Lizano Sauces the Best of Costa Rica

post from Hole In The Donut Cultural Travel on 26 April 2012 09:05:06 AM. © Hole In The Donut Cultural Travel

touristy nature of Costa Rica, I did return with one bit of true Tico culture, a giant bottle of the Costa Rican national condiment, Salsa Lizano. No kitchen or serving table in Costa Rica is complete without this slightly spicy, slightly sweet brown sauce, which usually stands side-by-side with its cousin, the very spicy Lizano Chilero. Ticos pour the stuff on everything: eggs, rice, beans, gallo pinto, tamales, cheeses, steaks, soups and even use it to marinate meat.

Costa Rica's national culinary pride, Lizano Salsa and Chilero

Developed in 1920 by the Lizano Company, the condiment is often referred to as the “Worcestershire sauce” of Latin America, but its ingredients (water, sugar, iodized salt, onions, carrots, cucumbers, cauliflower, molasses, mustard, celery, spicy chiles, spices such as black pepper and cumin, corn starch, acetic acid, and hydrolyzed vegetable protein) have little in common with the traditional English condiment. For years, visitors to Costa Rica have been carrying it home by the gallon jug, as it was not sold outside of Central America. After my first taste I, too, succumbed to its charms and upon returning to San Jose I asked my hotel owner for directions to a grocery store where I could buy a large bottle.

According to the manager at Casa las Orquideas Boutique Hotel, Salsa Lizano was manufactured for many years by a well-known Costa Rican family, in one of the country’s most modern factories. Several years ago, Kraft contracted with the factory to do some bottling for them. One thing led to another and Kraft ended up buying the factory. The public outcry was apparently swift and vehement, with charges that the country’s heritage was being sold. The original owner of the Lizano operation had to go on TV and explain that he was getting too old to run the company and that no one in his family had any interest in taking over, thus he had no choice but to sell.

Bottles of Lizano today say the product is made and distributed by Unilever, so I assume that Kraft spun it off at some point. As a result, Salsa Lizano is now readily available in the U.S.; I found it online at Amazon.com, listed at $7.70 for a 23.7 ounce bottle. For the same size bottle in Costa Rica, I paid about $1.50 but this stuff is so good I’ll gladly fork out the $8 bucks when I run out.

San Jose Vacations

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Green Hotel Pick: Kimpton Hotels (in 23 cities
across the US)

post from Go Green Travel Green on 26 April 2012 09:00:01 AM. © Go Green Travel Green

If you’re looking for a green hotel brand deserving of your loyalty, Kimpton Hotels delivers[...]

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Fake Hotel Reservation Email Claiming to Be from
Booking.com

post from Europe a la Carte Travel Blog on 26 April 2012 08:03:08 AM. © Europe a la Carte Travel Blog

Source: booking.com via Emily on Pinterest Just after 11am this morning, I received an email supposedly from Booking.com, about a hotel reservation for 7 May 2012. I was immediately suspicious, as I already had a reservation at Travelodge Inverness for that night. The email didn’t have my name on it and asked me to open [...]

Fake Hotel Reservation Email Claiming to Be from Booking.com

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Dodgy Hotel Reservation Email Claiming to be from
Booking.com

post from Europe a la Carte Travel Blog on 26 April 2012 08:03:08 AM. © Europe a la Carte Travel Blog

Just after 11am this morning, I opened an email supposedly from Booking.com, about a hotel reservation for the 7 May 2012. I was immediately suspicious, as I already had a reservation at Travelodge Inverness for that night. The email didn’t have my name on it and asked me to open an attached zip file to [...]

Dodgy Hotel Reservation Email Claiming to be from Booking.com

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Dodgy Hotel Reservation Email Claiming to Be from
Booking.com

post from Europe a la Carte Travel Blog on 26 April 2012 08:03:08 AM. © Europe a la Carte Travel Blog

Dodgy Hotel Reservation Email Claiming to Be from Booking.com

What to Do Europe from the Europe a la Carte Travel Blog. Copyrighted content published on Europe a la Carte.

