Lizano Salsa luv

My date and I visited Costa Rica back in February 2008 and fell in love.

What's not to love about this country? It's the perfect storm of

warm weather and beautiful beaches

lovely, hospitable people

and critters EVERYWHERE. I loved the critters.

And then there was Lizano -- the Best Salsa in the World.

Lizano is basically the National Salsa of Costa Rica. It's EVERYWHERE. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Tiny sodas, fancy-schmancy fine dining establishments. E.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e. And did I mention it's delicious?

I was addicted less than 24 hours after landing in San Jose, the capital: It began at breakfast with a splash of Lizano on my eggs and gallo pinto, the Costa Rican riff on beans and rice. The salsa's smokey, mildly spicy, slightly herbaceous flavors were a wicked complement to the combination of creamy scrambled eggs and earthy, and equally addictive, mound of gallo pinto.

I couldn't stop thinking about this magical salsa as we began our adventurous four-hour drive to Quepos and San Miguel Antonio on the Pacific side of the country.

I hoped we would survive see Lizano again.

And we did -- this time sprinkled over petite grilled some-kind-of-meat tacos at a roadside soda overlooking miles of dry rain forest (that's how the Pacific Ocean side of CR rolls -- the tropical flavor is on the Caribbean side). Oh my. Lizano and a little char from the grill. Oh my.

I think you get the picture. Lizano salsa is good. Kick-ass good. And ubiquitous in Costa Rica. We brought back dozens of tiny 3-ounce bottles for family and friends and several larger bottles for home consumption.

And then. The inevitable happened.

We ran out of Lizano. And could not find it anywhere. Sigh. Life is fleeting, you know?

Fast forward to Walla Walla last month. Our first morning in town we met up with one of the Number 2 Son's best friends, The Assistant Winemaker, for breakfast at this wonderfully Walla Walla hip breakfast/espresso joint called Bacon and Eggs.

Source: www.tripadvisor.com

Almost a piece of art itself, a shelf loaded with hot sauces and salsas caught my eye. My heart skipped a beat. Top shelf, stage left? LIZANO!

And the angels sang.

Turns out Bacon and Eggs sells the stuff. Huzzah!

Turns out the bottle on the shelf was their last and not for sale. Sigh. So close. . . . and yet so far.

Obviously unable to bear my Sad Face, our waitress drifted off -- only to return a few minutes later.

"Chef says she thinks you can order it on Amazon."

I could hardly wait to get home. Not really.

But Sunday night, through the miracle that is Amazon, three 700 ml bottles of Lizano were on their way to Bermtopia.

Sidebar: I am hopelessly metric system-impaired and did not realize I was ordering basically wine-bottle size Lizano. The fact that the shipping cost about as much as the salsa should have been a clue. Needless to say, we've got enough Lizano to get us through the next Zombie Apocalypse and then some.

And, so without further ado, here's what Lizano Salsa Month at the Nine-One-Four looks like:

Lizano-marinated pork loin kabobs

Lizano pork wrap

Scrambled eggs with chives and Lizano

Chicken and black bean soup (flavored with Lizano, of course)











What can I say? I'm on a roll. And filled with Lizano Salsa Luv these days.

Happy Saturday! And may you find your own Lizano-like bliss this weekend!

Room with a view (or not)

Don't ask me how or why, but the other night my date and I got on the topic of the best, worst and shall we say we say, most "interesting" hotel rooms we've ever stayed in. (Well, actually we've never had a worst, just interesting, unless you count the rummy little hotel we stayed in at Arlington, Oregon, on the hottest day of the summer some 10 years ago or so. Please don't make me go there.) Suffice to say, most have been international digs although New York City certainly has treated us to an adventure or two.

We've been traveling internationally (if you don't count trips to Canada) since 2002 when we made our first trip to Europe. Yes, we started late, but since then we've never looked back. And from the get-go, let me just say up front, we have been Budget Travelers with a capital B and T.

Having a couple kids in college will do that to you.

As BTs, we're pretty existential about hotel rooms. Location is all important -- we're talking transportation, restaurants, neighborhood-y feel -- but other than that, as long as there aren't creepy-crawly things in the bed, it doesn't smell of -- just fill in the blank and we'd probably agree -- and the staff (and anyone else in the vicinity) aren't ax murderers, we're pretty happy campers.

