Learn Spanish (Latin America): Como arroz y frijoles.

Como is a very common word with a few meanings! Here, it is the "I" form of the verb comer (to eat). You can tell it means "I eat" from the context of food (arroz y frijoles). When it means "how", it usually has an accent mark (¿cómo?), and when it means "like" or "as", it is used to compare things.

The word y means "and" here. Are there any tricky rules to remember when using it?

Y is the standard word for "and" in Spanish, but there is one important exception to watch out for as you learn. If the word directly after it starts with an "ee" sound (words starting with i- or hi-), the y changes to e so the sounds do not blur together. Since frijoles starts with an "f", we just use y here.

Where is the word for "I" (yo)?

In Spanish, the ending of the verb tells you who is doing the action. The -o ending in como already means "I eat." Because of this, you do not need to say yo unless you want to add extra emphasis.

Why don't we need words for "the" here, like el arroz y los frijoles?

Just like in English, when you are talking about eating a type of food in general, rather than specific items (like "the rice that you cooked yesterday"), you can leave out the articles (el, la, los, las).