Grocery Shopping

Grocery shopping in Costa Rica is A Whole Other Experience, one that I find most enjoyable except for the constant and necessary cautioning to Pecos to check out foods other than snacks. I wander the aisles and think of how the mega-store in San Isidro would compare to one not very mega at all in the U.S. I also consider the mercantile in our hometown in Oregon and know that it will be overwhelming at first to shop there again with its broad range of selections on at least a few aisles.

Our usual grocery store in the city is located on a side street and favored by Ticos. The others that are located downtown have higher prices and seem to cater more toward tourists.

Regardless of which store one shops in, the Costa Rican refrigerated dairy section is miniscule and takes diligent searching to find it. Some stores offer cold milk in half liter sizes, but most do not have any refrigerated milk other than one-serving portions in cartons. Yogurt is liquidy and comes in a plastic liter bottle.

Here the dairy department takes up nearly the entire side of a regular aisle of dry goods. Milk comes powdered or as a liquid in waxed boxes but mostly as liquid in a dazzling array of unrefrigerated plastic pouches – in all brands, sizes and levels of fat content – some labeled as excellent for babies, others recommended for children or adults. Various margarines are also available in pouches on the shelves and true butter is hard to find – usually just one brand in the refrigerated section and not much of it. Cheeses in the grocery store look old and tired, found in plastic bags with a twist tie and sometimes a flattened insect or two inside. Best to buy this at the market.

Canned goods are nearly non-existent except for about 25 feet of canned fish products from Central and South American countries, and a few from coastal Africa, Portugal, Italy or Spain. Mussels? They’re available in sauces, water, oil or wine – chopped, whole or with capers. Tuna is offered in countless ways, including with corn, beans, other vegetables and/or sauces. Squid, sardines, clams and a wide variety of white and dark fish come in small to large cans, offered with water, various oils, or with white or tinted (red) wine. Octopus is available with or without ink.

An aisle of frozen foods? No. Instead, just two refrigerator-size freezers – always in need of defrosting – that contain mostly burritos, a few whole chickens and heaps of packaged seafood in all shapes and sizes. The first time I opened the door and grabbed a package of fish, the label said Penguino! I panicked to think of eating penguin and quickly threw it back in. Another also said Penguino, as did the next. What a relief to realize that was the brand name!

There are very few canned vegetables and 99% of them are beans. Bottles of anything are few and far between. A wide selection of tomato sauces – Mexican, Italian, salsa-ed, cilantro-ed, seasoned or bean-ed are sold in plastic pouches, as are mayonnaise (lemon or plain), ketchup and other condiments. Soy sauce is known as the sauce de Chine. Spices come in plastic bags, as do soups, jams and sauces. Another aisle of pouches-plastico offers juices in all sizes made from local fruits. Flour is offered in one brand, one size only, whole wheat or regular, but expensive and it’s located on the bottom shelf. Instead, a dazzling array of masa harina fills several shelves, thus causing one (me) to most often make variations on tortillas rather than pita.

Detergents, dish soap and cleaners for all needs also come in plastic pouches; these are different from those in the U.S., with added components for cleaning and sanitizing in cold water.

A helpful young man stands at the ready in the produce area. Shoppers gather and wait patiently to be handed a plastic bag for what they may wish to buy. He carefully serves each customer. At all the grocery stores, the produce man weighs the desired items and writes down the cost on a paper to be carried to the caja. Vegetables and fruits in the grocery stores cost more than those at the market and the selection isn’t nearly as good.

Meats and fish are displayed behind glass in refrigerated cases; few, if any, are labeled. Seafood of all types are plentiful and extremely reasonable. Pork and chicken in unfamiliar cuts fill a display case; there are just a few selections of beef. If starvation is eminent there is a wide selection of organ meats.

I roll my cart to the caja station and unload the contents (no conveyor belts in these grocery stores) which are primarily pouches, and everything is put in a box. This gets stored up front in an open locker maintained by the security guard. When we’ve finished our other errands in town, we return and pick up our groceries for the trip home.

Any of the few bottles or cans that we do accumulate are recycled at the local pulperia. Papers are burned. There is no garbage pick-up except in the cities, where only the more well-to-do homes have a small raised cage out front to protect the garbage from stray animals.

Thus, during the week we wash and crush all of our pouches-plastico along with any other non-compostable garbage. Usually, a bag no larger than a shoebox or two holds everything. As directed by other rural residents, we bring this bag to the city. We walk nonchalantly down the sidewalk along the busy street by the central park, first making sure no policia are nearby and, without missing a step, fling the bag into one of the few municipal garbage cans. Pecos says I’ve developed a true Trailblazer hook shot. If anyone has a better solution, let me know. 