You gotta eat here.

I recently heard about a new restaurant over in Heredia from one of the Yahoo groups I belong to. It's called Ganesha, and was purported to have Indian, Middle Eastern, and other yummy food, heavy on the vegetarian stuff, menu-wise. Of course we had to go.

But let me back up just a little.

Today started out kinda sucky. We had to take Boo's remains (that's an odd word for "dead body," isn't it?) over to the animal shelter in Heredia for cremation. Wherever we end up, I eventually want to take his, his brother's, and Lucy's ashes back to California and scatter them on the beach at Asilomar. So, anyway, if you need to take your pet for cremation here, AHPPA is the only place in the country that does animals (as of this writing). The cost varies; for us, since we are frequent fliers, we get the multiple-cremation unofficial household discount. The thing is that cremation, or burial, whichever you choose, is so final. Not that death itself isn't, but there is something about the last step, that it is the point I really lost it. I think I am okay now. Or getting okay. I'm not sure.

Son was asleep when we got there, so esposo took the Boo into the shelter, along with our urn of choice, a tin tea box. I stayed in the car and cried. Son eventually woke up, and I realized esposo had been in there an awfully long time, so I asked son if he wanted to go in and see some animals. Of course he did. Turned out one of esposo's ex-co-workers is now a veterinarian there, so they were catching up after lo this many years. Son and I then went over to see the dogs (not as many as I'd have thought), and kittens (way to precious for words, including a pair that looked exactly like Bug and Boo when I first brought them home 19-odd years ago), and puppies (I was tempted by the puppy fruit, I really was, but with nine dogs now, it just didn't seem realistic to bring another puppy home), and finally the adult cats. One of the adult cats was a grey tabby with a little brown on his face, I swear he looked just like Bug. And he was as sweet as could be. I petted him, and he purred... After we left, both esposo and I realized how much we both liked the Bug-alike, and decided, YES! surprise, surprise, we would adopt him when we went to pick up Boo's ashes. He's wonderful. And it was a completely mutual decision. I had decided before we went in that I would not suggest adopting any animals to esposo, because I know he believes we are up to our eyeballs in animals over here. But I'm really, really happy about this decision.

Backing up some more: Phoebe was attacked by Kiki and Bookie last night, I believe partially because Bookie is now the only male cat in the house and they wanted to show who was in charge now. So I'm thinking we need another male cat here to even things out. Even if he is a sweetheart pushover. We shall see.

We finally were able to pull ourselves away from cuteness parade and headed downtown Heredia for some lunch (at this point, though, it was close to 2:00). I had heard about Ganesha and figured it was right up our alley, so we sought it out. Not hard to find, actually, it's on Central Avenue between 5th and 7th streets downtown. (And when driving around Heredia, don't forget the saying: "Heredia por media calle / Heredia in the middle of the street," meaning everyone walks right in the middle of the streets there like they don't have the good sense they were born with.) It's a cute little converted house run by a couple from the Punjabi region of India; he also lived in Florida for a while and speaks perfect English. We started with the veggie pakoras (oh so delish); I had iced tea while the boys had a mango fusion lassi and watermelon lassi. Then we had a swarma (at least I think that is how it's spelled!) with soy "meat"; it was so good I almost ate the whole thing and forgot I was supposed to be sharing it with esposo. Next up was the vegetarian thali, a big ol' platter with yellow dahl, curried veggies, palak paneer, raita, homemade breads, and basmati rice. I have never had such good paneer. I don't even eat cheese, but the spinach sauce was so freakin' good! A hint of anise, a little sweetness... definitely different than any paneer I've ever had. They also brought us some spicy eggplant dish that I could eat until I explode. I was stuffed. Esposo was just getting warmed up. He ordered the chickpea-tamarind thing, and more rice, and several desserts to go. Oh. My. God. I can't believe how much I ate. But it was so good. The only thing I could have passed on were the slightly overcooked veggies in the curry, but the curry sauce was so good the veggies were really beside the point anyway.

So if you are in Costa Rica and need a new idea for dinner, you must go here. You must. Because we want them to stay and be successful. For a long time. Try it and let me know what you think.

And I'll let you know about the Bug-alike.