Costa Rican Gastronomy
What are you going to eat?
This is a very interesting question since ideally the discovery of a country should also be accompanied by a culinary discovery.
The good news is that you will be pleasantly surprised… Although not very varied, Costa Rican cuisine is based on fresh ingredients and good quality local products. So let yourself be tempted and go discover the fruits, vegetables, meats and other fish of our tropics and above all keep in mind that just as a French person can hardly imagine a meal without bread, a Costa Rican is unhappy without rice… It’s a question of habit and culture!
Discover local recipes like gallo pinto, picadillo, casado, ceviche or chicharones
Surprise your taste buds in complete peace of mind, the hygiene conditions are good and allow you to venture out without risk
Overview of a country where “Bon Appétit” is “Buen Provecho”
Basic Foods
Costa Rican cuisine, like all Central American cuisines, is based on two main foods: rice and frijol (black or red bean). Often seasoned with onions, red peppers and coriander, they are prepared differently depending on the time of day. Less present than in Mexican cuisine for example, corn is nevertheless used to make many types of tortillas and to make tamal, a dish specially prepared during the Christmas holiday season. Local cuisines such as Caribbean cuisine or seaside cuisine based on fish and seafood are also very present throughout the territory. Costa Rican cuisine is generally not very spicy but very fragrant. Fruits, especially consumed in juice, and coffee are an integral part of the gastronomy.
Rice and bean dishes: gallo pinto and casado are typical breakfast and lunch dishes. They are served in every restaurant in the country, from the most exclusive hotel restaurants to the small roadside “sodas”. They are consumed by every family in the country and you can also taste them if you stay with a local
Costa Rica and Nicaragua are fighting over the paternity of Gallo Pinto. Costa Rica’s national dish (in fact, it is said here that someone who is very “tico” in their way of being is “more tico than Gallo Pinto”), it is traditionally eaten in the morning for breakfast (desayuno). The rice and beans are cooked separately then mixed with onions and possibly very finely chopped red pepper and coriander. The secret to the success of a Gallo Pinto lies in adding just the right amount of the famous Salsa Lizano, the making of which is said to be as secret as that of Coca Cola! It is generally served with an egg or fried cheese, or even bacon or beef in sauce and pieces of plantain melted in butter. It is delicious and very nourishing, perfectly suited for those going for a long walk in the forest!
Always based on rice and beans, the casado is the traditional lunch dish (almuerzo). Rice and beans are served separately and accompanied by meat (chicken, beefsteak, pork chop) or fish. It is served with a salad of raw vegetables (cabbage or beetroot), with a “picadillo” (a type of vegetable stew that takes its name from the fineness of its cut ingredients) or a puree and a slice of grilled plantain.
What may be surprising is that everything arrives on the same copiously filled plate. A complete and balanced meal in a single plate: practical and economical!
Less commonly offered but just as delicious, “chifrijo” is another dish prepared with rice and beans (red in this case). A sort of soup, it is served with “chicharonnes” or pieces of grilled pork and “tacos” or corn chips. To be enjoyed without moderation!
Central American tortilla,
tacos and “picar” dishes
Corn tortillas are very present in Costa Rican cuisine. They can accompany the morning “Gallo Pinto” or the midday “Casado”, especially if it includes meat in sauce.
Freshly grilled over a wood fire, they are simply accompanied by “natilla”, sour cream, with coffee or for a snack in the countryside. They are also used to accompany “chicharonnes” or pieces of grilled pork which are eaten with a squeeze of lemon, but also vegetable “picadillos” or “gallo”, small dishes in sauce often made with beef. These dishes are called “para picar”: they do not constitute a real meal but are more of a Spanish tapa. They also go perfectly well with a good “tica” beer or a glass of Argentine or Chilean red wine (see the drinks section).
“Tacos” are fried tortillas, often presented in a triangular shape. They are invariably eaten with “frijol molido” or black or red bean puree, “guacamole” with tica or “chimichurri”, a preparation based on finely chopped tomatoes and onions and sprinkled with lime juice. They are also found in the preparation of “Nachos”, a Mexican dish based on meat, tacos and melted cheese but also quite widespread in Costa Rica.
