One thing LP was right about, however, is the “lightening of the wallet.” Given more time, surely I would have stumbled upon tastier, more reasonably priced food than I did… right? As it is, I left Panama City–and, really, the country at large–with a stomach full of starch and carbs, but one somewhat devoid of absolute fulfillment or satisfaction.
As a pescetarian who doesn’t indulge the red meat that Panama counts as one its specialties, I arrived with modest expectations for fresh seafood, fresh fruit, and hearty, flavorful plates of beans ‘n’ rice. I figured all three would be amply available and super cheap.. and I guess they were, sort of, but Southeast Asia this is not. Maybe Bangkok has just spoiled me.
Street food everywhere? No, hardly anywhere.
Roadside fresh fruit stands and/or vendors with carts overflowing with pineapples, mangoes, bananas, coconuts? Nope.
Mounds of beans and rice covered in onions, served with sides of boiled yuca and saccharine-sweet plantains, just like at my favorite Latin American joint in New York on the corner of Spring & Lafayette Streets? Not even close.
In Casco Viejo, the ongoing influx of expat-run restaurants is helping to drive prices up and “cheap and cheerful” hole-in-the-walls out.
I realize it’s an increasingly touristy area, and that touristy areas begat touristy prices, but it really was shocking to see restaurant prices consistently and favorably compare with those found in New York. A handful of buffet-style spots do still exist, somewhat hidden, within the heart of the neighborhood, places where you can load up your plate with meat and rice for around US$7 or less. Places like the no-frills Coca Cola Cafe, where I dug into the arroz con mariscos (pictured above), yellow rice sauteed with mixed veggies and healthy hunks of octopus. It was… okay, but a little bland and sorely in need of hot sauce, just like the locals eat it, except…
Most of the Panamanians I observed didn’t use much hot sauce–they instead drenched their food in ketchup. Ketchup! Piles of white or yellow rice with seafood? Cover it in ketchup. Fresh fish fried whole? Pour ketchup all over it. Ceviche, one of the most beloved dishes in Panama City? I saw that, too, eaten with ketchup. Hey, I’m the foreigner with the foreign palate and I don’t really have any grounds to dismiss the Panamanian obsession with ketchup, but… gross.
I didn’t eat any fruit in Panama City because I didn’t see any, except in or around the supermarket. I didn’t eat any black beans ‘n’rice, either; lentils and rice, yes, but it was less flavorful than a box of Zatarain’s. I couldn’t find any yuca that wasn’t fried, while the popular side of patacones (plantains cut, salted, pressed into thick wafers, and, of course, fried) tasted, again, totally bland and didn’t do much for me. Hot sauce was, indeed, the saving grace at most meals.
One place we did enjoy, and returned to twice, is Mercado de Mariscos, a plain-looking restaurant located on the second floor of the fish market just outside Casco Viejo that gets packed during lunch hours, especially weekends. The corvina (sea bass) ceviche is relatively cheap at US$4 and quite tasty, while the fried white fish filets ($7 – $9) were hot and flaky and wonderful.
Beyond that? Meh.
Panama City’s food scene was kind of a letdown. Maybe I just needed to add more ketchup.
* I’m not actually insinuating that Panamanian food in Panama City should be set on fire because it’s so bad, nor that it needs to be covered in ketchup to be made edible. That’s an obscure reference to, and innocent play of words on, an obscure song entitled “Cover It With Gas and Set It on Fire” by the great Ween. The “ketchup” refers to what I repeatedly watched locals pour all over their food, the “fire” being hot sauce I often turned to myself (in part because I love hot sauce). Nothing more. And for the record, though I’m not going to apologize for being honest in that common thing all travelers experience called “first impressions”, I actually enjoyed some great food elsewhere in the country and I’d love to find more if/when I return. If anything, this is merely and partially a gentle commentary on the typical oversell often found in some popular guidebooks… but, sorry, ketchup-covered food is still gross.
Mr Spencer,you have no idea of what food in Panama is! Please educate a little before you come to a country you are going to write about, where to go, what to look for, get a guide! It is really bad what you have done, just read what other people have to say in the USAToday website where you also posted your inaccurate review http://travel.usatoday.com/alliance/destinations/perceptivetravel/post/2012/03/Panamanian-Food-Cover-It-with-Ketchup-or-Set-It-on-Fire/654703/1#uslPageReturn
So much hate, Melissa, so much hate. Sigh.
