Falafel From Scra-Sk-Sk-Scratch - Food Fight Friday - Round 37
edit - I planned on entering @foodfightfriday yesterday (Friday) but I was pulled over for being white instead. I had this contender ready to go when we left for the beach yesterday—I only needed to add a few more things and work on some edits. I didn’t foresee being harassed by local authorities for being white, consequently keeping us away from our Air B&B until after 10pm last night. So, I decided to enter it now, Saturday, what’s the big deal though, right? @intothewild knows what I mean, shooooooot. @grandadscookbook knows what I mean, so does @hery0823. Simple: Friday, food and Friday—that’s it! Two of the “F’s” in #fff, actually. Like bringing a Thanksgiving Turkey to the bar on St. Patrick’s Day—showing up to a Friday kitchen on Wednesday just doesn’t make sense. 😉
So, before I get into my contender that I had every intention of releasing yesterday (Friday), I’d like to share some of the events that led to this late entry—the one where I’m still pretty pissed off (can you tell?) and disappointed with the entire country of Costa Rica and all of the people in it. Not the two angels on the side of the road, though, nope! First things first, the truck overheated—that held us up about an hour.
Yeah, true story! On our way back from Playa Hermosa, the truck overheated—F’ing terrific! Oh, I didn’t tell you we originally intended to go to Uvita, did I? That was our first mistake, we went to Uvita with white flesh—blanco. After being stopped at both beach entries in Uvita by local park authorities who refused our entry onto a public beach until we paid 3,600 colones each ($12 USD) to enter, we went to Playa Hermosa. Entry fees to a provincial operated beach are acceptable, right? Like paying the parking meter, I couldn’t agree with you more—but! They can wipe their rectum with an entry fee that only pertains to white people while everyone with brown skin walks passed us, high-fiving and even laughing harmoniously with the local park ranger. Dear Uvita...
En route back to our Air B&B, we stopped at a market in Playa Hermosa for some grocery items—that held us up another hour. While the truck is full of groceries and roughly 115km (70 miles) from the apartment with nothing other than a few scattered houses along the side of the road, the truck overheated—thank God the sun was still out! We pulled over and did the only thing we could do without any reserve water on hand—popped the hood and allowed the radiator time to cool down. Not long after, an older gentleman on a bicycle peddled to us with an empty three liter (yes, 3) of Coca Cola in the basket on his handlebars. With the help of google translate, he offered to help us and went to neighboring houses to fill up his three liter bottle full of water for us. When he returned, he had a young kid with him, no older than 12 years old, they each had a three liter full of water for us. After releasing the pressure from the radiator and cooling the exterior of it, we were able to remove the cap, start the truck and begin adding water to it. Eventually we were up and running again, I repeated the only Spanish I’m competent saying: Dios te bendigas—we all shook hands and Pura Vida and I were back on the road!
55 kilometers later, no sunlight and not a street light for miles, we overheated again. Our previous encounter with the two angels on the side of the road left us with one of those three liter bottles full of water. After releasing the pressure again and allowing some time for the truck to cool down, we proceeded to add water to the radiator again and continued our journey to the apartment. With less than 5km to go, not even three miles from the apartment, we were stopped by local authorities wearing reflective bullet proof vests, full head and face gear, and assault rifles—now what?!
The brown people driving vehicles going in the opposite direction simply waved their brown hands and were signaled to continue driving. The brown people in the numerous cars both in front and behind us simply waved their brown hands and were signaled to continue driving. Enter @dandays and @puravidaville—“alto!!” We were directed to pull off the road and turn the engine off. It’s recommended to travel inside countries not of your origin with photocopies of your passport rather than the original for obvious reasons—it’s legal, as well as, a safe alternative considering the consequences of misplacing or losing your original.
“Pasaportes?” Asked the officer, to which I responded, “I have a copy of it right here.” In more ways than one, he said he isn’t interested in a photocopy and we’re breaking the law which is going to result in a ticket, his exact words were “it’s very expensive.” I explained I was only a few miles from the apartment and I could call someone to have them bring it to me but he wasn’t interested in that either. He then asked “where’s your implements?” “My what?” I asked, “sorry, I don’t understand implements?” He said “implements: reflective shirt, triangles and fire extinguisher.” I asked him if I could check the back, he agreed and moved aside so I could exit the vehicle, we walked around to the back and I opened the hatch.
