Charlotte chef Chris Coleman fell in love with fresh cuisine on a trip to Costa Rica
M
y wife and I went to Costa Rica a couple of years ago to celebrate her 40th birthday. The two of us and our kids, along with three other couples we’re close with, rented a house together right on the beach. Flying into the country, it was breathtakingly beautiful. As you look out the window, it’s jungle as far as you can see. We were on the Pacific side of Costa and flew into this tiny airport, and a shuttle took us to our house in Calle Playa Central, which reminded me of a small fishing village. There was this little carved-out area of beautiful homes along a bay, right down from Flamingo Beach, with markets and restaurants dotted through there. There were fruit trees everywhere, iguanas everywhere, capuchin monkeys everywhere—we were woken up every morning with the monkeys talking to each other.
We had fresh guava, papaya, and bananas delivered and waiting for us when we got to the house—as well as guaro, the national liquor of Costa Rica, which was almost like watered-down vodka—and hung out that day at one of the most breathtaking beaches I’ve ever seen.
As the chef in the group, whenever we vacation, I like to go to the local markets or seafood places and cook simply. It’s usually grilled meats or fish, a starch, and a decent amount of alcohol around the table so we can all relax together. You feel like you’re tasting a little bit of the region or the town you’re in. That night we stopped at a seafood market for fresh squid and fish, and we had some rice and beans back at the house, and we cooked over our grill on the back patio. The squid was probably the size of the bottom half of my arm, and still had the stomach and all the inner things. I’ve been doing this for 20 years, but it was probably the first time I’ve ever cleaned the whole squid. We marinated it in lime juice and oil, threw on some chimichurri I had made earlier in the day, and had a nice time lounging around the table. We were eating and watching the tide go out right over the beach. It was pretty spectacular.
The next day, we went around the corner to an all-day restaurant with a French-style patisserie that had the best croissants and espresso. A couple in our group got breakfast tacos with fresh tortillas, and we ate on the bakery’s little patio while we watched the monkeys on the trees above us, basking in the sun and figuring out what we were going to do that day. We even found a cool restaurant with a live fire grill by the beach.
That night we went to the local night market right off of Flamingo Beach. One vendor was doing tostadas. Someone else was doing a hot chocolate with a little fried dough, almost like a churro. The food was vibrant. It was super fresh. It was simple; there wasn’t a lot of flamboyancy. And that’s probably what I appreciated most about it. We fell in love with the freshness.
On our last full day, we did a simple breakfast. We had gotten some tortillas from a little convenience store nearby and we made breakfast tacos. Later we walked down to the marina and chartered a catamaran to go snorkeling. We pulled up sea urchin and sea cucumbers and explored the bottom of the bay. They grilled some chicken on the boat for us and we made chicken tacos with Lizano salsa, the national sauce of Costa Rica. The captain told us that locals eat it on everything. It was almost like Worcestershire; it’s made from pureed vegetables and was delicious. We bought three bottles of it at the airport to bring home, and still put it on everything at our house.
We [Built on Hospitality restaurant group] are developing a concept based on all our travels in North and Central America, including Costa Rica. We’ll have a menu that’s dedicated to skewers, which is grilled over charcoal, and we will have crudo. We’ll do a lot of seafood from the Carolinas, and meats will be less focused on beef and more focused on poultry and pork. Stylistically the restaurant will be reminiscent of what we’ve seen in Costa Rica and Nicaragua and Tulum—it’s a little coastal, a little Latin-inspired. And the food will be simple and tasty, really letting the ingredients shine.
keep reading
On the Road
Warm Weather Getaways: South for Winter | Listen
Find exceptional food experiences at these four warm-weather getaways and escape the winter seasonal blues.
Latinísimo: Home Recipes from the Twenty-One Countries of Latin America: A Cookbook
Author: Sandra A. Gutierrez An encyclopedic cookbook (from Chiles Rellenos and Tostones to Golden Coconut Chicken and Dulce de Leche Tart) celebrating Latin American home cooking–the first to cover the day-to-day home cooking of all twenty-one nations–by one of […]
Partnered
18 Stops Along the Cajun Bayou Food Trail
Enjoy delectable and unabashedly authentic cuisine along the award-winning Cajun Bayou Food Trail in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana.