Skip to main content

Panama

Panamanian food is filled with Caribbean and Latin American influences and it's delicious. The National Dish is Sancocho; a chicken and root vegetable soup. Very hearty and yet filled with fresh subtle flavors. We also enjoyed empanadas and cocadas.

Sancocho
Chicken soup with yucca and a variety of other root vegetables seasoned with garlic and cilantro. You serve the soup on a bed of white rice.

Cocadas
Latin American version of a macaroon cookie. Instead of egg and egg whites it's cornstarch and condensed milk that binds the shredded coconut.


A's Rating: 6.5 "It's chicken soup, but it's not particularly outstanding."
Guest Rating: 7
M's Rating: 8. It's chicken and rice. How can a 5 year old not like it?
H's Rating: 8. I liked the subtly of the flavors. It's very simple ingredients and not many spices.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Micronesia

Micronesia is a federation of small islands that includes Guam, Wake Island, Marshall Island and a few others. There doesn't appear to be a distinctly "Micronesian Cuisine" but there are some notable dishes from the individual islands. I chose Chicken Kelaguen which comes to us from Guam.  The dish is found anywhere you can find Guamanians, they love it and I do too. To be classified as "authentic" one must make the finadene marinade and BBQ the chicken after it has marinated overnight. (Some sources say to use a store bought rotisserie chicken and recommended Costco.--Yeah, I love that chicken too, but last time I checked, there were no Costcos in Micronesia.) Finadene 1 cup soy sauce 1 cup lemon juice 1 bunch of green onions (chopped) 5 hot red peppers (I used dried peppers) Chicken Kelaguen Naan bread (lightly grilled) 1 whole chicken 1/4 cup lemon juice 1 coconut 1 bunch green onions (chopped) 5 hot red peppers (chopped) salt and peppe...

Pakistan

Middle-Eastern food makes me happy.  The play on savory/sweet makes my tongue tingle and belly smile. Tonight is Pakistan. I know. We've been gone for a while. Okay. A very very long while. However, we had a kid and were learning how to live with another human being in the house. We think we have the hang of it now so we decided to re-start the recipe project. Tony relinquished the job of picking a country from the jar in favor of baby M. She picked Pakistan and I decided to make Chicken Chapli Kababs. It was delicious. The Middle-Eastern version of turkey burgers, but better. And, with chicken. I loosely followed the recipe here. Baby M, Tony and I loved it. Heidi's Rating: 7 out of 10. Delicious. Tony's Rating: 7 out of 10. Yum.

Madagascar

This fourth largest island in the world is up next and so is the national dish romazava over rice. Depending on how the rice cooking goes I may also have Ranonapango (burnt rice drink). Some French family friends went to Madagascar in 2009 and loved it. Since then I've had a secret crush on the island country.   Ranonapango Rating: 3 out of 10. "This takes some getting used to."--Tony. I, however, actually enjoyed the idea of this drink. It's resourceful and you get a flavored drinkable water . (This is very important due to the water concerns on the island and the need to boil just about any liquid you put in your mouth.) Romazava Rating 8 out of 10. Looked awful, smelled reasonably acceptable but tasted wonderful. For an interesting read of most things Malagasy, check out the great blog called, Don't Feed the Lemurs . Ranonapango   1.5 cup of rice 3 cups of water Rinse the rice and set aside. Bring the water to a boil and throw in the rice. Sim...