Cooking in Costa Rica

The vacation feeling of moving to Costa Rica has worn off. Nikk and I are happily settling into life here. It is shocking how quickly the days and weeks go by. Every Friday we find ourselves saying how we can’t believe another week has passed. Days are filled with working across from each other at our dining room table, breaks to go out on the front porch and watch the hummingbirds, and the occasional lunchtime run to the beach for a quick dip in the ocean. Most evenings we cook at home and watch some TV (either HGTV or the Food Network, which we get in English here, or Netflix – we’ve been watching Lost, which we never watched when it was all the rage.).

Cooking is something we have both always enjoyed, but there are a lot of differences that we’re getting used to after moving to Costa Rica!

Grocery Shopping

One thing we had to get used to right away is that grocery stores are much different than in the US. No longer are we able to “one-stop-shop” for the week. We usually make two to three stops for our weekly groceries. If we need fish, household goods like a broom or dish soap, or large quantities of rice, we’ll head to the Maxi Pali. The Maxi Pali is owned by WalMart and is similar in that they have food, household supplies, and some clothes. It is about a 25-minute drive from us, though, so it requires a drive and we are trying to only go every other week.

Our favorite place to go since moving to Costa Rica is our local produce stand. Just a 10-minute walk from our house, we go here at least once a week. It is bare-bones basic as far as set-up, but they have excellent fruit and veggies that are grown locally. Because everything is local, it is so modestly priced! We’ll come home with a huge haul like in the pictures below and not spend more than $20.

Conversely, because it is local and grown naturally (not in a warehouse), the selection is subject to what is ripe and can be affected easily by the weather. For instance, when we first moved to Costa Rica, there was a ton of rain every day, so our avocados were gigantic! The last couple of weeks have been fairly dry, and the avocados are about 1/2 the size as before. And some days you’ll find an abundance of bananas, but the next week there aren’t any. As with everything you’ll realize when you’re moving to Costa Rica – you have to learn to go with the flow!

There are two other grocery options within walking distance that we visit on weeks we don’t go to the Maxi Pali. One is the Super Wendy and the other is the MerkDo. Both of these are somewhere between a convenience store and a grocery store. The Super Wendy has a lot of the groceries we need, but their produce and fish selection are not as good as other places, so we only go there for dry goods and chips. The MerkDo is definitely geared towards tourists. It has a lot of international foods and is much more expensive than other places!

Some Fun Differences

No matter which grocery store you go to, you can tell right away you are in a different country! Some of the fun differences we’ve seen since moving to Costa Rica have to do with food.

For example, a lot of stuff comes in bags or packets. Mayonnaise, pasta sauces, and some dressings come in squeezable packets – not jars. Soups and refried beans come in pouches. Spices like oregano or paprika come in small ziplock-type packets; you can find some spices in larger plastic jars, but most are in smaller packets as well.

Cheese. Ah beautiful cheese. How I miss the abundant selections of cheeses! Most of the cheeses here are soft white cheeses and are sold in blocks. Depending on what grocery store we go to, we can find shredded mozzarella and occasionally cheddar. I’ve also seen Gouda, but it is expensive – like $10 for a small block. Feta? Nope. Blue cheese? Not a chance. Manchego? I actually looked for this and Nikk laughed at me.

Most milk and cream is sold in cardboard containers (kind of like the containers for chicken stock in the US) and not refrigerated. You can find milk in the coolers, but it is expensive and I heard that it tastes funny. Nikk and I don’t drink milk, so we’ve not purchased any. I did switch back to powder creamer for my coffee, though, which was a bummer since I hate all the chemicals in that stuff… but I hate black coffee even more.

Eggs are not in the refrigerated section, either. As with many countries outside of the US, the eggs here are not washed, which leaves a small barely-visible coating on them that keeps bacteria out, so refrigeration isn’t necessary. Check out this cool explainer if you want some more info! As far as we can tell, they taste just the same, if not better.

Trying New Foods

When moving to Costa Rica (or anywhere for that matter), the best way to get to know a place is by eating local foods!

We’ve found a few things that we absolutely love now: plantain chips (con limón is amazing!), gallo pinto (a traditional Costa Rican dish of beans and rice, often served with eggs for breakfast), and patacones (plantains smashed and fried in a patty).

Trying new fruits and veggies has been really fun too! I recently came across chayotes at the fruit stand and was curious about what to do with them. Chayotes are shaped kind of like a pear, have the consistency of a potato, and a taste that is a little sweet like a cucumber. After some time on Pinterest, I found a couple of recipes that I combined into my own creation and made Chayote Shrimp Boats for dinner! They were pretty good and definitely something we’ll cook with again.

So there you go! If you’re moving to Costa Rica, these are some things you can expect to encounter. Did anything surprise you? Would you have a hard time adjusting to these changes? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section. Buen Provecho (Spanish for enjoy your meal)!