Costa Rica: Appetite-Enticing Culinary Blogs · Global Voices
Jenny Cascante Gonzalez

Costa Rican bloggers are successfully exploring their culinary skills in an attractive variety of blogs, complete with recipes and pictures.  These healthy, sweet, typical, and experimental dishes capture the attention and enticing the appetite of the blogs’ readers. The bloggers range from amateur chefs to simply people passionate about food, whose aim is not only to present the recipes, but to encourage readers to start experiencing fun through cooking.
Italian octopus stew by Mariana Flores (Food Junky) and used with permission.
Food Junky [es] is the culinary blog of Mariana Flores. The name of the blog suggests food addiction, which is not difficult to imagine, because of the delicious presentation of her finished dishes. As a real fan of cooking, her list of categories on her blog is as long as the variety of dishes which are featured, and of which the preparation is far from complicated.
Flores’ love for cooking is one of the reasons why she started publishing recipes as her blog’s first post states quite clearly [es]:
Yo sé que hay millones de blogs de gente que cocina y comparte recetas, y fotos, y tips y de todo, pero ninguno es mío.
Pork in mango and tamarind sauce by Mariana Flores (Food Junky) and used with permission.
Food Junky can be followed on twitter (@food_junky).
Manos en la Masa [es] (Hands in the Dough) is a collective blog that has been publishing since 2007.  Lena, Adriana, Liz, and Jules have been sharing their live experiences with tasty recipes, the proper use of organic ingredients, healthy recommendations, and even a bit of humor. The authors are enthusiastic sponsors of experimental creative cooking and that is well reflected in the way their recipes are written [es]:
Seguimos utilizando la berenjena como sustituto de la pasta de trigo. Colocamos una capa de berenjena encima del queso, y volvemos a empezar: tomate, queso y más berenjena. Coronamos con una leve capa de tomate y un par de dientes de ajo crudos picados bien finitos. Como la receta no lleva mucho aderezo, esto le ayudará a crear un contraste maravilloso, créame.
Emblematic regional dishes are also part of this initiative.  In his blog Cocina Costarricense [es] (Costa Rican Kitchen), Luis Gonzalez explores his preference for home cooking: typical Costa Rican food.  The recipes and cooking advice that have been kept in the hearts for generations are now within reach of anybody thanks to Luis’ passion. The blog header delivers a description of what his site is about:
En Costa Rica la gastronomía es herencia y resultado del cruce de razas. La auténtica cocina costarricense se hace en cocinas de leña (fogón) y al lado de hojas de plátano. Recetas que intento rescatar y dejar plasmadas en este blog.