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Singapore: Little India is Singapore's Tamil
neighborhood

post from Ivan About Town | Tourist Spots in the Philippines | Philippine Travel Blog on 26 April 2012 03:24:07 AM. © Ivan About Town | Tourist Spots in the Philippines | Philippine Travel Blog

One reason I love visiting Singapore is because they have preserved significant cultural quarters within the modern city. These include Chinatown, Arab Street and Haji Lane, and Little India which was quite close to the hostel I was staying at along Lavender Street. So from the Little Red Dot, I walked along Jalan Besar (which also has some creative examples of adaptive reuse of old shop houses) to the Tamil ethnic neighborhood of Little India.

It's was quite an interesting walk around Little India which the local Tamils call Tekka. You get to see, smell, taste, hear and feel Tamil culture as you explore the preserved shop houses that line its streets.

Little India Arcade offers visitors a convenient concentration of crafts and souvenir shops. Of course, Little India is also a place where you can get really good Tamil food.

Just like in Singapore's culturally rich neighborhoods, there is a mix of cultures in Little India. It's major places of worship (and attractions) includes the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple and the Abdul Gaffoor Mosque.

The main deity of the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple is the Hindu goddess Kali who is associated with empowerment. Bengali workers built the temple in 1881 which might explain why the temple was dedicated to Kali, with devotion to goddess being popular in Bengal. While the Abdul Gafoor Mosque, built in 1859, features Arabian and Renaissance-style architecture.

How to get to Little India
Take the MRT to Little India or Farrer Park

Check out more photos of Little India in the Ivan About Town Facebook page.

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Oriental Pied Hornbill Picture

Oriental Pied Hornbill is my picture of the week. I took this photo during my journey to Danau Girang in April 2012. This place is actually a field research center located in Lot 6 on the upper Kinabatangan River in Sabah Borneo. The boat journey here takes about 40 minutes form the Kinabatangan Bridge where the Miso Walai Homestay is located. While cruising upstream the river, you will see

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Tube cleaners may strike over pay

While Tube maintenance staff on some lines are in a 72 hour strike over pensions & other benefits, the RMT are getting Tube cleaners to ballot for strike action in disputes over pay, benefits & pensions.

Getty Images/Peter Macdiarmid
Union leader Bob Crow said: ?Once again RMT is forced to move to a ballot for industrial action to secure a fair deal for our cleaner members and to end the exploitation of these groups of staff who work round the clock in the most appalling conditions to keep the tube running.

?These cleaning staff are an integral part of the London Underground team and should be properly rewarded as such and not just seen as a money making tool to be exploited for every last penny in the interest of private profits.

Getty Images/Peter Macdiarmid
The RMT is calling for above-inflation pay rises, substantial bonuses for working during the Olympics, free travel passes for all personnel, a Sick Pay policy and improvements to the companies' pension schemes. All members employed by Initial and ISS will be balloted shortly.

Crow continued ?In the run up to the Olympics it is simply scandalous that the staff who will be keeping the transport system clean for the millions of visitors to this City are being treated like dirt.

?.....RMT would urge Londoners to back this campaign for justice for our cleaners and join us in forcing the Mayor and London Underground to drag ISS and Initial back to the negotiating table to resolve these disputes.?

As yet there is nothing on ISS's site about the prospect of being dragged back to negotiating tables by Crow and his union friends. In the meantime maybe TfL could consider an idea that was tested in the Netherlands where cleaning smells infused through train carriages led people to drop less litter.

Related posts
72 hour Tube Strike from April 24th 2012
Bob Crow believes Tube have Secret Privatisation Plan
Final episode of BBC2's The Tube Documentary - Fluffers, Ghost Stations & Rats
New Rubbish Tube Ads
Would infusing Cleaning Smells on the Tube lead to Cleaner Carriages?

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A Round-up of the Most Popular Cheap Travel Posts

post from Cheapest Destinations Blog - Travel the World! on 26 April 2012 02:12:43 PM. © Cheapest Destinations Blog - Travel the World!

I’m getting ready to hop on a plane to Eastern Europe, where I’ll soon be reporting on cheap travel in four countries there. I’ll be doing some stories for Perceptive Travel and writing chapters for the next edition of The World’s Cheapest Destinations. Meanwhile, here’s what this blog’s readers have been checking out the most [...]Related posts:

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