I thought it would be nice to share the Costa Rican breakfast & lunch you can order when visiting and share some recipes you can try at home.
Costa Rican breakfast
The most typical Costa Rican breakfast is Gallo Pinto, you can read the full ‘make-it-at-home´ recipe here.
El Gallo Pinto is the most typical and common breakfast all around the country, most commonly nowadays at “Sodas” and stop-by restaurants, as well as many of the hotels, offer it for breakfast.
It is believed it started on the plains, where the Sabaneros (Costa Rican Cowboys) ate it.
It is a mix of black or red beans, rice, and spices such as chopped onions, garlic, chopped red pepper, cilantro, and salt and pepper.
Normally comes with eggs, sausage, or meat, tortillas, sweet plantain, and pretty much anything else you want to add to it.
Other delicious options are the empanadas, you can read the full ‘make-it-at-home´ recipe here.
These are also a great snack for when you are driving for a while and feel like having a break and a snack.
Empanadas are made of cornflour and filled in with pulled beef, chicken, refried beans, picadillo de papa, picadillo de chayote, or just cheese and then fried in hot oil.
These can be eaten for breakfast or even lunch if you are in a hurry or not that hungry.
Depending on where you are, you can find them in different sizes, including huge sizes, that will be enough sometimes for 2 people.
Las Chorreadas are another option for a typical breakfast in some areas of Costa Rica.
They can be found mostly in road restaurants, especially going to the Northern Plains, or the Caribbean.
It’s a corn pancake, using yellow sweet corn and cheese, a bit sweet, that you eat with sour cream on top. Really tasty!
Make sure to try it when you see it on the menu.
Coffee!
A very important part of the breakfast is of course fresh Costa Rican coffee.
Would you like to learn more about coffee? A coffee tour is a super fun way to learn all about coffee and taste some amazing Costa Rican coffee.
Costa Rican Lunch
For lunch in Costa Rica, nothing beats the Casado.
This is the lunch you can order pretty much anywhere, and of course, it is one of the most complete and nutritious dishes in Costa Rica.
The Casado is a mix of rice, beans, a kind of meat or fish, such as pork chops, beef steak, beef in sauce, or chicken, to mention a few options.
It also normally is accompanied by a salad, sweet fried plantain, a picadillo (potato or chayote), and depending on where you order it, can come with more extras.
I personally love the one at El Recreo Restaurant, located on the way to Poás Volcano and on the route to Sarapiquí through La Paz Waterfall.
There is a variety for the Casado in the Caribbean, where it comes with fewer extras, and it is known as “Rice and Beans”.
The main difference is that the rice and beans are mixed, such as in Gallo Pinto, but in the process, coconut milk is added to it to give it the Caribbean touch.
Rice with Shrimps or Shrimps with Rice is another option, especially on the coast.
We have our own version for it in another blog that you can check here.
This delicious lunch normally comes with salad and potato chips or crisps.
It is a mix of rice with shrimps and several spices such as onion, garlic, red pepper, cilantro, and green peas, and of course Lizano Sauce, and Bixa coloring, a natural coloring taken from the Bixa orellana plant.
It is a very fresh and delicious lunch that we always enjoy!
Mostly common as a Boca, the Chifrijo has become quite popular also as a quick lunch.
It consists of rice, beans, pico de gallo, and of course, chicharrón, which is pork rinds or pork skirt chunks fried in oil with garlic, and some spices.
This dish is served all mixed including avocado and tortilla chips.
Depending on where you order it, it can be quite large as well, but always delicious.
