Dining hours in Costa Rica are flexible but generally follow North American customs. Some downtown restaurants in San Jose are open 24 hours; however, expensive restaurants tend to be open for lunch between 11am and 3pm and for dinner between 6 and 11pm.
Rice and beans are the basis of Costa Rican meals (all three of them). At breakfast, they're called gallo pinto and come with everything from eggs to steak to seafood. At lunch or dinner, rice and beans are an integral part of a casado (which translates as "married" and is the name for the local version of a blue plate special). A casado usually consists of cabbage
and tomato salad; fried plantains (a starchy, banana-like fruit); and a chicken, fish, or meat dish of some sort.
Appetizers
Known as bocas in Costa Rica, appetizers are served with drinks in most bars. Often the bocas are free, but even if they aren't, they're very inexpensive. Popular bocas include gallos (tortillas piled with meat, chicken, cheese, or beans), ceviche (a marinated seafood salad), tamales (stuffed cornmeal patties wrapped and steamed inside banana leaves), patacones (fried green plantain chips), and fried yuca.
Sandwiches & Snacks
Ticos love to snack, and there's a large variety of tasty little sandwiches and snacks available on the street, at snack bars, and in sodas. Arreglados are little meat filled sandwiches, as are tortas, which are served on little rolls with a bit of salad tucked into them. Tacos, tamales, and empanadas (turnovers) also are quite common. Gallos are popular snacks as well.
Meat
Costa Rica is beef country, one of the tropical nations that has converted much of its rainforest land to pastures for raising beef cattle. Consequently, beef is cheap and plentiful, although it might be a bit tougher than it is back home. In general, steaks are cut and served thinner here than in the United States or Europe. One very typical local dish is called olla de carne, a bowl of beef broth with large chunks of meat, local tubers, and corn. Spit-roasted chicken is also very popular here and is surprisingly tender.
Sea food
Costa Rica has two coasts, and, as you'd expect, there's plenty of seafood available everywhere in the country. Corvina (sea bass) is the most commonly served fish and is prepared innumerable ways, including as ceviche. (Be careful: In many cheaper restaurants, particularly in San Jose, shark meat is often sold as corvina.) You should also come across pargo (red snapper), dorado (mahimahi), and tuna on some menus, especially along the coasts. Although Costa Rica is a major exporter of shrimp and lobster, both are relatively expensive and in short supply here.
Vegetables
On the whole, you'll find vegetables surprisingly lacking in the meals you're served in Costa Rica usually nothing more than a little pile of shredded cabbage topped with a slice or two of tomato. For a much more satisfying and filling salad, order palmito (hearts of palm salad). The heart (actually the stalk or trunk of these small palms) is first boiled and then chopped into circular pieces and served with other fresh vegetables, with a salad dressing on top. If you want something more than this, you'll have to order a side dish such as picadillo, a stew or puree of vegetables with a bit of meat in it. Though they are giant relatives of bananas and are technically considered a fruit, platanos (plantains) are really more like vegetables and require cooking before they can be eaten. Green plantains have a very starchy flavor and consistency, but they become as sweet as candy as they ripen. Yuca (manioc root or cassava in English) is another starchy staple root vegetable in Costa Rica.
One more vegetable worth mentioning is the pejibaye, a form of palm fruit that looks like a miniature orange coconut. Boiled pejibayes are frequently sold from carts on the streets of San Jose. When cut in half, a pejibaye reveals a large seed surrounded by soft, fibrous flesh. You can eat it plain, but it's usually topped with a dollop of mayonnaise.
Fruits
Costa Rica has a wealth of delicious tropical fruits. The most common are mangoes (the season begins in May), papayas, pineapples, melons, and bananas. Other fruits include the mara�on, which is the fruit of the cashew tree and has orange or yellow glossy skin; the granadilla or maracuya (passion fruit); the mamon chino, which Asian travelers will immediately recognize as the rambutan; and the carambola (star fruit).
Desserts
Queque seco, which literally translates as "dry cake", is the same as pound cake. Tres leches cake, on the other hand, is so moist that you almost need to eat it with a spoon. Flan is a typical custard dessert. It often comes as either flan de caramelo (caramel) or flan de coco (coconut). Numerous other sweets are available, many of which are made with condensed milk and raw sugar. Cajetas are popular handmade candies, made from sugar and various mixes of evaporated, condensed, and powdered milk. They are sold in differing-size bits and chunks at most pulperi�as (general stores) and street side food stands.
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