Panama: Food and Dining

As much as Laura and I like to travel to different places to see the sights and experience different cultures and the history of places, trying different foods is also a big part of it.

The whole time we were in Panama we only ate in one McDonald's - thank God. Maybe I'm a bit of a travel snob, but I don't go to a foreign country to eat American fast food. Luckily we were able to avoid most of it, especially during our 12- and 8-hour bus trips to and from David. That, in part, was due to the fact that in the middle of Panama on the Pan-Am highway, there aren't any fast food places, at least in the sense of what we know them as. Most restaurants were family run and seemed to have pretty much the same menu from one end of the country to the other. These weren't chains, but by the end of the trip we didn't even have to look at the menu at any of the places because it was all the same. Fish, Shrimp, Filets (cut very differently there than here), and the occasional squid and lobster. The menus only varied in how many different ways they prepared the items.

The food was tasty enough in these places, I'm sure it would have been a lot better had they not been trying to accommodate a party of 20. But there were a few snags here and there. I really hate eating in very large groups. From my time in the food service industry, and from eating with groups of people who are clueless when it comes to restaurant etiquette, parties of eight are my limit. More than that and you can guarantee that somebody is not going to get what they ordered. Add to the fact that most of the places we went, the people spoke no English, eating out was an ordeal.

Though the restaurants were not as great as I had hoped, the food prepared for us by the women of the host church in David and the women of the Chiriqui village where we worked, was amazing. Fresh fruit and vegetables everyday, chicken and rice dishes, beans, sausage, breads, and strong coffee every meal, really gave us an authentic taste of Panamanian foods. It must be universal that Methodist women know how to cook and feed lots of people because these women did not disappoint.

They were so gracious and kind too. These women were up early to fix breakfast for us, and up late, waiting on us to get through with our work to feed us.

No corn syrup in my coke please. I loved the fact that the local Coca-Cola products (and I would guess, all soft drinks) were made with real sugar - not the high-fructose corn syrup that we get here. It was a much better tasting Coke to me and in a strange way, felt healthier. (If you're in doubt, read "Fast Food Nation" or see "Super-Size Me." I've heard Coke with sugar is a rare find stateside. It usually can only be found either around Passover with a yellow cap, or in Mexican markets. In just the same way the corn producers dominate the market here, sugar is in much more abundant supply there. So, it stands to reason that they would use a more local and cheaper sweetener. It definitely produces a better product with the sugar.

The final day of working in Chiriqui, we had a community-wide meal and invited the children of the surrounding area. The meal - beans and rice. It was like heaven. Three local women prepared close to 25 pounds of beans and 10 pounds of rice for all of the people there. A great feat in and of itself, but they did it using an outdoor, wood-fired "stove." It was amazing to see how they were able to prepare the food so well in the huge pots that they had while managing the heat with banana leaves. Definitely one of the best meals of the trip.