Costa Rica Food – The best little Chicharroneria in Costa Rica

My favorite ‘chicharroneria’ (a restaurant that serves ‘chicharrones’) is located in a little town called San Pablo Leon Cortés which is about two hours south of San José in the ‘Los Santos’ area, so called because most of the towns are named after ‘Santos’ or Saints.

You will find dozens of variations of ‘chicharrones’ and depending on the cut of pork used, some are extremely fatty, some come with thick, deep fried skin and others are very meaty.

With 23 years experience in the restaurant business, Wilvin is the chef and the owner of ‘La Cuna de los Chicharrones’ (the birthplace of the chicharrones). His delightful wife Ana helps and their eldest son Jason is the young man in charge of ‘customer satisfaction.’

Their chicharrones are the meatiest, the most delicious I have ever tasted and definitely the best value.

Like most good meals, the better the ingredients the more enjoyable the end result and Wilvin insists on using only the leg of pork, always under five months old, cleaned, deboned and deskinned.

Normally he cooks six legs of pork which weigh about seven kilos each in the ‘paila,’ an enormous pan where the pork will lose about 10% of it’s weight in fat and water. Then the large pieces of pork are cut into smaller pieces and turned on the hot griddle until golden brown before serving.

At ‘La Cuna de los Chicharrones’ your plate of ‘chicharrones’ will include:

1. Chicharrones
2. Rice
3. Frijoles
4. French fries
5. Platanos (fried mature plantains)
6. Cabbage salad
7. Escabeche (pickled vegetables)
8. Fried egg and
9. A soda

Unless you are Godzilla, you will not be hungry after eating this meal.

All this food for only c1,650 which at c522:US$1 means this bellyful of good Costa Rican cookin’ sets you back a big US$3.16 each (as of October 2006). If that’s too pricey for you, there are many other less expensive meals available.

PS. If you don’t like mayonnaise on your french fries (which is the norm here), you’d better mention that when you order.

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.