Anyway a lot of people have been asking me about what I eat here, so I'll make it easy on everyone! First off, let me just say, I eat rice with about every single meal. Rice and beans are very typical here in Costa Rica.
A typical tico breakfast is gallo pinto which is rice and beans mixed together!(HEY!) This is usually eaten with scrambled eggs and fruit. I eat this on the days I don't have school, when I do have school I just eat cereal. Also, everyone drinks coffee in the morning. Back in the US, I didn't really like coffee that much, but now I love it!
Lunch in Costa Rica is the most important meal of the day. It is usually the biggest, and at school we are given an hour for lunch. Stores usually close from 12-2 for a lunch break! But for lunch I usually eat at school. There I am given (more) rice, beans or potatoes, and some type of meat-regularly chicken or pork. At least once a week I will go out with my AFS friends and go eat at a pizzeria or some other restaurant and just catch up. Another typical meal that I have eaten for lunch is Olla de carne. This is a stew-type-thing with meat, usually beef, rice, beans, potatoes, yucca, and vegetables. I thought it was very good!
And finally Dinner! Dinner is pretty simple, arroz con pollo (rice with chicken), fish, chicharones (fried beef), stew, anything really. It is a relaxed time, and the food is comforting. My personal favorite meal is tamales. These are the best things on earth! It is ground-up corn, stuffed with pork or chicken, rice, vegetables, and wrapped in a banana leaf! It is like heaven in your mouth!!
There are so many desserts in Costa Rica, and one that many people eat is arroz con leche (rice with milk). It is rice mixed with milk, sugar, cinnamon, and other things. At first I didn't really like it, but once I ate it more I thought it was pretty decent!! Another dessert here is dulce de leche it is a syrup made of milk and sugar. There are a lot of cakes here, with caramel in the middle. One specific cake is called torta chilena which is cake filled with dulce de leche. And of course, I can't forget the ice cream! There is a lot of sweet bread here as well. One I really like is pan de maiz a thick, sweet bread made out of corn. I usually pass about 5 bakeries on my way to the bus after school, and it is so hard to just walk past them-so I have made a lot of friends at the bakeries and tried a lot of pastries!!One thing I really love here is the fruit! It is juicy and sweet and just heavenly! Of course people know there is pineapple (the best I have ever had!!), bananas, mangos, oranges, cantaloupe, papaya, coconuts, and kiwis, but there are a lot that people don't know about that are soooooo gooooddd!!!!
First off: pejibaye!!! It is kinda hard to describe how these taste because they aren't exactly sweet, but not bitter at the same time. They grow in clusters and can be eaten if they are red, yellow, or green-but I recommend red or yellow!!
So this is called granadilla. Inside this fruit is little seeds covered in a "jelly-ish" substance. It is actually really good, I had it my first day I got here. It is sweet and the seeds are edible.
Guayaba!! This is my sister's favorite fruit. The outside of the fruit is a bit bitter, but the inside is juicy and sweet. In the middle of the fruit are small edible seeds.
And my personal favorite: MAMONES! These are honestly the best things in the world! At first glance it looks really weird, I mean lets be honest. It is a reddish-pink spiky looking thing! But once you open it, you see a small white fruit. In the middle of this is a seed. It takes some skill to get the fruit off the seed, but I am now a pro!
Okay so I hope I covered everything I needed to! To make a long story short-the food here is great! So, until next time, adios!!
mamones are my favorite too!
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