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Gallo pinto or gallopinto is a traditional rice and bean dish from Central America. Consisting of rice and beans as a base, gallo pinto is important to both Nicaragua and Costa Rica, both of which consider it a national dish.
The beans in gallo pinto are cooked with garlic, oregano and onion. When the bean juice is in equal parts with the beans, they are then combined with leftover or previously prepared rice. The rice is prepared with bell peppers, salt and onions.
In Costa Rica, the dish has an origin story involving a farmer in San Jose's San Sebastian neighborhood who told his friends and neighbors he was going to slaughter a speckled hen or gallo pinto for a feast day celebration for Saint Sebastian; when the people he had told interpreted this as an invitation to dinner, the hen wasn't enough to feed everyone, and he served rice and beans. It turned into a local joke, with people asking one another whether they'd gotten any of the farmer's gallo pinto, and the name for the dish spread throughout the country. Preston-Werner writes that the truth of the origin story is less important than the fact that it "provides a crucial cultural explanation for the origin of this ubiquitous food. In the case of pinto, a culturally adored foodway becomes grounded in time (the start of the twentieth century on the day of Saint Sebastián) and space (the town of San Sebastián by the Tiribi River)".
The dish is often eaten for breakfast, and every breakfast typically includes it, but it is also eaten for other meals or for a snack. As a breakfast dish it is often served with some combination of eggs, fried plantains, corn tortillas, fried cheese, meat and fruit, and is often accompanied by natilla. It is often served as a side dish at lunch.
The dish is eaten at any time of the day. It is commonly sold in fritanga, where it is served as a companion to various dishes. The dish is eaten at any meal. In some homes it is served at every meal.
In 2003, the government of Costa Rica held an event at which nearly 1000 pounds of gallo pinto was cooked and served; the event was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records. Nicaragua responded by preparing and serving 1200 pounds. The competitions became an annual Gallo Pinto Day. The competition between the two countries over ownership of the dish is sometimes referred to as the "Gallo Pinto War".
The dish is a national dish of Costa Rica and is the country's best known dish. The phrase más tico que el gallo pinto (more Costa Rican than spotted rooster) is a common saying in Costa Rica. It is on the menu of most Costa Rican restaurants. According to Costa Rican chef and food writer Isabel Campabadal, "If any one dish defines Costa Rican cuisine, it is gallo pinto". According to anthropologist Theresa Preston-Werner, the dish is "ubiquitous" in any Costa Rican breakfast.
The dish is a staple in Nicaragua and considered one of its national dishes. In 2019 Daniel Ortega proposed that Nicaragua needed to develop a "gallo pinto" economy, which Confidencial described as one that "appealed to the creativity and resistance of Nicaraguans to endure the hardships of an economic debacle caused by himself".
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Other cuisines
The dish is also known in Panamanian cuisine and in Venezuelan cuisine as Pabellón criollo.
Contention
According to Costa Rica the dish dates to 1930s San Jose. According to Nicaragua it is based on a dish that was brought to the country by enslaved Africans much earlier.
Cultural importance
The dish is culturally important in both Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
See also
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