I totaly agree with the Chef Melissa!!!
Shame on you
Hate? What after this ofense you serioously expected a bed of roses? She ois a chef she would know nw would he? You have no insight of humbleness. You are on a head on colision woith your ego and with no chance of gettoiong out all right from it. Think long and hard on what you did and save some reputation while you still got some left this is not the end of this oh no mister!!!
Actually, I don’t see any hate whatsoever in Melissa’s post. It is constructive criticism and an honest request to educate yourself before writing an article that thousands (and more at this point, with so much bad press) will be reading.
You have affected the view hundreds, if not thousands, of potential travelers who have never set foot in Panama.
Why must you write such a scathing article? If you did not enjoy the food, double check with a local guide or correspondent that you have done enough research. If you have, then write a PROFESSIONAL article about your findings or, better yet, choose to take the high road and decide to ditch the article.
Seems to me like the author is pretending to be some sort of Tony Bourdain-esque food writer. Only problem is that judging by the very limited and poorly written “article” he seems to be missing essential parts of the equation such as research, perspective, history, and most important, a local fixer who actually guides him in the right direction. This is evident when he compares Latin America to SE Asia…If you come to Panama expecting to find overpopulated cities where people eat their meals on the streets, and on-the-go, such as many SE Asian cities where space and time are a major issue, then you have clearly never been here or anywhere close to here before. Panama is a laid back, take your time, no rush type of place, where it rains 70 percent of the year…this means street food in NOT a major part of our life, therefore not the medium where food will shine brightest, and definetely not a representation of our culinary scene. Anyways, as i read this, two thoughts came to my mind: 1. Dude…where the hell did you eat? And 2. I think Tony’s job is safe for now.
Oh, and btw…for someone who aparently has a travel blog, your cartoonish idea of a Latin american city (fruit overflowing from carts on the streets, mounds of rice and beans everywhere…) is downright hillarious in its absurdity. Let me guess…youve probably seen In the Heights one too many times. You probably were also devastated when you didnt see any Ninjas fighting in the streets of Tokyo…right?
agree with you 100%!
Hm… I have to say… I was just in PC a few months ago — and I agree! I had some good food, but overall I was disappointed. I found the food was heavy and lacking in flavor.
I think on the whole the food is a bit oversold by guide books and magazine articles… so it’s nice to see a candid description of a short stay there. Fantastic food surely exists, but it is a bit hard to find for a visitor.
Wait I’m confused… Why dies Mr. Spencer HAVE to like Panamanian food? Can’t he offer an honest account of his experiences with the food there over a short stay? And, moreover, wouldn’t most other travelers spend just a couple days in the city, and most likely stay in the same area (so this would be applicable to them)?
Travel writing doesn’t have to function as PR for a place… In fact, too often everything is celebrated… Resulting in fluff.
I’ve been in and out of PC for years now and while I have a few favorite places… It’s really not a food capital by any means. And there is indeed liberal use of ketchup!
R. G….is not that he has to like our food….not at all. Food is completely subjective and extremely personal…everyone is entitled to an opinion. The problem most readers have with brian’s blog post is that it equates to me going to NYC, spend 2 days walking around Times Square, eating in Pizzeria UNO, TGI Fridays, and Sbarro, and then come back and i write a post saying that NYC food sucks. Worst of all it gets posted on USA Today travel section. Would you consider that a fair and objective article? Or would you consider my assesment completely ignorant and missguided?
Judging from your tweet (@BrianBSpencer), it seems like you don’t fully understand what you did here. Writing an article and calling it that based on your VERY LIMITED experience with panamenian food is like me writing an article and calling it “AMERICANS: they’re all ignorant assholes” based on what I’ve experienced here with you.
We hope that after 250+ comments regarding your poor job http://travel.usatoday.com/alliance/destinations/perceptivetravel/post/2012/03/Panamanian-Food-Cover-It-with-Ketchup-or-Set-It-on-Fire/654703/1#uslPageReturn you have learned your lesson: DO RESEARCH before you visit a country, get as much info regarding the culture, foodies hot spots in different cities, etc. Lots of tropical love & greetings from Panamá!
