Restaurants and More!

This week I noticed a considerable difference in the conversation between my mom and I--we actually had a pretty fluid conversation about restaurants and culture in Costa Rica and we both understood each other; hopefully this means that my Spanish is turning the corner! Anyways, I gathered from our conversation that Ticans go out to eat at restaurants for a lot of the same reasons that United Statesians do. For special occasions, weekends, and even just going out to lunch every once in a while. As far as a generation difference, my mom mentioned that younger kids go out to eat more often. This is because some schools give their students free lunch periods when they are free to get lunch off-campus. I have heard that this is also an occurrence in some parts of the US, but it was not the case for my high school.

My mom told me that her favorite place to go out to eat is called La Princesa Marina. That restaurant serves a lot of seafood. She also said that other popular places for Ticans to go are McDonalds, KFC, and Burger King. This was interesting to me because all three of those restaurants are "fast food" American chains. That fact makes me almost uncomfortable, however I have rationalized that maybe my mom mentioned those particular restaurants because she knew that I would know what they were...fingers crossed. I think that my uneasiness comes from what we have learned about the conquistadors. The idea of taking a piece of our culture and slamming it right on top of what already existed here is horrifying and sad. Although on the flip side of that coin, maybe Ticans should have a right to eat a big mac every once in a while? I'm not sure.

I asked my mom how long some of these foreign restaurants have been here and she told me that they've been here for many many years. She guessed that most of them came in the 70's or 80's. She mentioned that this was not exclusive to just American chains. Ticans have Mexican, Argentinian, Chinese (we know how we feel about the Chinos), French, Italian, and many other types of restaurants. My mom thinks that having all of these different countries represented in Costa Rica is a good thing because different people like different types of food. As far as the economy goes, she did not seem to feel too threatened by the companies from other countries present in Costa Rica. She rationalized this by saying that the economy trends based on what people want. If they want it, they buy it and the economy moves with the people. I thought this was a very logical point.

For the photos for this week, I went to several restaurants including a soda by UCR, a soda in Puerto Viejo, a Thai Fusion restaurant in Puerto Viejo, and a McDonalds in San Jose. Below are pictures of the McDonald's menu and arroz con pollo from the soda in Puerto Viejo.

The Thai Fusion restaurant in Puerto Viejo was set-up like any upscale place in the United States; however, one major difference that I found was that the owner was serving us our food and helping out the waitstaff. That was one really cool thing. It was evident that serving his customers was a very personal job for the owner and it made us feel really special as well! As for the sodas....I really wish we had sodas in the US. They are so cheap, you get so much good quality food, and it's a quick easy stop. I have also found that sodas are a good place to meet Tican students, especially in the ones near UCR. Sodas are set-up more cafeteria style where you go through the line to pick your food and pay and then take your food to a table to eat. They could be considered a type of Tican fast food, although I am pretty sure that eating at a soda is more healthy than eating at McDonalds or Taco Bell. This probably says something about the differences in societies between Costa Rica and the US. Our poorest populations are subject to eating a lot of cheap fast food. While some of the poorer populations in Costa Rica, could eat at a soda for much cheaper and get a well-balanced meal.

When we went to McDonalds, I was expecting a relatively cheap meal...not the case. I paid 4 mil for a quarter pounder with cheese, a drink and fries--sigh. I also noticed that the people who were eating at the McDonalds were wearing hip clothes. It was almost as if McDonalds was the cool place to eat. Inside, it was very clean and was actually very pretty architecturally (it was the one cerca de la rotunda de la bandera). The menu at McDonalds was very similar to one that I would see at home. There were combos and kids meals, ice cream, salads, etc. One thing that I definitely missed on the menu was the Dollar Menu. It wasn't there. This supports my idea that eating at McDonalds could possibly  be some sort of luxury here in Costa Rica and therefore, there are not cheap parts of the menu. This is much different from the picture that Americans have of McDonalds as a cheap, unhealthy place filled with obesity and screaming children--again with the food and communication thing!