For eighteen years, my wife and I owned a small casita in Monteverde. It was a vacation home for us. Melissa and I love our life in New Orleans, so we never planned to live there full time. But we treasure our memories from our years visiting Monteverde. We made lifelong friends during our time in our little community.
Melissa is a Native New Orleanian, and makes some pretty fine gumbo. Gumbo is cold weather food, and perfect for the chilly climate on the mountain top. Melissa would usually make a big pot within a couple days of arrival. We eat this as quick meals while hanging out at the house. It usually lasts a few days. If you know gumbo, you know that it actually gets better over a couple of days. As the New Orleans chefs say, the flavors “marry”.
We would visit Monteverde two or three times per year. Over time, we turned many of our local friends into gumbo aficionados.
Often, we would run into friends on the street early after arrival. There would be the usual hugs, handshakes, and pleasantries. Then the question would come, “is Melissa making gumbo?”
Over the years, we had made friends with a young Contractor and his wife. We eventually invited them to our home for dinner. Going to someone’s house for dinner is a much bigger deal than here in the states. We told them that Melissa had made gumbo.
Our friends arrived at our house with obvious trepidation, not knowing what this mysterious gumbo was. After being served, they realized that it was a mixed dish with meat, vegetables, rice and roux (thick broth). All perfectly spiced. They relaxed and thoroughly enjoyed their meal. We all had a fun night.
On our next visit we had about 500 ft.² of flooring to be laid and had asked our contractor friend to take this on.
We decided to leave the day of the installation. We wanted to get out of his way, and decided to run down to Tilaran, on some errands. It is a much bigger town, and we could usually find goods and services there that we couldn’t find in Santa Elena (the small town in the Monteverde region). We planned to be away for several hours.
We usually would buy lunch for the guys that worked for us. On our way out, we told him that he could help himself to some gumbo. Melissa had made our usual pot the night before.
When we returned that evening, the floor was done. As usual, he had done a stellar job. And, the gumbo pot was empty. This young man had eaten probably 2 gallons of gumbo in the few hours that we were gone! Well, we did tell him to help himself! We were amazed.
Our neighbors Sonia and Rolando also became good friends, and eventually our house managers. We introduced them to gumbo, and they were hooked as well.
Sonia is a very good cook herself. Melissa shared her own methods to her. We also started bringing down boxes of spice mix. Every cook has their own way of making gumbo. Sonia tried recipes, and worked on her own. She is now making her own gumbo for her family! We are so pleased.
On a winter’s evening, the weather turned cold in New Orleans. Melissa asked about my dinner preference, I asked for gumbo. She loves it too, and set to work on it.
Later that evening, we were enjoying our gumbo and a Saints victory. I noticed a WhatsApp message on my phone. There were well wishes from Sonia, along with a picture of the beautiful gumbo she had just made. We immediately sent back a pic of Melissa’s gumbo. Along with our own warm wishes.
I think this is a delicious cultural exchange! There have been some great new restaurants opening in Monteverde. Who knows, maybe someday our little town will become known as the gumbo capital of Costa Rica!
