Most Costa Rican families eat gallo pinto for breakfast almost every day. It is usually served with a fried egg, a piece of fried plantain (a sweet banana-like fruit), and sometimes a small piece of cheese or sour cream.
Making it is simple. You cook the rice and beans separately the day before, then in the morning you fry them together with chopped onion and pepper. The black beans turn the rice a slightly purple-brown colour - that's where the 'spotted' look comes from.
The secret ingredient is Salsa Lizano - a thin brown sauce, gently spicy, that is made only in Costa Rica. Almost every Costa Rican kitchen has a bottle. Children grow up tasting it before they can read its label.
Around the world, lots of countries have a 'rice and beans' breakfast - Cuba, Brazil, Nigeria, the Caribbean. They taste different in every country because each one has its own spices, oils and a sauce of its own. Gallo pinto is the Costa Rican version.