Chicharones at Donde Alcides

Rene and his friend decided that they needed some chicharones tonight. For those who don't know, chicharones are pork prepared in the "chicharon" style. It's basically chunks of pork thrown on the grill for a while. They're great for people who are into that kind of thing, but unfortunately for me I'm not such a fan of meat in general.

We hopped into the car and started driving. Apparently today was some kind of tamal festival (another kind of Latin American food) so the roads were packed. What is normally about a 10 minute drive took us around 30. The silver lining here is that the view from the road is amazing. We were driving through a little town and headed toward the mountains. We had old homes around us, plenty of people available for people watching, and the not-so-distant mountains right in front of us. Again, unfortunately for me, I get car sick pretty easily. All the twists and turns of the mountain roads, while a nice sight, created a pretty unpleasant ride for me.

Finally, we arrived at restaurant called Donde Alcides. My angry body soon forgave me as we walked into the BBQ-style restaurant. There were huge wooden tables everywhere. We chose one next to the window. I looked out and saw a wooden home on stilts right next to a ledge on the mountain. One thing I love about Costa Rica is the amount and variety of trees. Having lived the majority of my life in Florida, I'm used to a pretty homogeneous landscape consisting of flat land, palm trees, and the occasional and very celebrated pine tree. A sight like the one I was seeing is still something that gives me pause. I looked upon a mountain scene with trees of every shade of green, each tree next to one of a different species and completely different look. The foggy sky created a surreal effect, making us feel isolated in our little slice of paradise.

Then the food arrived. The waiter placed two plates overflowing with tremendous pieces of meat. Pork and beef filled the table, along with my baked potato and corn on the cob. I tried the pork, which was very flavorful and juicy. I tried the beef as well, which was not such a success. I particularly dislike beef and the beef  here required far too much effort to chew with too little flavor to reward my hard work. The boys, however, loved every bite.  We ate and ate and ate until we could eat no more. After the three of us were finished with a combined total of 2 meals, we were left with enough food to bring home a complete meal for the guard who watches our street.

Donde Alcides turned out to be a great restaurant, even worth the car sickness-induced suffering. I would recommend it to anyone who's in the area and has the ability to go.