Los Camisones grows, but doesn't change too much
by Eric Jackson
Back in 1995, Los Camisones, on the Pan-American Highway near
El Higo (a few miles east of Santa Clara), was one of the first restaurants
this newspaper reviewed. My report was very positive, and that much hasn't changed.
The place is still a kitchen and bar under a rustic bohio, still a family business
run by a Vienna-educated Spanish chef who escaped the Panama City rat race to
build his establishment in the interior.
In the intervening years, the word about Los Camisones has spread,
bringing more customers and requiring a little more covered space and some open
air patio seating. Formerly, there were no printed menus and there were usually
no more than a half-dozen entrees, mostly the seafood that was fresh that day.
Now there are printed menus, with more than double the number of options that
used to be available.
On this visit I ordered the pulpo a la gallega, an entrée
that elicited a suggestion of ethnic humor from one of my brothers but which
demonstrated that excellence in Galician culinary culture is alive and well
in eastern Cocle province. At our table we all went for seafood offerings —
in addition to my octopus, langostinos, corvina, oysters and snapper were all
brought to our table — but now that more people are coming to Los Camisones,
there are more meat and poultry choices available as well.
We didn't stay for dessert. Had we done so, there would have
been more choices in that category than there were six years ago as well. As
before, however, if you order dessert at Los Camisones, you should try the crepes
with the flaming Grand Marnier.
That night bankers, canal retirees, working families and folks
who spend their weekends at Coronado beach houses were on the premises. You
can spend 12 bucks or more on an entrée if you want to order the scallops
or the lobster, but the prices at Los Camisones are quite reasonable. And meanwhile,
if there's a better seafood place anywhere in the interior, I don't know about
it.
