Exploring Costa Rica - Culinary Delights
- Alexa
- Apr 17
- 2 min read
Costa Rica's Culinary Delights
Another great way to explore a new country is through its food. I can be a picky eater, but I've been trying to taste local dishes when I travel to a new location. And lucky for me, the food in Costa Rica is so good!
Our first day in Costa Rica was spent exploring a coffee farm near San Jose. It's called Hacienda Doka and you get to see the entire coffee-making process from growing the plants to roasting the beans. I highly recommend going there if you're in the San Jose area.
Before we went on our trip, I kept reading that we have to check out "sodas" in Costa Rica. No, it's not the beverage that you drink. It's what local restaurants are called that serve authentic Costa Rican meals. We saw them everywhere and we stopped at one on our drive between La Fortuna and Jaco called "La Fiesta del Sabor" (Flavor party, loosely).
The typical meal in Costa Rica is called a "Casado" - it consists of a meat of your choice, rice, beans, salad, fried plantains and pasta salad.
Nayara -
I wrote a whole post on the Nayara Hotels - see here. But I had to include a part about the food because we were lucky to eat at one of the best restaurants I've ever eaten at and did a "Tour of Costa Rica" multi-course meal with food sourced from all over the country. The meal was incredible and we also had the best servers. Shout out Sergio, if you're reading this! The menu included trout, mahi mahi, cheese, fresh fruit and chocolate. Everything was amazing and I'm so happy we splurged on a meal like this.
One of the other things I didn't realized I missed living in Colorado is fresh tropical fruit. A typical breakfast starts off with fruit and some sort of bread, and I really don't need anything else. I loved the fruit so much at Nayara, I asked for seconds on our last morning at the hotel. It is some of the best papaya and mango I've ever had.
I also had no problem finding NA drinks while in Costa Rica. I have been seeing more and more mocktails and NA beverages on menus everywhere, which makes me so happy! I don't really drink soda, and I still want something fun in a cute glass. I tried the local beer Imperial - their NA version, I also had fun mocktail versions of a paloma and other fruity drinks.
I would definitely recommend doing both cheaper meals and a few splurges so you really can try everything that this awesome country has to offer.
-Lex
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