Eating Habits

It may be of interest to my family and friends to know what my eating habits are like in Costa Rica. Although I live on my own, I still keep much of what I eat pretty Tico. After all, there is nothing better than a plate of gallo pinto for breakfast or a typical casado for lunch. In the US, I almost always ate a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. In Costa Rica, I still eat my bowl of oatmeal. However, on the side I like to have a bowl of chopped papaya, pineapple, and coco, and a side plate of plátano maduro. I know it’s a lot of fruit and may even be too much, but I certainly am not gaining weight and when there is so much abundance, I figure why not take advantage of the extra vitamins.

For lunch, I eat at the local “soda” La Amistad. Doña Norma, the restaurant’s cook and owner treats me like a son and always serves me a riquísimo typical Costa Rican casado or soup. On Mondays she prepares my favorite, olla de carne, which is similar to a beef stew in the US. Olla de carne is loaded with ayote (a type of squash), chayote, plátano, yuca, camote (sweet potato), papa (potato), cilantro, cebolla (onion), etc. Thursday is another soup day, though it varies which type of soup. She sometimes prepares a sopa de pescado o pollo, but usually she makes a sopa de mondongo, which uses the cow�e99s stomach. The other days of the week, I eat the classic “casado”, which consists of a plate of rice, beans, a picadillo and/or salad with pollo en salsa, carne en salsa, bistek, or chuleta. I especially enjoy eating at La Amistad because I always have great conversations with the restaurant’s owner and its clients, as many work in the OIJ (the Costa Rican government’s FBI), the local courthouse, the hospital, or are older community members that have unbelievable stories about what Ciudad Cortés was like in the United Fruit Company years.

Around 4:00 PM, I like to have a cafecito with my friends from the Panadería Murillo. We like to drink our coffee strong, which we jokingly call “café con el “American Touch.” El cafecito gives me that extra boost to participate in my evening activities. Its always accompanied by a good conversation con mis amigos.

For dinner, I typically prepare my famous “sancocho” with an egg or a slice of cheese. The “sancocho”, which I have proudly nicknamed it, consists of a huge bowl of vegetables that I have either grown in my garden such as okra, yucca, green beans, and mustard, or that I have bought from one of the local farmers such as ayotes or elotes (corn). I also throw in all the spices that I have in my garden such as chile peppers, basil, oregano, ginger, tumeric, cilantro, and lemon grass. I have to say, it’s quite simple (or complex) – a huge bowl of boiled vegetables with a piece of cheese (which is also bought locally) – but I have never gotten tired of it. I’m so accustomed to always having fresh produce that when I go back to the US, not having access to the abundance of fruits and vegetables will be something that is difficult to get accustomed to.