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Costa Rican Cuisine
| Article
# : |
18686 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1991 |
1,805 Words |
| Author
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Kay Shaw Nelson
Food and travel writer Kay Shaw Nelson has written for
numerous magazines and newspapers, including Gourmet, House
and Garden, Washingtonian, and the New York Times. The author
of thirteen cookbooks, she most recently published A Bonnie
Scottish Cookbook. |
Costa Rica has enchanting, rare wildlife, exotic plants, beautiful birds and butterflies, spectacular scenery, lengthy white or black sand beaches, exquisite national parks and biological reserves, mesmerizing sunsets, and genuinely friendly people. But, traveling there recently, I was especially attracted by the country's unusual foods and culinary specialties, although Ticos, as Costa Ricans call themselves, have not been noted for their gastronomic accomplishments, and their cookery is scarcely known abroad.
Costa Rican cuisine has evolved from Indian and Spanish traditions and, to a lesser degree, those of Mexico and Colombia, two cultures that have quite different cooking styles. There are also recent cosmopolitan contributions and a Caribbean influence, mostly from islanders who came to eastern Costa Rica to work on banana plantations. Red-hot seasoning is not characteristic of this cuisine, and the Tico chef respects the natural flavor of the food.
Common Foods
One food that is important is corn, or maize, as the Indians termed it, meaning "our life." Their favorite way of eating it--directly, from roasted or boiled ears--has persisted. Tiny succulent ears of corn are favorite street foods, used as garnishes, and features at colorful outdoor ferias or weekly farmers' markets. Pieces of corn on the cob are added to substantial soup-stews like olla de cane, "pot of meat," made with chunks of beef and basic Tico foods such as the potato, chayote (a pear-shape green squash with a crisp fine-textured flesh), yucca, or cassava (a woody-covered brown tuber with a mild-flavored white flesh) and plantain (a bananalike fruit eaten as a cooked
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