Costa Rican cooking is not spicy and it is not fussy. It is rice, black beans, plantain, fresh fish and whatever fruit is ripe, and it is one of the easiest kitchens in the world to like. If you are wondering what to eat in Manuel Antonio, this is the short list.
Most of it is on a menu within walking distance of wherever you happen to be standing, and a fair amount of it is on ours. Coconuts by The Falls keeps a Típico section, and most of what follows is on it.
Gallo pinto, the Costa Rican breakfast
Start the day the way the country does. Gallo pinto is rice and black beans cooked together with onion, sweet pepper and cilantro: savoury, mild, and more filling than it looks. The flavour comes from Salsa Lizano, the tangy brown sauce that sits on nearly every table in Costa Rica.
It arrives with eggs, fried plantain and a little sour cream or cheese. Breakfast is included when you stay here, and gallo pinto is on it.
Casado, a whole meal on one plate
The name means married, for the way the parts sit together. A casado is rice, black beans, a protein (chicken, beef, pork or fish), fried plantain, salad, and often a vegetable side.
It is a full lunch or dinner in a single plate and the fastest way to try several things at once. Beans and rice underneath, something rich in the middle, sweet plantain against it, salad to cut through the lot.
Ceviche, from the water in front of you
Ceviche is raw fish cured in lime juice with onion, cilantro and sweet pepper. Corvina, or sea bass, is the local choice; the shrimp version is usually made with cooked shrimp. The lime firms the fish and gives it that bright, clean edge.
Here it turns up as a starter or an afternoon snack, which is exactly right after a morning in the heat.
Patacones, twice-fried plantain
Green plantain, sliced, fried, flattened and fried again. Patacones are crisp outside and soft in the middle, salted, and usually served with something garlic or tomato based to dip them in.
They come alongside almost everything, and they are the thing on the table that goes first.
Fruit, which is the easy part
Mango, pineapple, papaya and passion fruit grow here and taste like it. They turn up at breakfast, blended into a batido, or on their own in the middle of the afternoon when nothing heavier appeals.
Where to eat it
You can eat all of this without leaving the hillside. Our own kitchen is open to non-guests as well, so the tables are not only ours, and the Típico side of the menu is where to start.
If you would rather go out, Quepos and Manuel Antonio run from a soda on a side street to a full dining room. There is a longer piece here on where to eat in Manuel Antonio; the short advice is to look for the places that print the Spanish names rather than translating them.