I did do lots of research before my two visits to Panama City and I can’t say that helped a whole lot with the “value for money” part. Sure, you can eat quite well in P.C. if you spend like a business traveler, as you can in pretty much any international business capital. But on a backpacker budget, pickings are slim where most of the hotels are located, old city or new. In the barrios the situation probably improves, but I’ve been underwhelmed on my visits—the last one being a week long—despite doing research ahead of time. (For what it’s worth, neighboring Costa Rica doesn’t have much to brag about in the cuisine department either, so maybe it’s a regional thing.)
Most budget travelers are not going to “hire a fixer” like a TV host would. They’re eating where they can get to on foot, near their hotel. In Panama City, that often means restaurants that cost as much or more than at home or fast food. The best bargains I found in the business district were casino restaurants, though of course they can lighten your wallet in other ways…
It seems to me that Brian Spencer was trying to mock the Lonely Planet guidebook and wanted to incorporate the title of one of his favorite obscure songs in the headline of his blog post, and that is how this blog post came about.
I know this is the “Perceptive Travel Blog” and as such these posts are an individual’s opinion. But being perceptive also means having insight, being discerning, and showing sensitivity. I see none of these things. After reading this post, I would rename this The Culturally Biased Travel Blog. I have zero desire to offend the author, I just would like for him to understand why so many people are outraged by his piece: because his point just didn’t come across. All we read was: Panamanian food sucks, if you must eat there cover it with ketchup or set it on fire.
Perhaps you are right, if you are traveling on a backpacker’s budget, pickings are slim. The problem is that he never said that in words. The pigeonholing tone of the writing is offensive. A lot of his statements are cultural generalizations and are not correct:
• The red meat that Panama counts as one its specialties: I’d love to know his source on that. Panama has the Pacific on one side and the Atlantic on the other. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to deduce that the specialties would be seafood.
• The constant comparisons to other places (Southeast Asia, Bangkok, NY), as a travel writer I would think that at some point you learnt to leave the cultural baggage at home and not assume that all food in Latin America is made of rice, beans, and yucca.
• There is no street food: There is plenty in el Casco Viejo: raspado (shaved ice), helados tableños (artisanal ice cream), chichas (juices). These are the types of things you would eat outdoors in Panama. It is so hot that these are the things you would consume out in the sun, not a plate of red beans and rice.
• Panamanians don’t like hot sauce: I’d love to see a photo of a Panamanian putting ketchup on their ceviche. I have not seen that in my whole entire life. I do wonder if what he saw was someone putting some super thick habanero sauce on the ceviche?. In my experience, people in Panama love hot sauce and they relish the “aji chombo” (habanero) more than they like ketchup.
The most insulting thing about the piece is not that he did not like the food, but his expectations in general. It seems like he was expecting to only find buffets “where you can load your plate” for cheap. That itself says a lot about his palate: quantity over quality. In my opinion, most cheap all you can eat buffets are even more disgusting than ketchup.
Finally, if you are writing about travel, I understand that you may want to write about the pitfalls of the typical tourist spots. But why bother writing negative, culturally biased posts? There are so many wonderful things about Panama. He even stated that he had some good food. Why not write about that. And in this age of social media, why not reach out on twitter or facebook or blogs for recommendations?
I put ketchup in my ceviche, like my mother taught me, like her mother taught her.
I dare say most of tropical Asia is as hot as Panama City and they eat real food at street stalls (as do many Latin American cultures with similar weather—rice and beans even), so I’m not sure the shaved-ice-and-ice-cream because-it’s-hot argument holds (frozen) water.
I can’t imagine a Thai, Indian, Vietnamese, Moroccan, or Mexican person getting this worked up about a negative blog post, which says a lot about Panama’s food in itself…
This is what normally happens with people that think that in two days they will see everything that they need to make an opinion like this one, and its so fun that this guy was so close to others places rich in flavors and good food but may be he does not has 2 dollars to take a yellow cap a visit others places, and even worst this is the kind of person that just visit one place of the contry and thinks thats everything he needs to make what I consider one of the must stupid opinion I ever read about one of the must beautiful countrys in the world…not saying just by me…NY times and others AMERICANS magazines and newspapers.
