When we travel to different countries, we always try to immerse ourselves in the local culture. One of the best ways we’ve found to do this is by learning to cook the cuisine with a local! We first did this in Vietnam and loved the experience so much that we try to do a class at least once in each country we visit. After some research about where in Costa Rica we wanted to cook, and with whom, we ended up choosing Manuel Antonio Cooking Class.
Though this class is titled “Manuel Antonio” it’s actually just on the outskirts of the neighboring town of Quepos. When we arrived, we met Clara, a local Costa Rican woman, who would be facilitating the class. She informed us that there would be one other couple that would be doing the class with us…lo and behold they were travelling from NYC too!
Before we began cooking, a local guide named Juan took us through their garden. It was filled with so many different vegetables and herbs, some of which have been and continue to be used for medicinal purposes, and some of which we would be using for our dishes today!
For our almuerzo, Juan informed us we would be preparing a traditional Costa Rican casado. He began by explaining the importance of the casado dish in the Costa Rican culture. Casado translates to marriage in English, and the dish usually consists of a marriage of the different types of food found on the plate. The casado dish is also a special dish made for a wedding…having both sides of the family come together to cook the different parts of the dish using their family recipes.
In total, we prepared six different dishes and one drink from scratch today: pico de gallo (chimichurri), arroz y frijoles (rice and beans), picadillo (mixed vegetable), pollo en salsa (chicken in sauce), yucca, corn tortillas, and a refreshing drink called agua de sapo (sugar cane juice).
We cut and prepared all the veggies that went into these dishes and cooked them over the stovetop…Clara definitely helped with the cooking, especially monitoring the food as we continued to prep ingredients.
While the main dishes were simmering…we started preparing the dessert, which was made with overripe plantains and fresh brown sugar from the sugar cane. We layered the plantains in a skillet, sprinkled the pure cane sugar on top, and laid cinnamon and lemongrass leaves to cover, and simmered on low until the sugar caramelized.
After finishing the prep work, Juan took us to their sugar cane building where we extracted the sugar cane juices in a traditional way for the Agua de Sapo. The farm had a HUGE sugar cane juicer that used to be operated by a pair of oxen, but today we were the oxen. We worked as a couple to turn the large wood beam connected to gears as Juan fed the sugar canes through the juicer, which squeezed a sweet liquid into a cup. After we made enough juice, he added some ginger, fresh lime juice, and a little Cacique (local Costa Rican guaro a.k.a. liquor distilled from sugar cane).
When headed back to the kitchen with a full pitcher of agua de sapo in hand. By this time, the many pieces of our casado puzzle had finished cooking, so it was time to eat! We all sat around a large wooded table and ate together. It was really nice to be sharing a meal with the people we cooked with.
All our hard work turned out GREAT! The food was so delicious that we didn’t leave a single grain of rice on the plate…and we of course made sure to leave room for dessert. I think this was something we were all looking forward to because of how AMAZING the aromas were…and it tasted even better than it smelled!
We left our cooking class with such full stomachs and a better appreciation for this local dish that we’ve had so much of.
When we got back to our room, we planned to rest and relax, but we actually ended up working on some trip planning for the upcoming weeks. We’ve had to make some changes to our upcoming itinerary, which is a bit out of our control due to the flooding and infrastructural damage the Caribbean coast has suffered from the recent rains.
Our original plan was to end our Costa Rica trip on the Caribbean side, but this may not be possible. We may pull an audible to cancel our hotel reservations in Puerto Viejo and start planning for a trip down further south on the Pacific coast to the famed Osa Peninsula instead.
It’s not a hard sell as the Osa Peninsula is home to one of the largest national parks in Costa Rica, Corcovado! National Geographic has even named it “the most biologically intense place on earth.”
The national park actually makes up most of the peninsula, so there are really only a few towns to stay in if you plan to head there. The two popular towns are on opposite sides of the peninsula…Drake Bay and Puerto Jimenez. We’re looking closer at Puerto Jimenez at the moment. If we move forward with this plan, we’ll also likely book a day tour to explore part of this expansive national park by way of La Leona or Sirena ranger station. Since the national park is so large, there are options for day hikes and even overnight hikes which would bring you from one ranger station to another while staying at the station itself.
We haven’t finishing planning our Osa Peninsula itinerary, partly because we got hungry…but we did end up cancelling our Puerto Viejo hotel reservation (it’s just too much of a risk with all the flooding and infrastructure damage). We ended up choosing Emilio’s Café for some local tico cuisine. When we got there, it began to downpour! Luckily we were indoors and enjoying a nice dinner…perfect timing.
They had an amazing selection of desserts, and we landed on a passion fruit pie. We were stuffed from a really great dinner, so we decided to get it to-go, so we could enjoy it in our room later…what a way to end our time in Manuel Antonio! Tomorrow we’ll be making our way to Dominical and Uvita while making a quick pit stop at the famed Nauyaca Falls…so stay posted!