I went all through the jack compartment, spare tire location, etc. to no avail—no ‘implements.’ I said, “I just had our vehicle inspected at Retive last week and wasn’t made aware of any implements, officer, Dios te bendigas.” His tone changed. “Do you want a ticket?” He asked. I said “I’m at your mercy.” I never said yes, or no, or how much, nothing. Dios te bendigas and I’m at your mercy is all I said. “You’re in violation of four laws: no passport, no reflective shirt, no triangles and no fire extinguisher, it’s going to be very expensive for you.” Again, I responded “I’m at your mercy,” at this point, I just wanted the ticket so I could get the overheating truck down the road another three miles to the apartment. “Would you like to go without a ticket?” The officer asked. “I’m at your mercy,” I must’ve said I’m at your mercy five more times. He finally gave me back my ID and vehicle inspection paperwork, told me I was free to go, turned his back and walked away from me. edit finished
Original Contender:
Well, Pura Vida and I can add ‘border-hoppers’ to our profiles now. We crossed into Panama from Costa Rica on Tuesday or... maybe it was Wednesday? 🤔 Whatever day it was, we spent it in Panama and did a little bit of shopping, mostly for grocery items while touring all through the border town and, by doing so, we’ve extended our passports an additional 90 days so we don’t have to worry about being deported from anywhere on any day.
Then, last night, Thursday night, I’m certain it was Thursday—we had a falafel party across the street. For those of you who don’t know, if you can switch gangster for falafel in this 2Pac track, you’re a falafel gangster!
Pura Vida spent most of yesterday morning across the street, on the boat docks with our current Air B&B pita host. They processed chickpeas, cassava flour, parsley, cilantro, garlic, onion, a handful of spices including nutmeg which is just a hideous idea (I’ll explain in a minute), no citrus (I’ll explain that, too), to form this huge bowl of falafel that we rolled into about 100 falafel balls that the girls were directed to resize (stay tuned for explanations), with 14 other people—a family of Swede’s, us Westerners, one woman from Budapest and a really cool guy from Russia.
When I say across the street at the docks, I mean a house boat converted into boat docks complete with a galley, showers, oversized living quarters, an additional floating Air B&B, outdoor sinks for cleaning fish, a BBQ area, the whole 9—it’s a really nice set up. Better yet, I’ll just show you, it’s the one with the green roof—that’s the floating Air B&B I was telling you about on the other side of the palm tree with the sailboat docked to it:
Once the falafel balls were re-rolled to our new hosts critically judgmental, passive aggressive and annoying, micro-managing personal preference, they began dumping them in the 360 degree deep fryer with about three inches of oil, a dozen falafels at a time, for precisely four minutes per dunk. I say “they” because as soon as Kathy Pita (Pain in The you know what) directed the girls to re-size the falafels, I did what’s best for Pura Vida and I—excuse myself from the production process and simply take pictures the remainder of the evening because we have 19 more days here and my quick-witted mouth is the sharpest tool in the @foodfightfriday kitchen.
What’s a Pita without some pitas? Falafel stuffed pita bread with just enough room to pack all of this fresh produce, homemade tahini and tzatziki spread inside: Diced onion, cucumber and tomato. Shredded lettuce and cabbage, baked egg plant and hot, as in, way too hot for me hot sauce. Check out this prep station and constructed falafel pita represented by our hand model—@puravidaville:
This is where I originally left off—this is where I planned on returning to last night (Friday) so I could finish this contender and click the post button. That was before dealing with an overheating truck full of groceries as a white guy in a country full of pompous, arrogant white people who refuse to even learn the native language and, a civilization full of brown people who, in my opinion, have every right to be pissed—I don’t blame ‘em! Speaking of arrogant, pompous, white people—our new host is a pita! I picked up on that as soon as we arrived.
Upon entering our destination for the next 30 days, she didn’t step two feet inside the apartment before telling us how to open and close the front door, which latch to leave unlocked on each window individually, how to open and close the blinds at precisely what time of day and at the speed in which to operate the ceiling fans—I knew we were in for it!
