Must Try Food in Costa Rica – Costa Rican Cuisine

Along with sharing our passions for surf and yoga, one of our favorite parts of Bodhi Surf + Yoga is being able to share our passion for Costa Rican food!

We are serious foodies over here – some of the most serious you’ll potentially ever come across.

Aside from surf and yoga, food is what we all talk about the most.

Our group breakfasts and lunches often include conversations along the lines of “If you could only eat one cuisine for the rest of your life, what would it be?”. This tells us all we need to know about our guests (kidding!).

But what better time to talk about food than while sitting down digging into some?

Sometimes we’ll finish a meal together and realize that all we talked about is what fruit we’d be if in another life we were somehow a fruit. You’d be surprised at how far these conversations can go!

If you’re planning a trip to Costa Rica, let your favorite unofficial food experts give you the low-down on what’s eaten here.

What foods are grown in Costa Rica?

A lot of what’s eaten in Costa Rica is what’s grown here!

The most traditional Costa Rican foods, i.e. what Ticos (Costa Ricans) eat, are centered around the country’s agriculture and what foods are produced and grown here.

Of course, various different foods and ingredients are imported and incorporated into some of the cuisines here in Costa Rica.

The majority of Costa Rica’s staple dishes (link down into this part of blog) include:

• Rice
• Beans
• Plantains
• Tortillas

These products are such a huge part of Tico cuisine because the climate is extremely conducive to their growth and production.

They require a hot and humid climate, prolonged sunshine, and a constant supply of water. These tropical conditions are typical to Costa Rica and are also what keep the vegetation here so green and luscious!

Long-grain rice thrives in Costa Rica and is a huge part of Costa Rican food. Costa Rican newspaper Tico Times published an article about rice and claimed that it’s “essential to every meal, almost as air is to breathing”. We think any Tico would agree with this!

Because of the country’s climate, red (kidney) and black beans also grow in abundance in Costa Rica. Beans are just as important here as rice – it’s very rare to find a meal that comes with rice and not beans!

Corn growth is also benefited by Costa Rica’s tropical climate. Any guesses as to what corn’s main purpose is in the Tico diet? Tortillas!

Corn is grown and harvested in Costa Rica for the main purpose of producing corn flour. This is used to make dough that can be used to make tortillas and empanadas.

Plantains are probably my all-time favorite part of the Tico diet – whether they’re platano verdes used to make crispy patacones, or maduros which are deliciously soft and sweet. Plantains are grown in abundance here in Costa Rica and are part of many of our favorite dishes!

Fruits

The fresh fruit has to be my favorite part of living in Costa Rica.

The fruit here is incredible and delicious – it really makes it hard to go back to eating imported fruit outside of the tropics.

Fruit is a huge part of our meals here at Bodhi Surf + Yoga during our Bodhi Family and Bodhi Sessions Surf + Yoga camps. We have a selection of three or four fruits every morning with breakfast, prepared by our chef.

It’s hard to have a bad day when you start it with some fresh delicious fruit, coffee, and good company.

Some of Costa Rica’s most delicious fruits are everyday fruits that are enjoyed all over the world:

• Mango
• Pineapple/Piña
• Papaya
• Banana/Banano
• Avocado/Aguacate
• Passion fruit/Maracuyá

Before I came to Costa Rica, I absolutely despised papaya. I had only ever tried it once in the UK and I thought it had the worst taste in the world!

When I got to Bodhi Surf + Yoga and attended my first breakfast with the staff and guests I gave it another try because of the fuss that everyone was making over how juicy and delicious it was. I thought “Papaya? Juicy and delicious? That doesn’t sound right at all”.

Low and behold, it was indeed one of the best bites of fruit I’ve ever had. I’m now a converted papaya fan – but ONLY in Costa Rica.

Another fruit that’s extremely popular here in Costa Rica amongst visitors and locals alike is passion fruit. Again, outside of Costa Rica I’d never been a huge fan of it.

During the hot dry season months, it’s very common here to go to a cafe or restaurant and order a batido – a fruit smoothie. Batidos de maracuyá (passion fruit smoothies) are the undisputed favorites. They’re packed with flavor and are very refreshing!

