Food Journal Week 5

Perhaps it is only because a Belgium exchange student gave my family four bars of chocolate as a gift, but we have had a small piece of chocolate each, or half of a doughnut with chocolate icing almost every night for the past three weeks. Chocolate, according to my abuela tica, does not represent a true Costa Rican desert tradition but has nonetheless found its way into many tasty deserts and snack treats too. Both of my grandparents swore by their taste buds that Costa Rican made chocolate is not worth anyone’s money but that imported brands are delightful. They both prefer chocolate for a treat to sugary candies or baked goods, unless they include chocolate! I wonder if they have ever tasted hot chocolate…

Like chocolate, freshness is a highly valued commodity in my homestay kitchen. Whether considering fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, or breads; my abuelos are not keen on any other options than fresh and ripe. With a supermarket near in size to the local Mas por Menos nearer to the home than the Walmart-owned convenience funhouse, my family has easy access to such freshness. For example, my abuelo buys fresh bread from the store every morning, without fail. This is where they purchase almost anything else also. Jokingly, my abuela said that she has to go every time I sit down to eat, but really only every three days or so. They said it was close and cheap. The couple is also old and likely entrenched in a set of purchasing habits that says more about consistency than conscious decision-making.

This market was unlike anything I had seen in my life. It was highly organized, sectionalized, categorized, and labeled meticulously. There were shouting venders all around with special offers and inventories, and also flags flying above areas of the market to distinguish different sections of the lot. The consumers seemed to be of two general classes: an individual with a cart or basket on wheels (that I once mistook for a stroller) and small groups/families. These were ticans if I have ever seen any, there to shop from the fruits of the labor of their own countrymen from the soil of their own country. They were looking for all sorts of foods. The market offered at least every native fruit or vegetable of which I do not know the name and much, much more. What was there to buy was being sold rapidly without much apparent bargain (organized price system). The venders usually stored their cash just beneath the burlap on their crates of produce. It was obvious that the venders were there to make a trade (sometimes aggressively) and that most ticans had specific ideas of what they needed and how much. On a side note, I would not say that everything being sold met my general standards of sanitation. Maybe it’s because of my rearing, but I would never purchase meats in a “cooler” booth at a farmer’s market. The comparative prices to Mas por Menos, for example, were also surprising. In the U.S., our local market is pricier than the grocery store. Also, I would never see a family vender station. One egg-dealer’s son was organizing the egg cartons in the back of their freight-truck and looked no more than ten years old. I also would never see such cultural displays at a farmer’s market – music, religious portrait salesman, clothing, wooden-craft items, etc.