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dining

Enchiladas Divorciadas at El Patio Mexicano, flanked with a bottle of tequila for each divorcee

As global as the canal: dining in the capital

story and photos by Darrin DuFord

Need a respite from pollo frito? Can't bear the thought of downing another patacon? For sure, plantains are plentiful, affordable and loaded with vitamins, but why not take advantage of the fact that Panama City flaunts its international character in the form of cuisine? In some instances, the cost is the same as the deep-fried, national classics; for others, an occasional splurge is well worth it.

To illustrate the gastronomic possibilities, let us consider a recent piece of international cinema. Played by Johnny Depp in Once Upon A Time in Mexico, Agent Sands found a serving of the slow-roasted puerco pibil so delightful that he had to kill the cook to keep things in proper "balance." El Patio Mexicano on Calle Jose Isaac Fabrega dares to taunt that all-important equilibrium. Served in an earthy interior overlooked by lively skeleton dolls (previous cooks?), their $6.95 enchiladas divorciadas filled with a citrus-sweet, achiote-red puerco pibil offer a kick so tempered by two kinds of cheese, I hope the chef has a good life insurance policy. Please do us all a favor and leave your firearms at home before you dine.

In the center of Calle Uruguay, one of Panama City's nightlife drags, Habibi's casts a wide culinary net, serving Cajun chicken and New York pastrami sandwiches through a thicket of cigar-chewing, English-language chatter on their outdoor patio. An $8 half-pitcher of white sangria is enough to delightfully unwind two people (or one determined binge drinker with a bladder the size of a basketball). Habibi's best items tend to be their North African and Middle Eastern selections, like langostinos marroquies: giant shrimp bathed in a dark-red spice blend, served heads-on. At $14.25, the langostinos clock in as one of the most expensive items --- not exactly an everyday treat. However, for a just a few dollars a fatayer de zaatar --- a flatbread coated with thyme, sumac and sesame seeds --- can keep those patacones at bay for another day. Be sure to ask for a little olive oil in which to dip your fatayer while you watch the parade of the city's beautiful people in tight-fitting pants disposing of all that cumbersome extra income.

If you have ever wanted to cross the Darien gap without having to pay off Colombian guerrillas, consider La Fondita Colombiana on Calle 55 in El Cangrejo. If a $2.95 arepa stacked high with tender roast chicken --- tossed with one tomato-based sauce and another they call "tartar" --- seems over the top, then opt for the $1.50 corn arepa topped with a pile of queso blanco. Either arepa marries well with a tall $1.25 glass of passion fruit juice. Harboring few kitchen secrets, La Fondita Colombiana has placed recipes for Colombian dishes under each place setting so you may replicate the nation's cuisine at home, but then you'd miss out on the yellow shirts and red bandanas of the restaurant's uniformed wait staff and non-stop fútbol on the television.

There's a piece of corvina in there somewhere. The fun part is getting to it. Restaurante Macchu Pichu, Panama City

As we hike farther down into South America, the Peruvians claim their corvina is superior to Panama's. Perhaps this seems true when Restaurante Macchu Pichu on Calle Eusebio A. Morales bathes their serving of Peruvian corvina in a viscous stew with cockles, octopus, and half of a sweet langoustine imported from China. Delicious. Unfortunately, their limited wine menu --- a suspiciously Panamanian feature --- reminds us what country we're really in.

And that's why famous Swiss transplant Willy Diggelman's Caffè Pomodoro, just up the street from Macchu Pichu, stands out boldly as a foreign outpost. The café's wine list (make that a wine book) offers everything from green-apply albariños from Galicia to meaty cabernets from Chile. You won't have a problem finding a bottled accompaniment for Caffè Pomodoro's diverse cheese plate. Their sweet-crust pizzas, while not threatening the Neapolitans' prowess for the dish, have always scored carb-drenched satisfaction with me, especially their seafood pie. The only non-smoking area is a brightly lit breakfast room certified free of anything normally associated with Italian amore, providing a stark contrast to the romantic cancer-puffers' den serviced by a roving acoustic guitar duo who will treat a table to suave Cuban son for a little plata. Or forego air-conditioning and dine in the restaurant's relaxing outdoor patio underneath the Hotel Las Vegas. Scared of selecting a wine from what's believed to be the most extensive wine list from the Rio Grande to Tierra Del Fuego (excepting Diggelman's other Panama City restaurants)? Accompany that pizza with a bottle of 2000 Montes Alpha syrah from Chile. At $32, the wine --- smooth and balanced with a dry, cherry-like flavor--proves that good wine does not require a second mortgage.

For the thrifty, the bottle can be purchased for take-out from the café for about half that price. While the Montes Alpha is quite versatile, I'd hesitate to recommend the beverage for washing down a home-cooked dinner of patacones fried in vegetable oil. You have a few cold bottles of Atlas beer handy for that, don't you?