Your best culinary memory in Costa Rica

Costa Rica is not known for its cuisine. Anything more than just black beans,rice, a side of eggs,fish,chicken, and a splash of 'Salsa Lizano'comes from some other place in the world.Or 'olla de carne',a version of mulligan stew(bland).Chinese food in San Jose and Guanacaste has been here for a very long time because of the obvious.Just like every culture in the world,Costa Rica has its favorite beans.Black ones,red and don't forget Cubaces.

I love the tamales they make during Christmas! Tortillas aleñadas, homemade gallos con picadillo de papa, carne en salsa, there are some things worth trying. The smaller sodas which look horrible, tend to have the tastiest food.

The chicken has the best taste ever.  Unlike in North America - you bite into chicken and out comes all this water!  The colour is different and texture different.  The bananas - so sweet.  North America they taste like gas and give you heartburn.  The fish is simply amazing.  Even a simple dish of fish fingers is mouth watering and "real".  In the North, if you can find fish fingers, they are likely all processed so you must wonder what you're eating.  Although the cuisine is not "plentiful" in some books and maybe you don't have the variety like in North America, I would say the quality of food in Costa Rica is far superior to what we have here in the North.  Only thing I'm not keen on is the bread.  Likely a good thing though - with all the fresh vegetables, fruit, fish, chicken, who wants to load down with all those carbs.  Everyone has their own opinions and that's fine.  Enjoy whatever you have and I agree 100% with Yumico82 - the best meals I've had came from the roadside sodas and they don't charge you ridiculous prices.  I know.......you drive by and think no way would I eat there but put all the "first world" thoughts aside and experience it.   As well as the food being amazing in these sodas the people working there are usually the most friendliest and pleasant people you'll ever want to meet and they are so appreciative of your business. 

@cratedivision Totally agree with you too. The quality is far better here! The bread indeed is not good but I found some people that bake the bread and sell it and it's maybe a bit more expensive but soooo worth it!!!