Gourmet Magazine

July 12, 1990

La Cocina de Leña

Centro Commercial El Pueblo

Dear Chef de Cuisine,

We have received an enthusiastic letter from one of our readers about the fine food that you serve in your restaurant. Our correspondent particularly admired the “gallo pinto and fried platanos”.

We wonder if you would be so gracious as to share your recipe with us. If you would like to do so, and if at some time your recipe is chosen for publication in GOURMET MAGAZINE, we will credit your restaurant and send you a complimentary copy of the issue in which your recipe appears. The decision whether or not to publish a recipe is based upon editorial needs each month.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Metthea K. Keane

Editorial Assistant.

El Centro Comercial El Pueblo

La noche en Costa Rica ofrece de todo. El Centro Comercial El Pueblo (al norte del Zoológico del barrio Otoya) recrea un pueblo colonial y está lleno de bares, discotecas, tiendas y restaurantes. “Recomiendo ir a este centro y probar olla de carne en el restaurante La Cocina de Leña. Es un puchero de carne con mandioca, papa, chayote, batata, choclo, plátano verde, zanahoria, mucho cilantro y una gran variedad de verduras desconocidas en la Argentina”, explicó Lissette Donato de Arena, agregada cultural y de turismo en la embajada de Costa Rica en Buenos Aires. O busque la belleza de las cosas más simples: una caminata a la luz de la luna, con el olor a azufre que impregna el aire y la tierra tibia de este país tronante y con primavera eterna.

Por Mónica Martín

Para La Nación – Buenos Aires – Argentina.

Best Concentrated Nightlife

El Pueblo. For restaurants and nightlife galore, drop by this recreated colonial village a block north of the downtown Aurola Holiday Inn. Restaurants, bars, clubs, art galleries and more than 150 shops line the cobblestone streets. (Restaurant prices are usually a little higher than in other areas.) The restaurant La Cocina de Leña serves up a good tenderloin steak, among other things.

Latin Trade magazine/Tenth Anniversary Special

Dining Magazine

La Cocina de Leña COSTA RICAN Located in the El Pueblo shopping, dining, and entertainment center, La Cocina de Leña (The Wood Stove) is designed to create a rustic feel. There are stacks of firewood on shelves above the booths, long stalks of bananas hanging from pillars, tables suspended from the ceiling by heavy ropes, and most unusual of all, menus printed on paper bags.

If you're adventurous, you could try some of the more unusual dishes–perhaps oxtail stew served with yucca and plátano might appeal to you. If not, there are plenty of steaks and seafood dishes on the menu. Chilasquilas are delicious tortillas filled with fried meat. Black-bean soup with egg is a Costa Rican standard and is mighty fine here; the corn soup with pork is equally satisfying. For dessert, there's tres leches cake as well as the more unusual sweetened chiverre, which is a type of squash that looks remarkably like a watermelon.