Tacacos, have you ever enjoyed them? Ok, this time we will try to see what a tacaco is and how it is present in Costa Rican food. Tacacos are small green fruits that taste great and they can be eaten directly like vegetables.
Tacaco is a really unique little fruit, it is a plant that grows in Costa Rica. Maybe if you’ve ever visited pura vida, you’ve enjoyed or tried tacacos in olla de carne. This is a Costa Rican beef stew that contains Tacaco fruit. There is also this fruit present in foods such as the picadillo.
Tacaco plants do well there, from Tilarán in Guanacaste to Coto Brus in the south, they grow in plains between altitudes of 500 m -1,800 m. So, this is a typical food that you can only get in Costa Rica.
How to Prepare Tacaco
How to boil tacacos? The trick is to boil this small fruit for 10 minutes. Peel the skin and cut in half, this fruit contains a small white hole in the middle. But this is very bitter and should be thrown away. While the rest is delicious and worth a try.
How to eat it can be in various ways, you can eat it alone or with other ingredients. There are those who love fruit Tacaco, they taste it by adding mayonnaise. Sometimes there are also those who use tuna as a side dish.
See also: Monkey Fruit Benefits and Traditional Uses
Also see: Borojo Fruit Benefits
There are some expert cooks who sometimes combine Tacaco with Tuna which is sour and delicious. This is as treated by a chef named Jose Gonzalez (Almercat). This fruit is sliced thin so that it gives a crunchy texture. But for some people, they prefer boiled Tacaco fruit.
See too: Peaches Fruit: Best Health Benefits Of Aadu
Back to the roots
Tacaco is a fruit rich in fiber, it is not only delicious but also rich in nutrients. Apart from being rich in fiber, Tacacos also contain folate, vitamin C, and potassium. Apart from the fiber and other nutritional content, we are still lucky because many tacacos are still loved even in this modern era. Those who visit Costa Rica still want to buy local goods like this.
There are still many local people who use Tacaco fruit as an ingredient in many of their dishes. So, regional cuisine will continue to be maintained and become a characteristic of Costa Rica. Even many chefs find it challenging to use Tacaco fruit in their cooking to be able to produce delicious dishes. Of course they mix it with other ingredients so the dish is easy to adjust.
Also see: Jacote Fruit Facts (Spanish Plum)
If you have the opportunity, come to Costa Rica and find unique things there including the culinary side and various beautiful tourist attractions. By continuing to use tacaco as an ingredient in many of these modern dishes, culinary is one of the entry points for newcomers to Costa Rica. Many of them come to taste or discover new things from culinary.