Meat and Fish
Meat lovers will not be disappointed. There is excellent quality beef , sometimes reserved for export but served in restaurants of a certain standing. Customs mean that the steak is served rather well done. If you prefer it rare or medium, ask for “rojo” for rare, “medio” for medium, “3 quarto” or “bien cocinado” for well done. It can be accompanied with onions or an excellent sauce made with oil, garlic and parsley, the “chimirchuri”.
Chicken is the basic meat. Consumed in all its forms: in soup, fried, grilled, roasted or cut into thin strips to be mixed with rice and vegetables in the delicious and essential “ arroz con pollo ” (rice with chicken). It is the dish of family celebrations. Obviously, each family has its recipe and preferences and you will find it in the majority of restaurants. An excellent spicy mix according to the chef, with more or less tomatoes and coriander
Pork is very common. Served in ribs or chops in the casado of the south or in chicharones ( a kind of rillons) it is always very good for those who appreciate it. For sandwiches, ham can be found in all supermarkets.
For fish lovers, we recommend the whole fried fish or the ceviche (diced fish cooked in lemon juice). There is nothing like one of these dishes, by the sea, with your feet in the sand! The fish is also served as a fillet, accompanied by a garlic butter “al ajillo” or simply grilled “a la plancha” as desired. There are also excellent shrimp rice dishes…
Soups
Tica cuisine also offers a number of soups that are eaten more in the evening. The main ones, also the ones most often offered on restaurant menus, are:
” Sopa negra ” (or black soup) is made with beans cooked with red pepper, oregano, coriander, celery and onion. It is served with hard-boiled eggs, onion and fresh coriander.
The “ Olla de carne ” (from olla – pot and carne – meat): similar to a pot-au-feu, the “olla de carne” is made up of a beef broth in which are mixed pieces of beef, carrots, cassava, sweet potato, potato, plantain, chayote (a cucurbit whose taste is similar to turnip, widely used in Costa Rican cuisine), corn on the cob
“ Sopa de Pollo ” (or chicken soup) recommended by all Costa Rican housewives to treat minor colds and many other ailments
Desserts and Pastries
It must be recognized that dessert is not the strong point of Costa Rican gastronomy but a good ” Arroz con Leche ” rice pudding or a good fresh coconut candy cannot hurt the taste buds.
The ” Tres leches ” great specialty of America is a cake with 3 milks: condensed milk, evaporated milk, cream… pure happiness for gourmets!
For birthdays, the cake cannot be missing, but the one from Costa Rica is made with a lot of cream and in a very artistic way with drawings and decorations of all kinds according to everyone’s tastes: football stadium, dolls, superheroes, a real spectacle for children and adults.
You can also find snacks between meals like pineapple or guava fritters “ empanaditas ”, milk or coconut sweets.
In the central square of towns and villages you will always find an ice cream parlor and a “copos” seller who in his little cart prepares a mixture based on crushed ice, condensed milk and syrup.
The Fruits
Fruits in Costa Rica are delicious and varied. Many of them, especially the most consumed ones like bananas , pineapple, papaya, mangoes, guavas, watermelons, strawberries, are found on the stalls practically all year round. Others are less easily available either because they are seasonal, like melon, or because their production is very localized and not very valued, like peaches from the Dota region. In any case, by walking around the markets you will find something to delight you!
You will quickly realize that, traditionally, they are never consumed during meals, except in the form of freshly prepared juices or possibly for breakfast in hotels.
However, they are often consumed outside of meals, as an appetite suppressant or to quench your thirst. It is not uncommon to find in city centers or at the confluence of road infrastructures small fruit vendors offering pre-cut fruits in small plastic bags.