Also worth noting: our restaurant-neighbors here in Bahia Ballena serve an extraordinary passion fruit margarita!

There are also some much lesser-known fruits here in Costa Rica that visitors must try:

• Soursop/Guanabana
• Mangosteen
• Rambutan/Rambután, Mamones
• Pejibaye
• Sweet granadilla

Before coming to Costa Rica, some of these I had heard of and others not.. I’ve always been a huge soursop fan – but of course it still tastes so much better in the tropics.

Sweet granadilla on the other hand was new to me. Even upon first sight, they’re not the most visually appealing fruit.

In order to access the edible part of the fruit, you must cut it open – much like a passion fruit. Because of how this part looks, I’ve heard it referred to as “brain fruit”!

Costa Rica is certainly a great place for your taste buds to explore and experience new tastes and textures of these tropical fruits!

Costa Rican culinary staples

A lot of the time when people think of food in Latin America, their minds automatically go to Mexican food.

Granted, Mexican cuisine is one of the most popular cuisines not only here in Latin America, but in the world. But not all Latin American food is “Mexican food”.

Sure, there are some similarities in the food across the different countries within the region. But each country has their own specialties and their own spin with different flavor profiles!

There isn’t necessarily a specific cuisine that can be pinned down as Costa Rican. Of course, there are well known staples that are eaten here. And like mentioned above, the cuisine here is centered around what grows and what’s available year round.

Some of these meals that we’ll take a look at are complete staples here that you’ll only find in Costa Rica, and others that you can find throughout Latin America.

Popular Costa Rican breakfasts

Breakfast is without a doubt my favorite meal of the day, and it’s taken seriously here at Bodhi Surf + Yoga.

We have to make sure our guests are nourished before a day of sunshine, surfing, and yoga!

Gallo Pinto

It would be an absolute crime not to put gallo pinto at the top of the list – it's without a doubt the most popular Costa Rican food.

Any guesses as to what its two main ingredients are?

If you said rice and beans, you are correct!

Gallo pinto directly translates to “spotted rooster” – which is due to the speckled appearance of the black beans against the white rice.

This dish is so much more than just rice and beans, and we can’t stress that enough.

The best part of gallo pinto is that anywhere you go in Costa Rica, whether that be a restaurant or someone’s house, the gallo pinto will be slightly different. Everyone has their own special ways and secrets!

In our opinion, the best gallo pinto uses rice that was cooked the day before. This gives it a beautiful crunch and stops it from going too soggy when mixed with the liquid from the beans.

The beans are usually pressure cooked with a few seasonings, then added (including some of the liquid) to a large pan with sauteed onion, garlic, and bell peppers.

The rice is then added and mixed together, later adding some of Costa Rica’s famous salsa Lizano, and a healthy amount of finely chopped cilantro.

Gallo pinto is typically served with eggs, fried plantains, avocado, tortillas, and sour cream.

If you ever do make the trip to Costa Rica and are eager to try traditional Costa Rican food, this is a must.

A lot of our guests leave at the end of the week saying that the gallo pinto breakfast was the best thing they ate all week!

Gorditas

Gorditas translates to “little fat ones”. Don’t you just love them already?

Although it’s a cool name, this tells you absolutely nothing about what they are. So what are gorditas?

Gorditas are homemade corn tortillas topped with:

• Refried black beans
• A fried egg
• Avocado slices
• Parmesan cheese
• Red salsa (salsa ranchero works perfectly!)

This isn’t the most traditional Costa Rican breakfast, nor is it a household staple. You might wander into some restaurants that serve this, and some that don’t.

Here at Bodhi Surf + Yoga, it’s certainly a part of our weekly menu rotation!

Chorreadas

Chorreadas are Costa Rican corn pancakes – an example of a VERY Costa Rican food.

They are made from fresh ground corn and are similar to corn tortillas, but adding milk to the dough is what gives them more of a pancake texture.

Also, chorreadas require freshly ground corn, whereas tortillas require corn flour.

They’re cooked very similar to pancakes! The mixture is added to a hot pan (just enough mixture to cover the pan) and is cooked until they have a pancake-like texture.

Chorreadas can be eaten sweet or savory. If you want them savory you add salt to the dough, and sugar if you want them sweet!

