Costa Rica is not known for any deeply recognizable culinary overtone. In the mind of chefs and foodies, it’s not the Mexico, Peru or Argentina of Latin America’s ‘food tour.’

It’s not a direct product really of culinary conquer, prolonged dietary colonialism or any purveying, dominant roots in terms of ‘original recipe.’

However, we have great food.

The lush, often volcanic grounds are fertile, the water sources plentiful, the sunny days innumerable. This, in very simple terms, produces great stock: vegetables, fruits, seafood, land food, all very tasty, fresh, plentiful and cheap.

For that reason, a lot of things seem to thrive here: home cooking, “country” cooking, old traditional and new fusion, Asian spice and Mexican picante, Euro-French and certainly something more than we have thought of here — all dancing around a table of abundance, exotic diversity, unlikely compatibility, and simple fulfillment.

Much of this has been borne in this last generation, where open minded plentitude met curious foreign inclusion.

Sometimes this food becomes so noble, it will come right to you. Delivered by a dedicated pedestrian distributor, a cart, a motor scooter, a bicycle, and a cheerful hand.

It comes balanced atop a woman’s head, in the form of nicely cut, neatly bagged pineapple, or in a small cooler with your selection of cheese, meat, chicken or potato empanada, or delivered from an ice chest, strapped over the saddle of a small motor bike in form of fresh ceviche. It’s all really good, cheap and delicious. What more can you ask for?

Just when you need a bite to eat, a hungry spot to fill, whether at work, at the beach or on the street — there he or she is, with your newly found comfort craving. Whatever, healthy, tasty form it may take…

There are those, and they are not few, who believe Costa Rica is a kind of Garden of Eden, or THE Garden of Eden, or at least some fully believed, self fulfilled utopia where no man can starve or freeze to death for lack of abundant food and warm of climate. A “Banana Blessed Country” that’s not a “Banana Republic.”

I should add that most of the folks that adhere to this peculiar belief are either Costa Rican, or at least those who have been fortunate enough to appreciate and live from their land.

Come, sit at our table, break bread with those who share in the appreciation of things noble. We invite you to both give to and take from, in a nurturing and sustainable way, the rich land, the rich mountain and rich coast that is Costa Rica.

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