More or less, yes, although each area has a little something different to offer if you’re interested in looking around.

Throughout Costa Rica you are sure to find Casados and Gallo Pinto. Casado means “married”, and it basically stands for the food you will get in a good marriage. A Casado is a hearty lunch consisting o beans, white rice, a salad, stewed vegetables and some kind of meat.

Gallo Pinto is white rice and black beans mixed together for breakfast, and it’s sided usually with white cheese, eggs, fried plantains or all.

On the Caribbean side of Costa Rica though, all that gets a little tastier since the ingredients are slow-cooked in coconut milk! When you visit any town in Costa Rica’s Caribbean, ask for “Rice and Beans” (in English, as that’s many people’s native language there), and try other typical treats like pambón, plantintá, rondón or a locally made chocolate from the many cacao plantations in the region.

In the rest of the country, don’t be afraid to try things like chorreadas and prestiños on the side of the road, or different fruits and vegetables like pejibaye, manzana de agua and many other delicious treats you’ve never seen before!

Costa Rica has become the home of people from around the world, and many expats have put up restaurants offering all kinds of alternatives and complements to the local cuisine. In San José you can find anything from Thai noodles to Argentinian empanadas, and in some other seemingly far-away places in Costa Rica you will run into Italian, Argentinian, North-American, German, French and Israeli food, to name a few. Some of the towns that offer a well executed and varied culinary experience are Jacó, Monteverde, Puerto Viejo, Santa Teresa and Tamarindo, but every corner of Costa Rica has something delicious to offer.