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dining
 

Ingredients:
• 2 cups of uncooked white rice
• 4 cups of chicken stock
• 1 Tablespoon of Lee Kum Kee chili garlic sauce
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
• 8 somewhat small and tender culantro leaves, cut into quarter-inch pieces
• 8 sweet red bush peppers, stems and seeds removed, chopped
• 1 teaspoon of ground achiote

Directions:
• Combine all of the ingredients in a rice cooker or a medium-sized pan with a lid
• If it's a rice cooker, flip the switch, stir the ingredients a minute or two later, and allow the rice to cook
• If it's a pan, turn the heat to high, stir the ingredients, then when it comes to a boil, stir again, turn the heat to low and cook for about 20 minutes until done

If you are on poverty rations this will get you through the day. If your ship has come in this goes well with your lobster and filete.

A certain type of Panamanian cultural nationalist may take offense to any use of the word "tipico" herein, as this isn't a traditional recipe, and to many such minds that which is in any way Chinese is by definition not Panamanian.

But I say "semi-tipico" because garlic and culantro are the ubiquitous flavorings of Interior cuisine, chicken stock reddened and subtly enhanced with achiote is likewise a Panamanian standard, rice is our main staple here and so many Chinese contributions are now firmly embedded into the Isthmian culture.

If a further objection is asserted, to the effect that most Panamanians don't prefer spicy food, understand that the chef's a Colon Buay and at last reference the Atlantic Side --- where thanks mainly to the West Indian and Kuna influences people like their food spicy --- was still part of Panama.