As she showed us our bedroom, she proceeded to tell us at which exact temperature to leave the air conditioner, how to appropriately prop the bedroom door open and at what speed to operate the ceiling fan. I told her we were really tired from the drive and needed to unpack our things so we could take a nap—both Pura Vida and I put on a smiley face, shook her hand and said thank you, “thank you,” followed by a lock on the door as soon as she left—“deuces!”
This lady, Kathy, who we’ll refer to as Pita has three grown men, three, who bend, jump, obey and spring into action as soon as she twitches an eyelid—it’s so weird to observe. She’s surrounded herself with these men who rent her apartments and do as she says, when she says it. Well, she tried that same approach with Pura Vida as they were preparing the falafel and, needless to say, it didn’t go over well.
As soon as Pura Vida walked back in the apartment with her food processor in her arms, her exact words to me were “I’ll never do anything with Pita again—that F’ing sucked!” She told me how Pita meticulously micro managed every breath she took, even down to the assembly of her own food processor—God bless you, Pura Vida! When it was time for us to go down to the falafel party, it was down pouring rain so hard we couldn’t leave the balcony. Pita directed one of her servants to walk an umbrella over to us so we could join the festivities—“aye - aye, Pita!”
I watched her direct the Russian guy, a really cool guy by the way, multiple times on the grill: “It’s too hot, don’t put the pita there, flip the pita, you’re not doing it right, cut it like this.” He obeyed.
I watched her direct a Swede how to cut watermelon: “Go get the watermelon and cut it, chop it into cubes, the toothpicks are in the pantry, put the cubes in the bowl, each with their own toothpick and then splash some orange juice in it.” He obeyed.
In the meantime, she’s directing each of the kids there, five in total, how to pet, sit with, talk to and even look at the dogs. Each time one of the kids would pet a dogs ear or something, she’d say “they don’t like it when you do that, pet them like this,” followed by her own example how to pet a dog. They obeyed.
After rolling about 100 falafel balls with a couple of other really nice people, one woman from Sweden and another from Budapest, Pita came over and began taking apart each of the falafel balls we rolled because some were bigger than others—I walked away. I watched her re-roll each of the balls to the size of her liking while explaining all of the terrible consequences to be expected had we left the falafel balls alone. At this point, both Pura Vida and I just wanted to leave but we knew it was best if we stayed another 20 minutes and have at least one falafel pita first. The girls obeyed.
At the conclusion of the falafel pita show, we walked back across the street to our apartment (for another 18 days) and Pura Vida got down in the kitchen again—she whipped us up some nice cream: frozen blueberries, pineapple and coconut milk, topped with freshly ground almonds, sugar free chocolate chips and Oreo cookies:
I’ve had falafel in at least a half dozen different locations since we arrived in Costa Rica in January—the falafel from Thursday night was hands down, without a doubt, the most memorable yet! First impressions are everything and, I gotta be real with you, I’m looking forward to polling the audience where we should go next—Thailand and Taiwan are currently my one and two, but!! First things first—find a place to get our truck fixed, this should be fun—Dios te bendigas!
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Click here for Tuesday.
God Bless you guys also. What a hell of a day, from the fellawful supervising maniac, to the over heating, would have been nice if the bad day was from over eating not overheating, to being pulled over and treated as a criminal.
I'm afraid that I would have been as overheated as the truck.
Despite the policia putting you through the ringer, at least the harassment didn't turn out to be anything more.
After this entire experience, I feel a fish slap would be entirely unjustified.
Matter of fact, if you were to receive one, the person delivering the blow should be fish slapped by a
@dandays and @puravidaville should be the poster chefs for @fff, for even thinking about still getting in an entry.
Thailand and Taiwan are currently my one and two, but!!
I'm hoping this is just a joke😁😁😁.
En tales áreas, los civiles están a merced de bandas rebeldes que en modo alguno pretenden respetar sus derechos, o de fuerzas [...]
mantenerse seguro
That sure was an awesome sentence to plug into my translator, thebigsweed! Happy Monday, sir, I hope you and yours have the best week ever, anything exciting on the agenda?
