Gallo Pinto

Gallo pinto is day-old rice fried with cooked black beans, onion, sweet pepper and coriander, and what makes the Costa Rican version itself is Salsa Lizano, a thin brown sauce of vegetables and spices made in the country since the 1920s and stirred through until the rice turns a greyish tan; the name, spotted rooster, comes from the mottled look. It is breakfast, served with eggs, fried plantain, natilla, a slice of white cheese and a corn tortilla. Nicaragua makes a version too and both countries claim the dish with some feeling, which is a genuine and unresolved argument rather than a joke.

What you actually see

• Salsa Lizano - the bottled sauce that defines the Costa Rican version.
• The full breakfast - with eggs, plantain, natilla and cheese.
• Day-old rice - the necessary starting point, never fresh.
• The Nicaraguan version - made with red beans, and claimed just as firmly.

When to go

Year-round, at breakfast. Sodas serve it from early morning. Hotel buffets do a version that is usually inferior to the one made in a small soda for a fraction of the price.

Honest expectations

It is plain, and visitors expecting bold flavour are often unimpressed; Costa Rican cooking is mild by regional standards and this is its emblem. Hotel versions made in bulk and held warm are stodgy. Salsa Lizano is what most people end up buying to take home, and it is on every supermarket shelf for a fraction of the souvenir shop price.

Nearby

Every soda in the country; San José's Mercado Central has a dozen.