Buy fruit to eat ‘today or tomorrow’ – once picked, it will go bad quickly (heat and humidity). A cut fruit like a papaya needs to be consumed in hours. (We had one ripe one, cut a slice out of it in the evening, the next noon it had thick visible mold or fungus.)

When you open a bag of chips – take out what you need and immediately close the bag – they go bad quickly. And yes, this is written by someone in Calgary where we can leave a bag of chips open for a week and they are still fresh and crispy – I understand that those of you from a humid area will be saying ‘duh, of course…’ Anyway … same problem with bread and anything that humidity can hurt.

Eggs are not washed. My European friends will understand this completely, and those of us that raise our own eggs or buy ‘farmers market’ eggs understand completely.

But in Canada and the US we have this weird concept that we WASH our eggs BEFORE we sell them. Once you WASH an egg, you have to refrigerate it because you destroy the natural protection that the egg has. That is why Canadians and Americans waste valuable fridge space and electricity to keep their eggs cool. Those from Europe, and those of us with our own chickens in our backyard (Yes, Canada) know that you don’t wash an egg until just before you crack it. So … in Costa Rica … leave your store bought eggs out on the counter, or if you REALLY can’t handle the way most of the world does it, fine, wash your eggs THEN put them in the fridge.