Week 5

When I asked my Tica Mom about when and how my family eats chocolate she responded “Siempre!” This did and didn’t surprise me. It surprised me because I haven’t witnessed them eating chocolate that often chocolate and if they do I need to become part of this activity!  On the other hand it didn’t surprise me because I know how much my Tica family likes their sweets. My family doesn’t save the chocolate for any special occasions. If they want chocolate they will have it, and this seems to be different from most Costa Rican families. My family will eat chocolate in pastries, cakes, cookies, and coincidently enough my tica brother made hot chocolate for my mom, himself and me last night after dinner. (It was the best hot chocolate I have ever had!)

Next I asked my Mom about her grocery shopping. She said that they don’t usually go to the markets to buy their fruits and vegetables. My mom and dad will go every once and a while to the markets. They just don’t feel the need to because you can see the neighborhood grocery store from the front of my house.  It’s just so much easier and convenient for my mom to walk one hundred feet to the store to buy the fruits and vegetables. This is also the reason that she goes to the store everyday several times a day. This is so unlike what my mom does in the United States. On Sunday afternoons my mom sits at the kitchen table with her recipe books and decides what she is going to make for the week. She then makes a list and buys enough food to last my family until Wednesday, and after that she does the same process for the rest of the week. At home we don’t have grocery stores in the middle of our residential neighborhoods so it’s not as easy to before you start cooking.

I personally loved going to the Zapote market! I thought the chaos created an exciting environment that made me want to buy everything. There were so many people mainly couples and families that I noticed. Everyone was walking up and down the rows of tables looking at all of the fruits and vegetables trying to find the best-looking produce and the best prices. I liked how the stands were open and how it was easy to see all of the produce. The vendors were very friendly and were eager to give samples to prove their fruits were the best. The interactions between the customers and vendors were very friendly, in my opinion. I didn’t see any haggling or bargaining. I got more of the vibe that the vendors and customers wanted to form a relationship. At one stand that I went to a customer told Linelle and I that the vendor had the best produce in the whole market. I believe that the customer believes that because he has a relationship with the vendor.  Another thing I noticed was how strongly the market smelled. As I walked by the different stands I could smell the pineapples or the strawberries and the cilantro was very strong. It was just another indicator of the freshness of all the fruits and vegetables.  

I've never been to a market at home but when I picture it in my head I see something similar to the market in Zapote. I imagine that there is the same family feeling and that they go to buy produce for the week. I also believe that the relationships between the vendors and customers is relatively the same and just as important. 

 There were fruits and vegetables next to each other. There was no organization to the produce there were bananas next to onions and carrots etc.

 The pineapples and other produce looked so fresh and delicious!