Gastronomy in Costa Rica

Costa Rican cuisine is recognized for being tasty, absolutely mild and not over-spiced cuisine. The dishes are mostly based on fresh vegetables such as squash, zapallo, courgette, and chayote. And other usual ingredients are onion, potato, and red pepper. The most well-known dish of the country is “Gallo Pinto”. The said dish was brought in to Costa Rica through Nicaraguan immigrants; it consists of rice, onion, coriander, and beans (red or black). Another famous traditional dish is “Casado”, it consists of beans and rice, served as a dinner and usually available all over the country. Also, it can be served with chicken, pork, steak and mostly go along by a small serving of fried plantains and salad. Sweet corn dishes are usual meals similar to chorreadas (corn pancakes), pozole (corn soup), and among others.

Definitely the most well-known drink in Costa Rica is coffee, the country’s leading export along with bananas. Coffee is one of the traditional drinks in the country and is served with milk. Other preferred local drinks are agua dulce (served at breakfast, a sweet water prepared from tapa de dulc), horchata (a cinnamon flavored cornmeal beverage), refrescos (consist of blended fruits like blackberry, mango, melon, strawberry, tamarind, watermelon and passion fruit combine with water or milk) and granizado (made of ice and syrup for additional taste).

Other alcoholic beverages in the country are Imperial (available in Light), Pilsen (with higher alcohol substance), Bavaria (available in Light, Gold and Dark), and Heineken (Dutch beer). Flor de Cana and the Ron Centenario are rums that are produced by Costa Rica and prepared in Nicaragua.