I'm thinking the Bimbo Bread people have the whole thing figured out pretty accurately.
To be sure, Bimbo Bread is clearly a staple here in Costa Rica. And they are major sponsors of the all-important fútbol team - a fact that no doubt earns the company extra points in every Tico heart.
I read about Bimbo Bread online a while back. An expat was asking where to buy good bread -- not Bimbo Bread, he emphasized. I naively assumed he intentionally chose his words to communicate his opinion that "smart folks" don't willingly buy pasty white bread.
Imagine our surprise to learn upon arrival that the biggest bread company in the country markets "Bimbo" brand bread products. According to Wikipedia, Grupo Bimbo "biggest Mexican food corporation and the largest bakery in the world[2] with brands in Latin America, Europe, China, United States, Canada and Puerto Rico." Apparently, its holdings include Entenman's and Thomas, as well as other products we know and love back in the States.
Maybe so, but apparently our food preferences comprise a small minority here. Bimbo doesn't seem to offer a true whole grain bread in the Costa Rica supermarkets, leaving us to find alternatives to the Costa Rica version of Wonder Bread - and the brown version bread makers would like us to believe is super nutritious.
Corn tortillas are made from whole corn that has been soaked in lime to soften the hull before before being ground into masa. This makes it a healthy choice that has to rank right up there with loaf bread made from freshly ground wheat berries. While corn tortillas offer the added benefit of being an excellent source of calcium thanks to the lime soak, they leave a lot to be desired when building a tuna salad sandwich!
Wheat tortillas provide a functional, if not gastronomically perfect, substitute when used as a roll up. But where's the fiber?!?!
And of course, there are the loaves of crusty, long, white bread from the panadería, (bakery). While they definitely have more tooth than Bimbo Bread and make a good sandwich, they still fall short in the nutrition department.
For months we've dealt with the problem by trying to teach ours taste buds to expect something other than a sandwich at lunch, while secretly lusting after an occasional slice of chewy, homemade, whole grain bread! To that end, it would seem that we will have to bring along our grain mill and hope to locate a source for wheat berries.
Failing that? All I can say with certainty is that if we can adjust to a new culture and learn a new language, live every day without the close companionship of our friends and family at home, we surely can learn to live without a routine diet of American-style sandwiches. That and a vow to continue to give pasty white bread a wide berth in the supermarket.
Pura Vida