I understand that your headline alone is meant to grab attention. In this, I applaud you as it certainly has garnered a lot of attention from the public. However in striving for hits on a page, you have belittled an entire country’s cuisine. Panama is fantastically diverse, even in the capitol where you recently visited. I am not from Panama, however have visited several times and can tell you from an outsider’s perspective that there are indeed rough edges. But you cannot write such a scathing article, even when admitting yourself within said piece that you did not do the research you should have. The general public will not take this to heart and will read it for the general message: Panama = bad food.
The qualification of your headline, written in italics at the bottom, is not enough to deter this message from coming through. The normal USA Today Travel reader will infer from your article that food in the entire country of Panama should either be drowned in ketchup or charred to a crisp. No italic qualification in the world will keep this from coming through with your current wording.
It also amazes me in your qualification that you state you have had good food in Panama. Why wouldn’t you include this in your article? Why would you not elaborate that you stayed in a location that is full of American ex-pats cooking food that they believe is Panamanian, however is not authentic, and that the prices were high because of tourists? Street food is vastly available in traditional Panamanian neighborhoods, however you would need to leave the tourist area to find this.
I understand you are probably relishing in the publicity. But sit and think about the consequences that come along with this for Panama. As a journalist, it is your duty to provide truthful, unbiased reporting. You have admitted to a lack of research, planning and time in the country. The best thing to do at this point is to remove the article from USA Today and Perceptive Travel, to avoid further damage to a country already susceptible to American criticism.
Perceptive travel indeed! You figured out in such a short time what enlightened panamanians have long known: good fresh food in our country is only for rich people.
Panamanians put ketchup in EVERYTHING because the average person’s food is usually fried or has been sitting in a warming dish for hours.
I’m surprised you neglect to mention how panamanians find ‘salad’ a curious foreign notion, no more than a colorful sliver of decoration on our plates. We live right smack in the tropical rainforest and yet the greenest vegetable we consume is french fries. Blame our centuries of yankee-imperialist semi-colonial status.
If there’s a next-time, try the Atlantic Coast, try the country’s interior, and try the Pearl Islands. You might find simpler, fresher, better-prepared meals there. Or stay in el Casco and hit MANOLO CARACOL -it’s not cheap, but there’s nothing better in all of Panama.
Oh grow up. Do salads grow tropical rainforests? No they don’t.
Fresh fruit is a major part of the Panamanian diet, as are a wide variety of local root vegetables which grow very nicely in the soil and climate.
I live in Panama City and I have no trouble finding delicious, fresh-cooked meals for under US$5.
As a chef living and working in Panama for many years and giving Panamanian food a chance, the truth is that all food from the Mexican border to Peru and Argentina sucks. I don’t know what happened in times past but a national cuisine never evolved here. And the national palate is dead. Nobody seeks new flavors or new foods. If you’re looking to fill you gut for under $5 (which is what most of the negative responses above are trying to do) then you’ll be fine in Panama with the plate of starch and fried meat with more starch on the side, but for the foodies of the world Panama is a food desert…though that is slowly changing 🙂
As a Panamanian American I’ve never really had the tourist experience. Most of my family members were born and raised there and therefore know where to get the best ceviche, where to go to get good rice and beans, fry fry etc.
I can tell you that you cannot judge Panama City as a whole from a visit to Casco Viejo (a main tourist attraction, second only to the canal). Can you find reasonably priced food in the tourist attracting museums in the states? You can’t expect to find good Panamanian food there anyway, the cooks are probably foreigners trying to cook Panamanian food as cheaply as possible. If you just would have hopped on a Diablo Rojo for $0.25 you would have found all the fresh fruits, chichas, and raspaos you were looking for. Sounds like you didn’t fully get to experience the city. You need to explore more before you pass judgement. This article should have included the good food you ate and it should not be about your experiene in Panama City but Casco Viejo.
Okay, I would like to add my opinion! I totally agree that the food in Panama *CAN*<—- CAN, can, be very very bad. It can sometimes be nice and well cooked. But on a whole, Panamanians from what I saw LIVING there (with a panamanian family), there is not a strong cooking culture and people do not learn to cook well.
I would visit Panamanian friends and they would not know how to cook, or if they did it would be rice with meat. I saw that people do not desire to cook, and they would rather eat out than cook for themselves.
