Living in Costa Rica can be a daily challenge, especially when it comes to food. We all have our favourites, and though many North American foods CAN be found in Costa Rica, they will be really expensive or you just will only find them totally randomly once in a blue moon.
You try to replace the foods you love with their Costa Rican equivalents, but that ends in frustration.
Gloriously Huge Fruit
THANK YOU, growth hormone.
Greasy fish ‘n’ chips
Enormous Delicious Salads
Restaurants with respectably large salad options are few and far between. It’s not unheard of for ex-pats to burst into tears of joy upon their first return to a Whole Foods salad bar, Chop’t, or any restaurant in California.
Buffet Restaurants
OK not a food, but still related to food. In Costa Rica, almost impossible to find a buffet restaurant
Bagels and Cream Cheese
Chili fries
Root beer
Wherever you are in the world, if you want a Coke, you can get one. Ditto for Pepsi.
Vegetarian Meat
Kristy Kreme donuts
Canadian Maple syrup
Chestnuts
Philly Cheesesteaks
Potato Skins
Montreal-style Smoked Meats (Pastrami, Corned Beef)
Montreal smoked meat is typically served in the form of a rye bread sandwich slathered with yellow mustard. While some Montreal smoked meat is brine-cured like corned beef, with spices applied later, many smoked meat establishments prefer dry-curing directly with salt and spices.
Pepperoni
Yes, you can get it on a pizza, but try to find a peppering stick anywhere.
Coffee Crisp, Aero, Caramilk, Glosette, Mr Big, Smarties, Crunchie, Reeses chocolate
Use the comments section to add to the list what you miss most from home in Costa Rica.
