Restaurantes en Costa Rica

In my family, I have noticed that americanization is a "hot topic" of conversation. In fact it is even a hot topic with taxi drivers. With my family, they only eat at restaurants for some special occasions. Although restaurants are reserved for special occasions, they would never go out to eat for a large family function like we sometimes would in the U.S. 

At my school, I have noticed that students tend to go out to McDonalds for lunch, so there is definitely a generational gap with the new american foods. I think the generational gap exists more not between the likeness of the food, but in the meaning of the new food. For the younger generation, the food means being more American, which is cool to them. My students have even told me that they want to be more like America. For the older generation, the food tends to be more of a guilty pleasure. For example, my students tend to prefer eating at McDonalds during their lunch break, but my tica brothers prefer packed home-cooked meals.

Here the McDonalds looks very similar to the a U.S. McDonalds.  On the right are students in "Tacho" uniforms, the students of Anastasio Alfaro, the school in which i teach. Clearly it is a popular spot for students that study close.


According to the taxi driver, the most popular types of restaurants in Costa Rica are the new americanized fast food places. Upon the most popular he states are Hooters and McDonalds. Although his new favorite is Applebees. His personal favorite along with other Taxi drivers is Hooters. He said that foreign restaurants have become more popular within the past 10 years.

It seems that Americanized fast food places have a positive representation with the younger generations, but a sweet and sour connotation with the older generations.  In addition to the fast food places, in smaller towns, like Puerto Viejo, american fast food restaurants do not exist. Instead there are many sodas, and fresh food. So fresh in fact that we saw fish being brought in from the boat directly to the restaurant, and the pig being slow roasted outdoors. It was amazing. On the other hand, restaurants like subway do change to fit the population by offering things such as rice and beans for breakfast. That does not exist in the U.S.