There’s a custom in Costa Rica that puts other countries to shame. Or at least when I lived there in the early-70s.
“Bocas” (pronouced with a soft “b” almost like a “v.” Bocas/Vocas. Something you put in your mouth.
It’s the custom of offering your guests a little food with their drinks and the Ticos have turned it into an art.
When I lived in CR in the early-70s the poaching and selling of turtle eggs were against the law. But as my Tico friend Fede used to say, “Just because something is forbidden doesn’t mean it’s not allowed.”
Most of the small bars my friends and I would frequent offered turtle eggs in their “bocas.” One particular place in San José seemed to love gringos. One wall was plastered with photos of the pope and Catholic icons. Another featured framed photos and magazine cutouts of JFK and Jacqueline. But the wall behind the back counter was covered with center folds taken from Playboy Magazine. Ahhh … the Latin Paradox. Worship the virgin. Lust after her opposite. Then pray for forgiveness.
The bocas there were particularly generous and served on a multi-tier stand like it was high tea at the Ritz. The bottom tier was the biggest and had things like small tortillas with refried beans or with beans and chicken or beef. The next one up could have fried or BBQ chicken legs and wings and slices of cooked beef. Next to the top there’d be small containers of dipping sauces and big cooked prawns. And on the top maybe aged turtle eggs, marinated chicken eggs or pieces of freshly cooked lobster.
All this would be accompanied by bowls of pretzels and salted peanuts. But I’d pass on the eggs because they didn’t looked that appetizing. “An acquired taste,” said Fede as he consumed them all with a shrug.
So we’d go in for a couple of excellent CR beer (thanks to the Germans who helped build the railroad on the Pacific side from San José to Puntarenas) and leave having been treated to a feast.
It’s a custom that I understand has grown to be even more generous and diversified as CR has become home to more and more North Americans and Europeans.
It’s also a custom I provide for friends and family here in Aotearoa New Zealand. Only I’ve changed the name to “munchies.” Maybe I’ll go back to calling them “bocas.”
The art of the Costa Rican “Boca” © Robert R. Feigel 2022 – All Rights Reserved
Pieces from a Puzzling Life 