Costa Rica
Simple, sunlit cooking — rice and beans at dawn, a heap of tropical fruit, and world-class coffee.
Breakfast at a roadside soda and the day starts with gallo pinto — rice and black beans fried up with coriander, sweet pepper and a dash of tangy Salsa Lizano, eggs alongside, a wedge of fried plantain, and coffee poured through a cloth chorreador. It's homely, green-tasting and unhurried, the edible version of pura vida.
Costa Rican cooking leans on what grows a few fields away rather than on heat or spice. Lunch is the casado — 'married' rice, beans, salad, sweet plantain and a piece of chicken or fish on one generous plate. The Caribbean coast throws in coconut milk and Scotch bonnet for its rondón seafood stew; the markets tumble with mango, papaya, pejibaye and guanábana; and the highlands turn out coffee good enough that the rest of the meal has to keep up. On the Pacific side, lunch might be ceviche — corvina cured in lime with coriander and sweet pepper, eaten with a cold beer and your feet more or less in the sea. Wholesome, cheap and quietly excellent.
- gallo pinto (rice & black beans)
- casado (rice
- beans
- plantain & protein)
- ceviche
- rondón (Caribbean seafood stew)
- plátano maduro (fried sweet plantain)
- tamal
- tres leches cake