Fruits are consumed in all their forms and do not be surprised for example in the case of mango to see it in fruit juice, in mango as we know it but also consumed green with salt and lemon! We had not thought of it but it is delicious
The 3 o’clock coffee: a real institution
If you are invited for a coffee “cafecito”, do not eat before! You will be welcomed at 3 o’clock by lasagna and all kinds of cakes and sweet or savory doughnuts
Likewise, if the offices you enter at around 3 o’clock seem empty, that’s normal, everyone is having their coffee accompanied by lots of cakes.
Caribbean Cuisine
Originating as its name suggests from the Caribbean coast, Caribbean cuisine has very particular flavors due to the very developed use of coconut in its composition. The most commonly offered dish is ” Rice and Bean “, a mixture of rice and beans cooked in oil and coconut milk.
The fish, shrimp and lobsters that accompany the rice and beans are either simply grilled or accompanied by a Creole sauce made with tomatoes and other herbs.
Festive Foods
The ” tamal ” is a dish prepared with corn dough stuffed with melting pieces of meat and small vegetables. The whole thing is wrapped in a banana leaf and cooked in boiling water. It is a very particular dish and can be very delicate.
“ Empanadas de chiverre ”: If you visit Costa Rica during Easter and enter a supermarket or stroll through a market, you can’t miss these large squashes that are displayed on the stalls. They are the staple of traditional Easter pastries. The fibers are cooked mixed with sugarcane molasses (tapa de dulce) and then enclosed in small crescents of dough that are baked in the oven. It’s a treat!
Drinks
Traditionally, the drink offered in Costa Rica to accompany food is fresh fruit juice . Soft drinks are very widespread and are unfortunately gaining ground on the latter. There is no health problem with drinking fresh fruit juice and we therefore invite you to abuse it as much as you like. The fruit juices traditionally on the menu are: pineapple juice, mango juice, papaya juice, strawberry juice. More rarely, you will be offered “cas” juice (a type of guava specific to Costa Rica), passion fruit juice or more or less unusual mixtures.
The beer made in the country ‘s breweries is quite good: Imperial, Pilsen, Rock Ice are the main beers consumed.
Coffee is traditionally served “in a sock” that is to say that the hot water is poured into a cloth sock filled with coffee and the mixture flows directly into your cup. There are more and more restaurants that also serve espressos. It is important to know that wine does not always come from grapes: in typical bars, you can taste wines made from all kinds of fruits or berries: nancite wine, coyol wine, blackberry wine. In restaurants you can order good wine from Chile or Argentina . Rum and guaro are the typical alcohols of Central America. Many bars offer cocktails made with rum and lemon or coca cola. The rum produced in Costa Rica is Centanario: to be tasted in moderation.
Unusual foods and their uses in Costa Rican cuisine
In addition to the fruits and vegetables that we know, there is a wide variety of ingredients to discover that have not crossed the Atlantic and that we do not find in our supermarkets or in more specialized grocery stores. It is therefore on site that we will have to taste them. We can cite for example the pejibaye (fruit of the palm heart tree, cooked and enjoyed as an aperitif with mayonnaise), the arracache (ground and cooked tuber served with a tortilla), the Itabo flowers (white flower of the yucca). More rarely towards the north on the border of Nicaragua you may be able to taste iguana . It is also possible to find agouti meat (tepescuintle). You can also find mangrove clams (pianguas). Be careful, since hunting is prohibited in Costa Rica, agouti and iguana meat must come from breeding. Any other practice should not be encouraged
There are also strange drinks like Chan made from seeds of a shrub from the Guanacaste region or Horchata made from milk, rice and spices.
Don’t hesitate to explore new flavors, it’s often delicious.
Other cuisines present in Costa Rica
Italian cuisine and Asian cuisine (mainly Chinese and Japanese) are present almost everywhere in Costa Rica, in major cities or at tourist sites. In San José but also scattered everywhere according to the installations of foreigners who have come to settle in Costa Rica, you can find restaurants offering French dishes, Argentinian restaurants with their delicious meats and very good wines. It is also possible to eat Lebanese in San José
