Costa Rican Escape: What’s There to Eat?

This winter we had the good fortune to spend one perfect week in paradise. Twelve of us, ages six and up, gathered in Costa Rica in celebration of Mom and Dad’s upcoming 50^th wedding anniversary and Dad’s 75^th birthday. The indefatigable and ever-optimistic Oscar was our guide for the week and Giovanni, our driver, was his trusty sidekick. Early on we learned about “pura vida,” the national expression and general attitude towards life. It seems to be used along the lines of “life is great” and really expressed the optimistic outlook of the “Ticos.” I even heard people greeting each other with “Pura vida!” instead of the usual “Buenas.” Oscar translated it with the obscure “hunky dory” which he pronounced honky. We had a lot of laughs over the appropriateness of his version when applied to our gringo tourist group.

We stayed in Manuel Antonio in beautiful octagonal “casas” built into a steep mountain slope leading down to the Pacific Ocean. I mentioned the part about good fortune, right?! When we arrived the first night and got out to unload the bus, an actual sloth was there to greet us, hanging on the railing of the nearest casa! Over the next three days we visited this peaceable, slow-moving creature and even patted it.

The best feature of these perfect dwellings was a large wrap-around veranda, more of an outdoor living room complete with dining area, grill (okay, it was a George Forman electric grill but I’m not complaining), comfy swivel chairs and foot stools, and a hot tub. When we were at home, most of our time was spent here reading, talking and gazing at the view, always watching for brightly-colored birds, sloths, iguanas and and listening to the sounds of the tropical forest. From this perch I also watched the sun rise each morning.

For me the landscape was almost primordial and when I imagine North America in the days when dinosaurs roamed New Jersey, this is how I picture it - huge, exotic versions of my houseplants on hormones, seductively-shaped bright and flashy and garish-anywhere-else flowers, over-sized leaves and an abundance of erotic fruits. Appropriately, the film Jurassic Park was shot in Costa Rica.

We spent a lot of time at our little private beach at and explored other area beaches as well. The water was bath tub warm and very salty and buoyant with some serious waves. We also took full advantage of the activities offered to tourists including kayaking in the mangrove forest (where we saw roseate spoonbill, egrets, white-faced monkeys, poison dart frogs and tiger crabs), hiking the “sloth path” in the national forest, a strange night-time flashlight hike in (successful) search of noisy gladiator frogs and red-eyed tree frogs, crocodiles and the like, and of course the amazing zip-line canopy tour! And we ate. Each casa had its own kitchen so many of our meals were taken at home. Breakfast for me was a cup of intense, aromatic CR coffee and a ridiculous amount of fresh, ripe papaya, mango, pineapple or passion fruit with a glass of a tropical fruit yogurt drink from “Super Joseth,” the local market up the road. I could eat that breakfast daily for life and never tire of it. Smelling the coffee brewing was just as good as drinking it. We also adopted the national dish of gallo pinto, black beans and rice. The Costa Rican version is spiced with cilantro, onions, garlic, salt, and doused with a local condiment called Salsa Lizano.

For lunch and dinner out we opted for “tipico” over touristy as often as possible. I loved the food and it is such a healthy diet. The national dish is casado - rice, beans, plantain, meat, chicken or fish, a vegetable (beets or taro or potato) and a cabbage slaw – which is perfectly balanced and nourishing and delicious. Both meat and beans are cooked with generous amounts of fresh cilantro and lime juice which give them a wonderful depth of flavor that was new to me. Restaurants offer pitchers of fresh juices like star fruit, passion fruit and cas (a local relative of the guava). Nora became quite the connoisseur of passion fruit in its raw and juice forms and still thinks of it back home in el Norte.

We had a great meal at Ronny’s Place located a mile or so up a narrow, pitted dirt road at the top of a mountain overlooking the Pacific. All of the restaurants in the area are open air with simply a roof but with no walls or windows. Most have long wooden tables and chairs. At Ronny’s I enjoyed tasty fish kebabs with rice and veggies and a bottle of Pilnser (as opposed to Pilsner), one of the brands of local beer. Dad had the local ceviche of sea bass that they serve with saltine crackers and hot sauce.

Another excellent meal was at a roadside place outside of Quepos where we stopped after kayaking. No one minded that we were sweaty, dirty and wet. I ordered the sea bass casado which was dreamy! Nothing tastes better or is more satisfying than unpretentious, traditional, dishes, this time washed down with Imperial, the other local beer. Clara had a frosty glass of cas spiked with rum while the girls sampled more passion fruit juice. In fact, I discovered that my sister was quite the tropical blender drink maven, whipping up fresh fruit with local Centenario rum every night before dinner and having a late afternoon nip of papaya and rum poolside. Hey, she lives in Maine and probably needs to store up those taste memories to assist in getting through the long winter!

We shopped in the supermarkets and fruit and vegetable markets in Quepos for dinner ingredients and had a great feast our first night of grilled chorizo, steamed chayote, tomato & cucumber salad and rice. Earlier we had spotted clusters of ripe star fruit growing on a tree next to our casa – Jamie managed to harvest them without tumbling down the cliff and I prepared them as Oscar suggested – ends and ribs trimmed, chopped and tossed with salt and pepper. They were like no star fruit I have ever tasted – tart and flavorful. Clearly all efforts to export them to the US should cease immediately. The same goes for the coffee. It even smelled better in Costa Rica than it did when I brewed the same beans at home. More and more I am convinced that food tastes and memories involve much more than flavor.

One day, returning from the supermarket in Quepos on the bus, I saw a man taking langoustines out of a cooler in the back of a pickup truck on the side of the road. After conferring briefly with Clara I asked our driver, Giovanni, to pull over. We left with 4 kilos of langoustines and shrimp for the surprise birthday dinner for Dad that night! They were delicious grilled on the veranda on the little GF. Dessert was the celebrated Tres Leches cake (heavy cream, evaporated milk and sweet condensed milk). Nascar hats and decorations from Maine added a festive American air to the evening.

We wound up an amazing week in paradise with a surprise New Year’s Eve anniversary dinner for Mom and Dad at the locally-renown El Avion, a restaurant built on a cliff over the sea literally over and around an intact Fairchild C-123 airplane. The cargo plane was used during the Iran Contra Affair of the 80's under the Reagan Administration, ole Ollie North and the CIA. The bar is in the body of the plane and tables are set up under the wings! As the sun set, we had more festive decorations, noise makers and a long series of little gifts for the guests of honor over dinner. Dessert was a special chocolate cake emblazoned with the words “Pura Vida, Honkey Dorey.” Perfect!

Tres Leches Cake

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 9 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup milk
• 9 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup white sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Sift together the flour and baking powder. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well after each addition. In a large glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until whites form stiff peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the cake batter using a rubber spatula. Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.

3. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.

4. In a small bowl, stir together the 2 cups heavy cream, evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk. Pour the mixture over the cake until it wont absorb any more. You may have 1/3 to 1/4 left over. That's okay.

5. Combine the whipped cream and sugar, spread over soaked cake. Refrigerate cake until serving, Pour leftover milk mixture onto plates and swirl in jam if desired, before setting cake on the plates.