Holy
cowwhale! I actually thought that was a fish it flung through the air effortlessly... nope! It was a seal. Incredible.Thank you for the blessings, Rob, God bless us all the same, por favor, that’s my wish for this day. 😉
About the truck, yeah man I’m pretty disappointed. We’re way down in the middle of no man’s land with not even an oil changing service station. I tried to get a radiator cap there—no luck! Splatts and weirdheadaches has idea for me to remove the thermostat and hope for the best but it’s too difficult to get to, even if I was able to acquire the appropriate tools. I already had an appointment with a mechanic in two weeks to go through the truck, now I’m gonna have to make it happen NOW and it’s 200 miles away. I need a tow truck in a joint without tow trucks and I need to reserve it without speaking the native language—this should be interesting.
God is great!
Thanks for stopping by @thebigsweed, it’s always a pleasure to read your responses.
I hope it all works out for the two of you. You could have been stuck on some freeway in California, with people passing you, giving you the bird. Thank God the first time you overheated those two angles came by, and were gracious enough to lend a hand. I'm sure you have already considered this, but in case you haven't, maybe you could carry around a couple of 5 gallon jugs of water.
Stay safe and make sure @puravidaville and her gracious heart don't get roped info any more falafel making. 😁😁😁
Oh man that's a horrible experience all in all. The joyous moments but have been the ones to enjoy to the max. That one lady though. Boy oh boy, I wonder how long I would have lasted before opening my mouth to shut her up. Especially with her not even knowing how to make the damn things. I haven't had a good tasting falafel yet but I would love to see what a good tasting one is. Although from the pictures it looks good but the nice cream looks even better!
I hate to say this but what has happened to you both with being pulled over for being white, is the same thing that happens to the black/brown people in America. Perhaps that's why they are doing it? Nevertheless How fu*king ignorant it is to judge people on the colors of their skin? Do they not know that your money, tourist money help pay for salaries and all that to the working people? I say that's something to be grateful for. Im not saying it comes down to the money but I'm saying that just by you guys being there and all the others, help the economy and keep things going. Just like the people that come here to visit.
I came here after reading Pura Vida's post. For her to still have such good humor and good moods after all that, she's definitely an angel!
Foxy, you’re sofa king cool!
Check you out, would ya?! Curating for helpie (thank you so much for the mention and Resteem!), lending a helping hand to new registrants, all over PHC, crocheting, exotic writing, are you getting all of this?? You’re killin it, Foxy, we all see it.
I’m not gonna lie, I wasn’t comfortable the other night, it sucked! I expect to be in this country and be confused, distorted, things like that and I’ll find my way. But I don’t want to be fearful—anywhere! No, never was that my intention. It left a taste in my mouth that won’t go away.
In the states, you’re right, I have no idea what it’s like to be the brown guy or black guy in the car, I only know what media shows me and it’s not good—ever! Their skin is definitely judged and it’s disgusting! I have, however, been put in several binds in the states for being covered in black n gray tattoos. Nothing like being a black guy but definitely some preconceived judgements. But you know what? I’ll take any of those judgements in favor of what we went through the other night.
Thanks for all of your support here, Foxy, and thanks for supporting Pura Vida too. You know I got your back here, girl!
Thanks for stopping by @foxyspirit.
Did the helpie resteem it? I want to make sure it works. If not, let me know and I will do it.
HAHAHA thats a brilliant way of saying it :D I bursted out laughing and everyone in my house just looked at me and because of the kids being there I couldn't repeat it . Good one!
The fact that people actually carry guns on them, and not just any small gun.... The violence that people are just so ok with, to bring that onto people... What goes on in their minds? You have said how many times that you are at their mercy and they fed on it. You did so well dealing with it and thank god that you did. That was such a nasty experience.
I tried not to go on about it as to not have you dive back into those feelings those ugly people created. But it still needs to be addressed because its a ducking big deal. It's not like you guys were carrying drugs.
Who knows maybe you should have just to give them some to calm the f.. down.
I'm with on wanting to be judged more for the tattoos than skin color. We are so far from a good civilization than we think we are. :( This is sad.
