On the Pan-American Highway in Capira, just east of the town's center, there's a bright mustard yellow colored Spanish colonial-style building set in an ample parking lot next to a large gas station. The two enterprises together more or less add up to a truck stop in the North American tradition. I recently visited the place along with another journalist and some US Embassy employees, for lunch after an excursion to cover the Peace Corps. It was a worthwhile stop.

La Hacienda is set up with chafing table cafeteria food and other instantly available options for folks who need to eat and run, but one can also sit down and order from a menu that's more or less comida tipica, with some international standards as well. There are soups, salads and ceviches, fish, meats and fowl, and various rice and pasta possibilities.

The several of us sat down and ordered different things, but I also noticed some of their fast food selections for another time. It seems that they do home-style yogurt here, in fresh Panamanian fruit flavors like pineapple, papaya and so on.

The service was prompt, and after a reasonable wait filet mignon, corvina al ajillo, chicken breasts, soups, salads and plentiful garlic toast arrived. I ordered the clams and ginger.

Clams in their shells are, of course, messy. They were less so as served with a decent-sized plate for the empty shells, and with the garlic toast to sop up the juice.

They don't skimp on the ginger. La Hacienda may be in Panama Oeste, but at least the dish I ordered was spiced more to Colon than to Interior standards. That was fine with this Colon boy.

Sure, you will be in the more typically mainstream Panamanian culinary culture if you order your clams al ajillo, which can also be done at La Hacienda, but their clams and ginger are special. I'm likely to make a return visit just for those.

La Hacienda is an unpretentious stop along Panama's main drag, but it's very clean, bright and breezy, well run and reasonably priced. There was a time in my life when I used to regularly make the run down the Ohio and Pennsylvania turnpikes, turn off at the truck stop town of Breezewood, head south to Washington for a couple of days, then go back the way I came. It would have been nice to have some places like La Hacienda en route.

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