From tall volcanic peaks to small coral patch reefs, Central America’s narrow isthmus encompasses myriad landscapes and life. The seven countries of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama constitute the region. All relatively small in size and proximate in location, together Mesoamerican people including the Maya and Aztec called them home during the Pre-Colombian era. All endured the Spanish colonial occupation from the 16th century, and, save Belize, all declared independence in 1823 through the congress of Central America.
Both despite and due to a shared history, however, Central American cuisine is an entity almost too broad and diverse to define. Each country’s peoples, societies, cultures, and traditions have subtleties all their own, and these differences are embodied in the food. There can be Mayan dishes, Afro-Caribbean influences, hints of East Asia with an aftertaste of Spain and Portugal. While all are connected by locality and freshness, these take on attributes all their own as each region incorporates its own tastes onto a colorful, distinct dinner plate.
In Costa Rica, this plato típico takes the form of the casado, a varied plate of food that usually includes meat, rice, beans, salad, and fried plantains. Belize usually serves stewed chicken with a side of beans and rice, and maybe some vinegar-based coleslaw. Sauces always top these off, but these sauces do not cross borders. Marie Sharp’s carrot-based hot sauce is one of the “Proud Products of Belize,” and no Costa Rican gallo pinto would taste right without Lizano, a cuminy salsa.
Though these seven countries are allied in region and some history, they are fiercely, nationalistically fond of the individual flavors and dishes they know and create. To taste one is to want to taste them all. Explore hungrily.
