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In Sikwa’s kitchens there is a variety of food and techniques adapted to modern practices but without losing tradition.
The pantry is scarce, since the food does not have preservatives and is purchased for immediate use.
Bonilla buys fish from the Pacific almost daily, cocoa from the Caribbean coast, corn from the highlands on the northern border, or bananas from the southern jungle.
“We have a lot of products, Costa Rica is a country that wherever you sow something will grow (…). Cassava, squash, corn, products that are totally native to this region, and we transform them exactly into these recipes that we have learned” the chef points out.
While a cook stuffs corn and plantain empanadas with potatoes, squash and carrots, her partner prepares roasted plantain ice cream with roasted cocoa.
Conger eel with anise oil is cooked in banana leaves, and pejibaye (high-energy fruit) tartlets are almost ready to be filled with shrimp bisque, ceviche de piangüa (mangrove mollusk) and chayote cocoro (pumpkin-like vegetable). .
“It’s much more expensive. Depending on the process and the product, it can cost me up to four times more expensive and in the end it is reflected on the plate.. But I think that as a cook, both personally and professionally, I have something more to offer people,” says Bonilla.
“Why change?”
The price of sitting down to eat at the Sikwa can range from $30-$40 per person.
The cheapest dish, at about $10, consists of fried yucca with spicy yellow corn atol, guacamole dots, and Bagaces cheese. For $25, the most expensive proposal, you can taste pork rib with sweet corn tamale and pickled onions.
His bet has caught the attention of international gastronomic publications.
Back in 2018 when it opened, Sikwa was named to New Worlder’s Best New Restaurants list.
In November, “The World’s 50 Best” list included him among the best 100 in Latin America and the sixth best in Central America.
“We believe that our job is more to try to preserve. The fact that lists and awards have included us means that we are on the right track,” says the chef. “Why change it?”