In recent days I paid a return visit to an old favorite and found a new place, both of them featuring different Latin American cuisines.

Now to many North Americans, Latin American countries, people and cultures are fungible commodities, but those of us who live here and use our brains know better than that. Not only do Latin American countries have their own specific cuisines, they usually also have their own assortments of subcultures that also tend to have their culinary expressions.

Rodizio is a Brazilian grill on Calle Alberto Navarro in El Cangrejo that this dining section and I have visited before. It's one of at least a couple in the genre in Panama City.

(The other is Os Segredos da Carne in Paitilla --- that's "The Secrets of Meat" in Portuguese. It's a good place, with an excellent salad, soup and seafood bar, but the name can be the butt of jokes. It would be truly alarming to most Americans if the "secrets" had something to do with fluctuations in the stray cat population of the neighborhood!)

This visit did not disappoint. Dinner for two with a half-bottle of red wine, a visit to the salad (etc.) bar, all the varied selection of Brazilian-style grilled meat and poultry selections we cared to eat and dessert came to a little over $50, which makes the place one of Panama City's more expensive establishments. It's worth it.

It was a late night visit to Cafe 51, a Cuban place on Calle 51 in the banking district, my first time there.

I tried the vaca frita, a cheap stringy cut of beef cooked into spaghetti-like strands, covered with onions, with some yellow hot sauce on the side. With that I had yucca, also covered with onions, and a lettuce, tomato and onion salad. The portions were ample, the food was good and the price was a reasonable seven bucks and change. Cafe 51 isn't the only Cuban place in town, and isn't the only good one, but it's one of the better Latin American possibilities to consider when you're considering where to eat in Panama City.