Here are some random musings on hotels -- starting with some of the best.

Casitas Eclipse, Manuel San Antonio, Costa Rica

Courtesy of Google Images: I'm pretty sure this was the actual room where we stayed. Really.

The. most. beautiful. place. ever. The design theme is tropical spartan and there are no jetted tubs or turn-down service. But where else can you go to sleep to the hum of a thousand insects and tree frogs and wake up to the strange, chilling call of howler monkeys?

Our room was smaller, but they still did the neat twisty thing with the bath towels.

The personnel warm and genuine (well, mostly), best pinto gallo ever, three swimming pools and a 10-minute bus ride (10 cents!) to Manuel San Antonio National Park. The casitas can be rented as  villas (upstairs and downstairs with a small kitchen) or hotel rooms. We're thinking a family Christmas some year, yes?

Finally, can you say 24/7 iguanas, monkeys (howler and squirrel, capuchin in the park), sloths, songbirds and poisonous frogs everywhere? Sa-weet!

Hotel Tre Archi, Venice

This a view of Canale Canareggio. . . from the rooftop terrace of our hotel room. Uh huh, our rooftop terrace. Long story short: We showed up at Tre Archi (one of the most amazingly easy hotels to find in Venice, btw, because it's Pepto Bismol PINK! and right in front of a vaporetto stop) only to find our booked room was having some bathroom issues.

They led us to a tiny room with two twin beds. But when we saw the terrace, it didn't take us long to conclude we could live with the 1960s Sit-Com Sleeping arrangements for three nights. Just call us Lucy and Ricky. 

Other bennies: The wonderful San Leonardo market was a five-minute walk from the hotel -- complete   

 with fantastic little restaurants and gelato shops. A girl has got to have her gelato, you know.

Albergo Firenze, Florence

I came down with a head cold toward the end of our stay in Venice that went from annoying to raging during the 3 1/2-hour train ride to Florence. Let me just say, I wasn't prepared for the noise and busy-ness of Florence after the relative calm of Venice where the only motorized vehicles you heard were vaporettos chugging through its dark canals.

The walk to Albergo Firenze was a cacaphonous mess. I felt like crap. I was missing Venice. Until then we walked through this little cool little Renaissance arch and it all went away. Hello, Albergo Firenze.

We checked into what was possibly the largest hotel room in Europe. Well, at least for Budget Travelers. Design theme: Italian Spartan, but beautiful, cool tile floors, a window that look out over a private courtyard, dead silent. A well-deserved nap was restorative.

And then we discovered the Duomo was literally right outside our front door. Along with a most excellent coffee shop. All for about 90 Euros a night (2008 Euros, that is).

And finally.

Murray Hill East, Mid-town Manhattan

One bedroom apartment with kitchen. Approximately 39th and Lexington. About 4 blocks from Grand Central station. Great bagel place at the corner. Equally swell restaurants within two blocks. Deli that serves up a kick-ass matzoh ball soup. Well under $200 a night (well, in March. . . we BTs tend to travel off-season).

Get. out.

The living room actually looked JUST LIKE THIS!

Next stop - a couple of our more interesting hotel stays. But that's another post.

How about you? What are your most excellent hotels?

This is not Bermtopia.

And neither is this.

Just in case you were wondering.

Almost one year ago to the day today, you would've found me sitting outside at a cafe in Venice, footsteps away from Piazza San Marco, alongside one of the city's legion canals, eating the most amazing gnocchi and pesto cream sauce. Ever. We lived en plein air in Venice before moving on to Florence, Verona and a handful of delightful small Italians towns. We could've stayed in Venice forever.

Today, it's grey and toe-curling cold in Bermtopia after three nights with lows in the high teens. There's a slight threat of snow and sleet in the morning.

The conversation about our next trip has begun in earnest. The decision-making is almost paralyzing with potential. Do we go back to Venice because you will never, EVER see the same Venice no matter how many times you visit? Do we explore Spain because a six-hour layover in Madrid made us wish for 60 more? Do we golf in Ireland? Back to the beaches and howler monkeys of Costa Rica? Ahhhh, as soon as we say oh-so-definitely -- "Let's go back to...." -- a new map or word of mouth sets us off on the possibility of a whole new adventure.

The conversation has indeed begun in earnest.