked right out of the stadium and into the surrounding streets. They must keep a good supply of extra footballs on hand.

I'm not sure what the attendance figures were. A lot of people (Ticos) showed up later in the game. Support for both teams was loud and energetic. There were a couple of booths selling giant hotdogs, and plates of salad, pork and chicharróns (fried pork rinds) and escabeche (marinated vegetables, similar to pickles). I had never tried chicharróns before and they were pretty good. The pork was excellent.

I bought a Seattle Seahawks jersey for 2 mil (2,000 colones or $4.00), a very good deal. Here is a short video I made of the game and also some photos.

 

 

About to board our bus.

On left: our bus and our group. See how close I was to the action!

 

 

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