Search This Blog

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Our Costa Rican Adventure: Food, Food, and more Food!


Getting ready to zipline through the forest canopy!


Yes, Costa Rica is an eco-tourism destination. It's renowned for spectacular scenery, abundant wildlife, and adventure travel. What I hadn't heard about was the food. Guidebooks mention the casados and gallo pinto, but they don't warn you that ALL the food is delicious, usually made with fresh, local ingredients, and there's no such thing as a small portion in Costa Rica!
 
Belgian Waffle with fresh fruit at Marie's
in Playa Flamingo, Guanacaste, CR


Of course, there's always an exception that proves the rule. That would be the resort hotel restaurants. Don't fall for the "all inclusive" deals, or even the breakfast buffet. Good food is easy to come by, inexpensive, and far tastier at small restaurants and "sodas" (snack stands along the road).
 

Going to Costa Rica, I couldn't wait to zip line, explore caves, snorkel, and hike. We did all those things, but if you take a look at the photos on Matt's and my facebook page, you'll notice for every 2-3 action/scenery/adventure photos, there's 1-2 food photos. Food turned out to play a huge role in our trip, and made a big contribution to all of us wanting to return. Now, my memories of our trip are inexorably tied to food and I can't wait to try out all the recipes in my new Costa Rican cookbook.

Working our way through plates of food at
Don Brasilito in Brasilito, Guanacaste, CR
Posted by at

2 comments:

  1. Gone to the Dawgs!May 31, 2012 at 4:15 PM

    Yummy! The food looks incredible - you should share some of your recipes :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lynne HinkeyMay 31, 2012 at 4:34 PM

    As I go through the cookbook I'll post some recipes. In the mean time, if you click on the words "gallo pinto" above, it takes you to a recipe for that (rice and beans). Then look along the left side menu for links to other recipes. They made great ceviche and fish and used hearts of palm in a lot of salads. I had Spinach-Hearts of Palm rice one night - just what is sounds like, spinach and hearts of palm cooked in with the rice and Queso Blanco melted over the top--yummy!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)