Dining at the Fuji

Panama doesn’t have a very large Japanese community. What’s here has been re-established since World War II, as the earlier Japanese-Panamanian community was taken away to camps in the United States shortly after Pearl Harbor and never allowed to return. However, Japan is now a major industrial power and one of the Panama Canal’s most important users and therefore has a significant presence in our commercial, financial and maritime sectors. The Japanese are also substantial donors of aid to Panama’s development, particularly for our fisheries. (Look at the Mercado de Mariscos on Avenida Balboa for tangible proof of how generous they have been with us.) So it should be expected that we would have a significant Japanese community in the capital, and some Japanese restaurants to cater to its particular tastes. We do, on both counts.

However, you don’t have to be Japanese to appreciate yakisoba, and Panama City’s Japanese restaurants have prospered precisely because of their substantial non-Japanese clientele. One of the city’s oldest and best Japanese restaurants is the Fuji, located on Via Brasil, a few blocks around the corner from Japan’s embassy on Calle 50.

According to my usual budget constraints --- which are probably more austere than yours --- it’s possible to spend “a lot of money” at the Fuji if you choose to drink their most expensive wine and order their biggest lobsters. However, this is a modestly priced restaurant.

You don’t visit this establishment for displays of ambidextrous meat cleaver athleticism or costumed ritual service. The atmosphere is nice enough and the service is good, but you go to the Fuji for its food.

(You may, however, skip the food go there to partake of the bar. The Fuji upholds a Japanese tradition for a group of regulars who keep their private liquor bottles on the premises, but you don’t have to do it that way.)

Our party of three ordered some pork dumplings, yakitori (chicken grilled on skewers), beef sukiyaki, squid tempura and a pork, mushroom and noodle concoction, along with a nice bottle of red Chilean wine. We got miso soup and rice with the meal. We could have done sushi or most of the other Japanese standards, and had I felt the urge to clear my sinuses I could have asked for a dab of Japan’s amazing horseradish paste, yakisoba. Maybe some other time.

There are no maybes about another time. The food was good, the prices were reasonable and I definitely will pay a return visit to the Fuji.

I liked all of the entrees we tried on this occasion, especially the tempura, but the next time I visit I may just order several items from the Fuji’s very good selection of appetizers. Their dumplings are especially good, and it is one of Panama City’s best places to employ the appetizers-only approach to building a meal.

Looking for Thanksgiving ideas, or planning ahead for Panamanian Mothers' Day (December 8) or Christmas? You may want to check out this edition's Cool Internet sites, which include a link to a pretty good Thanksgiving site.

dining

Check out the Fuji