To clarify
things, let me begin this dining column by pointing out two
philosophical errors.
The first,
which is downright silly to folks who live in Panama, is the
notion that there is one Latin American culture. However, in
the United States they have invented this notion of the
“Hispanic” ethnicity, and people who buy into this to
the extent that they perceive no differences among Mexican-
American, Cuban-Americans and Puerto Ricans also tend to expect
that Mexican food is the prevailing cuisine throughout the vast
Spanish-speaking area south of the US border. Such people,
should they somehow make it down to Panama, come here expecting
our national dishes to be hot and spicy. There are surely some
Americans who don’t come here precisely because of that
expectation.
But of course,
even little Panama has its regional cuisines, none of which
should be confused with Mexican. Sure, the Kunas and the West
Indians tend to like things spicy hot and we do have influences
from Latin American countries where fiery fare is the norm.
However, the salient spices of the cultural mainstream from the
central provinces --- “comida típica” --- are
garlic and culantro. Santeños put ketchup, not hot
sauce, on their fried rice. Most Panamanian palates have been
conditioned toward a preference for the relatively bland.
The second
philosophical error is more general, the notion that no extreme
can be too extreme. This way of thinking is promoted by
fanatics and people with special interests.
I give you an
example of the latter from the world of underground comics,
wherein Spain Rodríguez’s Trashman, the black-
garbed avenger for the Sixth International, is too lightly
dismissed by a doomed lackey of the reactionary forces, who
asserts that “You’ve been reading too many comic
books.*” Down at the bottom of the page next to the
asterisk, the author reminds the reader that it’s just a
figure of speech, that “It is, of course, impossible to
read too many comic books.”
Well, maybe
it's a rare exception to the general rule, and a person CAN'T
read too many comic books. But can food be too spicy? Of course
it can. How many people do you know who like to chew on fresh
bird peppers? Surely there has to be at least one masochist out
there who does this, but I have never met such a person.
That said,
“too spicy” for the average Panamanian palate is
often a bit blander than I like things. It presents certain
problems for ethnic restaurants here.
To the best of
my knowledge, we don’t have a Szechuan restaurant in
Panama City. Nor does the capital have a Hindu place where you
can get those gum-numbing hot vindaloo dishes. (I am, however,
advised that there’s such an establishment in Bocas.) We
don’t have an Ethiopian restaurant where you can get
kitfo, the steak tartare with thin shreds of insanely hot fresh
peppers.
Because most
Panamanians don’t prefer spicy food, a lot of restaurants
advertising cuisines that tend toward the hot tone their
offerings way down. But if you make it bland enough, Korean
isn’t really Korean and Thai isn’t really Thai. Nor
is entirely bland Peruvian the authentic stuff.
Recently I went
to a new Peruvian restaurant just up Calle Eusebio Morales from
the Ginza, the Machu Picchu. It’s one of a crop of new
Panama City restaurants that have sprouted as we have begun to
emerge from the worst of the severe economic crisis of the past
few years, a slightly upscale place at which you want to order
more than one thing to get a full and balanced meal. I like the
place.
However, I
ordered the “picante de mariscos,” and though I liked
the seafood and potato concoction, there was nothing the least
bit picante about it.
Peruvian food
tends toward the spicy, but at the Machu Picchu they tone it
way down, even if you ask them not to. So if you seek authentic
Peruvian fire, you will want to go elsewhere.
(Yes, yes, I
know --- Peruvian culture is at least as diverse as Panamanian,
so just because you can’t get the ceviche that sends
flames out your ears, pisco sours or roast guinea pig
doesn’t mean that it’s not authentically Peruvian.)
I also recently
did lunch at what I consider, unless and until someone turns me
on to a better place, Panama City’s best Chinese
restaurant, the Golden Unicorn in the Evergreen Building behind
ATLAPA.
No, you
can’t get leon pan mein or chop suey at the Golden
Unicorn. What you do get is a selection of Chinese favorites
that Evergreen’s Taiwanese shipping execs are proud to
offer their honored guests. You even get a few Szechuan things
on the menu. (Szechuan, for those of you who don’t know,
is a western province of China --- the country’s most
populous --- and a place renowned for its spicy cuisine.)
At this lunch
we ordered some decidedly unhot items --- including a fabulous
and inexpensive chicken with almonds in lemon sauce --- and one
thing in a picante vein, the spicy salted squid.
For some
palates, the calamares may have been pretty mild and for many
Panamanians they would have been too hot. In either case, it
would have been possible to request that the dish be spiced up
or toned down. I took it without such instructions and found it
tastefully hot, but not too hot, with the spice bringing out
the best in the seafood rather than overpowering it.
The Golden
Unicorn doesn’t stereotype Panamanian preferences the way
that a lot of other ethnic restaurants in this country do.
It’s one of several reasons why I think so highly of this
establishment.
