Aero: Kevin Urbaitis – Costa Rica 2015 – Food and Dining
Aero: Kevin Urbaitis – Costa Rica 2015 – Food and Dining
Creative Commons Image via The LEAF Project
Aero: Kevin Urbaitis – Costa Rica 2015 – Food and Dining
…
…
Kevin Urbaitis
Before coming to Costa Rica, I was worried about what I would be having to eat during my time spent there. I am not the biggest fan of Spanish food, especially beans or rice, which I had heard is the staple of Costa Rican diet. To my surprise, I ate a lot more different foods than I thought possible before coming to Costa Rica. I had a lot of seafood, especially fish during our trip. This was surprising to me as I was not expecting to have different kinds of fish, such as salmon, while staying in Costa Rica. I am a big fan of seafood was and really happy to see that it was an important and normal part of the Costa Rican diet. I also did not expect steak and hamburger to be as popular and common as it was in Costa Rica.
ML@FLCC Costa Rica
2015 Flickr Gallery
Breakfast was very similar to that of what you would have in the United States, eggs, toast, orange juice and fruit were usually served for every breakfast. That is pretty much the same breakfast I would have back home in New York. One day our host mom made grilled cheese for breakfast that was interesting to me in that back home grilled cheese is usually served for lunch or dinner but never for breakfast! Another interesting note I made about the food and dining was how different burgers tasted from back home compared to the burgers in Costa Rica. The cow’s different diet and way of life made the hamburger meat in Costa Rica taste much more natural, lean and less greasy. While I still would probably prefer a burger from the United States, I really did find myself enjoying the Costa Rican version of the American classic as well. I was also surprised to see how popular pizza was in Costa Rica. There were a ton of different pizza places, and despite not having pepperoni or bleu cheese the pizza was still very good. The different restaurants and cafes were very similar to how they are run and managed in the United States. The biggest and only difference I really realized between the United States and Costa Rica in terms of eating out was that in Costa Rica you always walked to a front or main register to pay for your meal instead of having the bill brought to you and paying right at the table. I think that Costa Rican’s are much less time based with their meals than we are back in the United States. The Costa Ricans would eat whenever they were hungry and would not base when they were going to eat off of the time. Overall the experience of trying new and old foods in Costa Rica was a great time and I highly enjoyed almost everything that I consumed while in Costa Rica. It was good to see them using so many locally grown and produced foods in all their meals as well. Living in such a warm climate gave them access to so many fresh and different types of food that are produced right there where they live and not imported or shipped from a faraway place.
Kevin Urbaitis
LEAF Contributor
