Eat like a local

Costa Rica is known for its biodiversity. The abundance of animals and plants is astonishing. Along with this comes the food. There are so many different fruits and vegetables it would be impossible to try all of them in your stay.

“In our villas we serve a typical costa rican breakfast to our guests every day. Gallo pinto is a guest favourite, along with eggs, avocados, plantain, and a big fruit salad full of fruits harvested only a few miles away from where they are staying.”

Fruits

Some of my favourite fruits from Costa Rica are hardly known outside the country. For example, a great smoothie to try is the Guanabana (Sour sop) smoothie. It almost tastes like an icecream! Some other more typical fruits are Watermelon, Papaya, Bananas, Plantains, Passion Fruit, Mangos and many more! When you eat a fruit in Costa Rica, the odds are it was grown and harvested around 2 hours and even less from where you are eating it.

Typical Meals

There are multiple typical meals in Costa Rica. The most popular and ones you will find anywhere are Gallo Pinto (A rice and beans breakfast dish with spices, plantain, eggs and cheese), Chifrijo (which has Chicharones, red beans, avocado, tortilla chips and other spices), A Casado (Meat of your choosing, salad, rice, plantain), and if you are by the Sea or In San Gerardo de Dota you’ll definitely be able to get a great bit of fish!

Where to eat

Where you are travelling generally there will be two different style of restaurants. 1 being the classic restaurant you’ll be familiar with where ever you are coming from. They’ll have international food, with a couple Costa Rican classics. They are more expensive than option 2 which is a Costa Rican Soda. A Soda is a typical Costa Rican restaurant that will only serve Costa Rican food. You won’t find Thai curries, pasta or pizza, but you will find all the classics listed above at around 1/2 to 1/3 of the prices of the international restaurants.

Our Favourites

My favourite dish is Pollo Caribeño (Caribbean Chicken). This is usually a nice chicken thigh in a Caribbean sauce, Rice and Beans (this one is made with coconut milk), Patacones (which are smashed and fried plantains) and salad. A close second is is the Chifrijo as mentioned above, this is always a safe bet!