On another note... Look at all those wonderful comments talking about what a good time you had! smh
I support what I can, although I always hope to do more. I'm slowly climbing the ladder. Thank you for your support as well. You and @puravidaville are such great people. I wish you both the best, and better experiences in traveling, especially with better falafels ;)
Heck yeah they resteemed it—you’re the best!
War of the world’s, greed, corruption, the list is infinite. Humans, in my opinion, are genuinely kind with no ill intent toward each other. Sure, there’s a bad seed sometimes, I can’t explain it. Like the one dog who tries to bite you when the other 20 just want to lick your face. “What’s wrong with that one dog?!” I don’t know, it happens—same with humans.
But I think, if we police our own, this world has the potential of being full of excitement without fear. It’s only when power, governments from all reigns, etc continue to build themselves on negativity, we’re continued to be fed BS. I don’t believe humans need governed, it’s never been a successful exercise. Hate is taught, it’s not acquired. We have to be taught to hate and discriminate. I believe if we put two infants together on an island somewhere, one black and, one white, they’ll live harmoniously without ever knowing racism, it wouldn’t exist. Give them one tv, a radio channel, an outsider, etc. and not long after the brainwashing begins.
Hope you didn’t mind this personally formed, opinionated rant, Foxy (thanks for giving me the space). Happy Tuesday!
Hey, check it out!
At least your last name ain’t Slocum!! Could you imagine all of this ‘society good’ or ‘society bad’ talk and your last name is Slocum??
I'm in agreeance with you here. You speak the whole truth and I too believe we don't need to be governed.
You are allowed to rant and I say if you need to rant on one of my posts/comments, well go right ahead and indulge! Let it out and then be free ^_^
LOL Slocum :D :D I .... poor dude. lol. :P But I am no better. I was born with the last name Stewart. It wasn't so nice growing up with that name lol. Names are labels. Let's ditch them! :P
We at artzone, really care about food, since about the last 5 last minutes, if only you would know a healthy person that could talk and curate food, if only...
Bravo, senor, bravo on the artfully crafted encouragement. She’s already been putting out her feelers, actually, check it out! This is her first crack at curating, check out them tags—she’s a natural. 😉
🤡
Hello!
This post has been manually curated, resteemed
and gifted with some virtually delicious cake
from the @helpiecake curation team!
Much love to you from all of us at @helpie!
Keep up the great work!
Enjoy some extra sweets to wear off some of that negative experience 😉 FS
@helpiecake. Thank you! It’s always a pleasure to see you.
Really its a very pleasant trip,friend . I enjoy the atmosphere of your trip through the eriting and photo that u post
Thank you friend.
Well hello! I’m glad you liked it, thanks for all of your support, what did you have for dinner last night?
Thanks for stopping by @elianaelisma.
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Yes!! I’ve seen you guys on many articles since I joined #steemit, this is my first visit from you guys—awesome!! You’re getting some fancy pink script. 😉
Thanks for stopping by @tts.
yumm yumm :D
Well this sure is a pleasant surprise! Good morning, Adele, I hope you’re having a nice weekend.
Thanks for stopping by, @adelepazani.
a late good morning to you also ,, :) thanks i wish you a beautiful week as well my friend <3
I thought you were talking in a good description, have a nice day
I’m glad you liked it—thanks for continuing to support what I’m doing around here, enjoy the rest of this Sunday!
Thanks for stopping by @ustazkarim.
Uh yeah, no comment- yesterday was a shit show, our host is on another level, and it’s too damn hot here to do anything but blitch about it. Haha… bigger fish to fry, mission: fix car underway. At least our pad is across the way so there’s plenty of space for our happy cosmic energies to exist in harmony. I love you and am glad you put this together. Muah- most handsomest man I know. kiss kiss kisses all over your fashe!
Thanks for telling them what kind of show it was, 😉 I was tempted to make this post my first one with curse words and I was gonna let’em all fly. The F one, a couple of A’s, you know... all of the deserving adjectives to describe humanity around here.
I’m the luckiest guy I know.
iheartu all the time, @puravidaville.
I heart you all the time spaghetti face!
Incredible experiences.
Bravo.
I’m glad you still enjoy reading them.
Thanks for stopping by @eii.