Back to Avenida Central, Yvonne leads us to Mercado Central which is the market hall in the centre of the city. The market isn’t as busy as in the morning but we don’t want to provoke it.
Besides it is no problem to take pictures. “You don’t have to ask for taking pictures” explains Yvonne. “In Costa Rica everyone likes to be on a picture”. For that reason it doesn’t take a long time until the first people get attentive and smile or hold some fingers to greet in direction of the camera.
As we get past a few stands, Yvonne soon leads us in the area of textiles, bags and small souvenirs. But wait! We rather want to see the stands which offer the everyday-things. So back to the fruit-, vegetable- and meat-stands. The last few have, incidentally, glass counters.
This is not quite traditionally anymore, but it is indispensable because of hygiene. As a special peculiarity, several dealers do offer banana leaves. On them the “Restaurante Tipico” serve its meals . As we walk through the market just before Christmas, there are at almost every corner Tamales. These are rectangular pieces of dough made of ground corn mixed with fat and spices. Tamales are filled with meat, rice, carrots and olives, are wrapped in corn leaves and cooked over steam.
The Mercado Centre is existing since 1881 and is the most important market building of the city until today. There are more than 200 stands in the well-lighted streets. Besides all the things that are needed in the kitchen also tools, saddle bags and cheap icons are offered.
The visit is worthwhile if you want to taste the authentic kitchen of the country there are still a lot of snack bars in the hall. Whereas I stay at it: You don’t have to treat oneself to such a thing at the first day.