They’re commonly topped with honey, butter, or sour cream – absolutely delicious with a coffee!

Tostadas

If you’ve ever taken a bit of high school Spanish, you probably know that this translates to “toast”.

Bread is a pretty big part of the diet here in Costa Rica, whether that be in the form of cakes and desserts, or savory loaves.

Tostadas – at least here at Bodhi Surf + Yoga, involve baking a fresh loaf of bread and piling as many toppings on it as physically possible.

Our chef Fanny bakes her bread and cuts it into slices – tostadas can be any type of homemade or store bought bread. The toppings that we prepare are:

• Homemade guacamole
• Fried egg
• Pickled onions
• Cherry tomatoes
• Basil leaves
• Parmesan cheese

Again, this is by no means a traditional Costa Rican dish that you’ll only find in Costa Rica – we eat toast all over the world. But it’s certainly a breakfast that’s enjoyed by the masses here, and therefore deserves its place as a part of Costa Rican food!

Tortillas

In many Costa Rican households, without being in the form of some elaborate dish, tortillas are a popular breakfast item.

Yes, we have gorditas and other forms of tortillas with toppings, but it’s also very common to make a few corn tortillas and eat them as is!

They’re actually very simple to make. The dough just consists of corn flour, salt, and water.

The only difficult part is palming the balls of dough into little tortillas. This is actually way harder than it sounds!

Once you’ve made the tortillas, they’re placed in a hot pan (no oil needed) and cooked for a couple minutes on each side.

Many people just add butter, sour cream, or cheese (or all three) and eat the tortillas like that. But it’s also common to put sausages or an omelet in the middle and roll the tortilla up and eat it that way.

The best thing about tortillas is that they’re so versatile! You can do anything with them! It’s not even uncommon to eat a hot fresh tortilla as is – again, works very well with a coffee.

Must-try Costa Rican lunches and snacks

Lunch in Costa Rica is more in the form of a midday snack – often accompanied by a coffee (are you seeing a common theme here?).

Sometimes if you’ve had a heavy gallo pinto breakfast, all you need to carry you over ‘til dinner is a quick snack!

Savory fried empanadas

Empanadas are a big part of the cuisine across all of Latin America – from Mexico all the way down to Argentina.

In Costa Rica there are a few variations of empanadas. The savory fried ones are typically enjoyed during the day with, you guessed it, a coffee.

Fried empanadas are made from the same dough as tortillas (link to tortillas part). You even still have to roll the dough into little balls and palm them into tortillas. But at this point, you’ll add your desired filling before folding them over.

The filling can be pretty much anything you’d like. At Bodhi Surf + Yoga we’re big fans of cheese and bean empanadas. Chicken, chorizo, and potato are other popular fillings here in Costa Rica.

Once they’ve been filled, the empanadas are folded over, sealed, and put in hot oil to be fried for about five minutes on each side.

When we eat them here, we typically serve them with homemade guacamole and/or salsa ranchero.

Sweet baked empanadas

The second version of empanadas that are highly loved here in Costa Rica are baked, rather than fried.

Because they’ll be baked, these empanadas use wheat flour instead of corn flour. The dough to make this kind of empanada also requires:

• Butter
• Milk
• Sugar
• Cinnamon
• Salt

It’s important to note that this dough is different to what’s required to make Argentinian style savory empanadas, which are made with wheat flour, and are baked.

When we make these empanadas at Bodhi Surf + Yoga, our chef makes a sweet-caramel coconut filling for them. Baked empanadas are also popularly filled with fruit jams, including pineapple and strawberry.

Tamales

Personally, it took me a while to come around to tamales. I was never a huge fan of the texture.

But a couple years in Costa Rica will change that, no problem! I’m a big fan of tamales now, especially with chicken.

Tamales are a traditional Costa Rican food that are eaten all year round, but are especially popular during Christmas.

If you’re not sure what tamales are, the best way to describe them are as pockets of seasoned vegetables, rice, and/or meat in a maize dough. They’re also wrapped and cooked in banana or plantain leaves.

Ceviche

Ceviche is best enjoyed on a scorching hot day on Costa Rica’s coast.