One of my favourite meals in panama would be a cheap $3.50 arroz con pollo asado, with beans and plantain from a roadside canteen. Very simple and very nice. Raspao's are very nice too. These would be the good dishes of Panama. Also potatoe salad and the arroz con pollo dish. There can be good food!!! But also it can be bad. Same as anywhere I suppose..
Empanadas really suck in panama unfortunately. After tasting the delicious empanadas of colombia and ecuador, to come back to the dry and tasteless empanadas of panama really hit the taste buds hard. No salsa aji to add to the flavor, just dry thick dough and minced meat inside.
Also, don't let me even get started on the rude mannered workers that I experienced at buffet style restraurants (and other parts of Panama)….. Manners do not cost anything and a please and thank you goes a hell of a long way.
Have you every heard the expression that when you complain, you advertise your own stupidity? Just curious… Maybe you shouldn’t have relied on the tourist restaurants and 2.5 days “experience”. Consider that some people may have based their decision to go to Panama partially on your scathing and underinformed article. For those considering a trip to Panama, there is amazing food and awful food. Do your research and take this article with a grain of salt. This opinion is not gospel – I am a foodie and always do research into great dishes and restaurants to try, and have been very pleased in Panama.
Compared to Guatemala or El Salvador, my visits to Panama have left much to be desired in the way of true “Authentic” Panamanian food. My biggest gripe when i go anywhere in Latin America, and ask for a true traditional dish, I hate hearing rice and beans, or ceviche. Everyone serves it, in their own way. But going to Panama or even Costa Rica, their food revolves around an American palate. I see street stand pizzerias and burgers everywhere, even in the country side.
I go to Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador, and you’ll get everything under the sun that cab be labeled as genuine Central American cuisine. Real tamales, pupusas, yucca with pork, and yucca with almost anything else. A variety of local soups.
All that being said, panama is my favorite country to visit in CA. I love it there. Its people, its history, and its culture. But eating there, is an awful disappointment. El Salvador has the best food in the region, and Ive had Panamanians who have had it tell me as much.
Agree with Chris Andrews above (and most other frequent travelers to the region) that food in central America just plain sucks. Despite the wealth of fruit and vegetables they have to work with, what’s on your plate is usually really bland or downright awful and this is especially true in Panama. If you spend a lot, you can eat pretty well, but even what people make in their homes will usually make you wish you could teleport to Mexico or Argentina. I don’t think you can blame it on colonialism. Just an undemanding palate.
I had the same exact experience….I have never been to a place with worse food. Consistently terrible food and service. Not only was the food bad but there was a complete lack of understanding of how to cook food….absolutely zero clue how to season anything, searing meat, pan frying, etc.
I spent two weeks in Panama and the number one biggest disappointment was the food. From Dunkin Donuts to Movie popcorn to a newly opened bag of chips, everything was stale due to the humidity. My best eating experience was at TGIF which says it all.
My experience confirms the author’s opinion.
No hate. Just very bad food.
Pardon my bad English.
As an honest Panamanian I can tell you that generally(most of) people here don’t cook well. It’s a spiral thing, not many people cook well, this situation produces people with poor palates who one day become cook themselves and then will cook according to their downgraded taste and so on.
Here, normally a regular dish is called a “very good dish”, and a very good dish is called an “extraordinary dish”.
The most important ingredient in meals here are “plentiness of meat”. As long as you serve a big peace of meat in the meal, it is considered a good meal. A hard steak is considered a normal thing here.
A big problem here is that the cost of food is very high compared to the skill of the chef and the quality of the dish.
The other national problems is that people is easily offended by criticism and its even worse when it is exposed publicly. But you have to understand this is still a third world country, people can not take criticism or a joke without being defensive.
A lot of Panamanian people who has expressed their opinion here defending Panama are well educated and belong to an above average economic class, therefore they have the money and know the specific places where good food is served, but if we take all the food business from small to big and make an average, the results will be poor. I, as a average income guy have visited a lot of restaurants and have eaten a lot of street food which high income people have never dare to taste because of their fear of health issues.
The only exception I can make are the Chinese food restaurants run by Chinese people, they still have skilled Chinese guys in the kitchen cooking.