The Casado

A casado is the plate that Costa Rica eats at midday: white rice and black beans side by side rather than mixed, a small salad of cabbage or tomato, fried sweet plantain, and a protein, usually chicken, beef in sauce, pork chop or fish, with a picadillo of chayote or green beans if the cook feels like it. The name means married, which is variously explained as the components being married on the plate or as what a working man's wife packed him for lunch. It is served in sodas, the small family-run lunch rooms that are the backbone of eating out in the country, and it costs very little.

What you actually see

• The soda - the small family lunch room where it is properly eaten.
• The components - rice, beans, salad, plantain and a protein.
• Picadillo - the chopped vegetable side that often comes with it.
• Fresco natural - the fruit drink ordered alongside, in water or milk.

When to go

Year-round, at lunch, which in Costa Rica runs from around eleven thirty to two. Sodas serve it every weekday and many at weekends. The plato del día is usually the best value and freshest thing on the board.

Honest expectations

It is mild, filling and repetitive, and after a week most visitors are looking for something else; Costa Rican cooking does not use much chilli and the seasoning is gentle. Tourist restaurants charge several times what a soda does for the same plate. Vegetarian casados are widely available and usually good.

Nearby

Every town has sodas; the ones near markets and bus stations are reliable.