It’s a light and refreshing dish served cold, comprising of raw fish cured in:

• Lime juice
• Cilantro
• Onion
• Finely chopped peppers
• Salt and pepper

Here in Uvita, Bahia Ballena, the fish is usually freshly caught mahi-mahi or tilapia.

Ceviche will usually be served in a small glass dish consisting of the fish and the above ingredients. It’s important to note that the fish does not come in the form of a filet, but in small bite-size pieces.

In our opinion, ceviche is best enjoyed with tortilla chips or patacones (link to below) and some hot sauce!

Almuerzo campesino

This is much more of a meal, rather than a midday snack with a coffee. Almuerzo campesino isn’t one specific food – the name refers to the dish as a whole.

It translates to “campers lunch” and, of course, involves Costa Rica’s beloved rice, beans, tortilla, and plantain combo.

A typical almuerzo campesino also includes picadillo (vegetable medley), chicken, and a torta de huevo – which is sort of like an egg tortilla.

The best thing about this meal is that all of these ingredients are enveloped together in a plantain leaf — a very eco-friendly container!

In order to eat it, you just unwrap the leaf (which is usually tied closed with string) and eat the food right off the leaf!

Best Costa Rican Lunches

At Bodhi Surf + Yoga our guests have four lunches included in their stay with us. One is a welcome lunch, traditionally wrapped in banana leaves. What's inside is a secret, you'll have to come visit to learn more. The remaining 3 lunches are home cooked and prepared right here at the lodge.

This allows guests to enjoy our chefs home-cooked meals, as well as explore the unique Costa Rican food and flavors that our community has to offer!

Check out our community restaurant guide to see the cafes and restaurants that we have around.

Casado tipico

Casado tipicos are the dinner version of gallo pinto – this dish is as typical as it gets here in Costa Rica.

It translates to “married” in English – which is very fitting as casados are a big marriage of a bunch of different ingredients and flavors

Casados are also quite similar to almuerzos campesinos. They pretty much involve the same ingredients:

• White rice
• Beans
• Picadillo (chopped, cooked and seasoned vegetable medley)
• Fried plantains
• Corn tortillas
• A meat (optional)

Arroz con pollo/camarones

The main difference between a casado and an almuerzo campesino is that a casado doesn’t include egg, nor does it come enveloped in a plantain leaf.

“Rice with chicken/shrimp” is a big deal in Costa Rica!

This does not mean that you’ll be served a portion of rice with either some chicken or shrimp on the side.

When ordering arroz con pollo/camarones, you’ll be served a plate of rice with chicken/shrimp, vegetables, and seasonings all cooked and mixed together. It’s similar to what we know chicken fried rice to be.

This meal’s style is more of a savory yellow rice (due to the natural coloring agent used frequently in Latin America called Achiote), rather than the salty soya sauce flavor of a typical chicken fried rice.

When ordered in a restaurant, arroz con pollo/camarones are usually served with french fries and a side salad.

Patacones

Patacones are one of those foods that are so hard to stop eating. Once you start digging into some hot crispy patacones with the right toppings, there’s no telling how many you’ll get through.

Patacones are crushed and fried slices of green plantain, topped with pico de gallo, guacamole, or refried beans.

It’s extremely important that you use green plantain and not a riper yellow/ or brown one – these are great for frying for sweet soft plantains (called maduros) but are too ripe for patacones.

The green plantains can be crushed and fried without getting soft and falling apart.

The plantains are cut into about four or five pieces, fried, crushed, fried again, salted, and topped with your favorite sauces and ingredients! These are a great finger-food to share amongst the table.

Patacones are a big part of Costa Rican food!

Seafood

Here along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, we certainly enjoy our seafood — opting particularly for that which is harvested sustainably and locally, when possible.

You can walk into a restaurant and find a seemingly endless list of seafood options, including:

• Various different types of fish
• Shrimp
• Mussels
• Squid
• Octopus

There aren’t many things that Ticos love more than a fish fry. This involves getting a whole fish (usually red snapper), cleaning, scaling and gutting it, dashing on some seasonings, and deep frying it.

This does freak some people out, as the head is usually left on – eyeballs and all.

I’ve actually seen people order this in a restaurant and cover the face with salad while they eat the rest of the fish!

Although not the healthiest form of preparing seafood, the flavors and textures are all there.

Chicharones

Speaking of “not the healthiest” foods, it would be a crime not to mention chicharones in a blog about Costa Rican food.

Chicharones are little fried pieces of pork and pork skin, fried in its own fat. Again – not super healthy, but delicious!

Chicharones can be eaten by themselves or as a side with a meal. They make up the largest component of the popular dish chifrijo. This meal usually consists of a bowl of rice, beans, chicharones, tortilla chips, avocado slices, and pico de gallo.

Costa Rican desserts

We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention some of the delicious desserts that are enjoyed in Costa Rica.

Although the country isn’t world renowned for dessert, there are certainly a few options here that will leave your sweet-tooth satisfied!

Arroz con leche

Arroz con leche translates to “rice with milk”.

I’ll admit, this doesn’t automatically sound super appetizing – but you must give it a chance!

Arroz con leche is essentially a rice pudding. The rice is cooked in:

• Sweetened condensed milk
• Evaporated milk
• Milk
• Water

Flavors such as cinnamon, vanilla extract, and nutmeg are added during the cooking process, and raisins at the end.

Tres Leches

This is a light cake which translates to “three milks”.

It gets its name because the sponge, once baked, has holes poked into it and is soaked in three different milks:

• Evaporated milk
• Sweetened condensed milk
• Milk

This cake is sweet, fluffy, and delicious!

Torta de Maracuyá

“Passion fruit cake” is one of our favorites here at Bodhi Surf + Yoga.

This one is pretty self explanatory – it’s a cake with passionfruit!

It consists of a crunchy crust at the bottom and a sweet passion fruit mixture on top.

This isn’t a traditional cake with dough and icing.

The “dough” is more of a gelato – instead of baking it it’s prepared by setting it in the fridge.

Chocolate

Costa Rica is world-renowned for its chocolate!

This is because of its geographical location, climate, and soil quality – the cacao fruit thrives here!

Anywhere you go in Costa Rica, you’ll be able to find a chocolate tour. The process for making chocolate is quite interesting!

It consists of:

• Growing the cacao fruit and removing the cacao beans from the inside
• Fermenting the beans to remove their sticky pulp
• Drying the fermented beans
• Roasting, crushing, and grinding the beans to make a paste
• Adding ingredients such as milk, sugar, vanilla
• Molding into the desired shape

Costa Rican drinks

In a blog about Costa Rican food, it’s only right to talk about some popular drinks here as well.

What’s a meal without the perfect beverage to accompany it?

Coffee

You definitely knew this one was coming.

At Bodhi Surf + Yoga, we’re huge coffee people – coffee snobs, if you will.

Just like cacao fruit, coffee beans thrive here in Costa Rica due to our geographical location, climate, and soil.

Here in Costa Rica, coffee isn’t just drunk in the morning. It’s common to drink coffee at 10pm!

Harvesting coffee is also an interesting process.

The seeds are planted, germinated, and then begin to grow into a coffee plant. At this stage, it can take three to four years for the plant to bear fruit!

Once the coffee plant does bear fruit (coffee cherries), the process of making coffee consists of:

• Harvesting the berries
• Processing the cherries by drying them in the sun (dry method)
• Processing the cherries by fermenting them to break down the outer skin and washing them (wet method)
• Milling the coffee beans to remove any remaining skin
• Roasting and grinding the beans

At Bodhi Surf + Yoga we drink coffee from Chirripó, which is where Costa Rica’s highest peak is!

Agua dulce

This translates to “sweet water”, which describes perfectly what it is.

It tastes like drinking sugar in liquid form – and that’s pretty much what it is!

Agua dulce simply combines hot water and boiled sugar cane. It's commonly drunk during breakfast!

Is your mouth watering yet?

Being such foodies here at Bodhi Surf + Yoga, we could go on and on for hours about our love for food, especially ones from our region.

We hope you’ve learned from and enjoyed this blog about Costa Rican food, but what would make us even happier is if you came down here to dig into some of it with us!

If you’re up for it, you could even join us for an in-person cooking class!

If you’re not coming down here any time soon, you can also enjoy all of our food content online by reading our blog. This includes online pre-recorded cooking classes, as well as our very own cookbook!