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dining

Jam Patty --- the Jamaican way of doing empanadas

by Eric Jackson

What's an empanada?

You can find myriad answers to this question at various establishments and street vendors in Panama. They're all pastries with filling inside, but beyond that they range from the more common ones with meat fillings to those Chilean-style things with prunes and hard-boiled egg slices, with chicken and Panamanian white cheese also among the more popular versions. There are empanadas of the old Canal Zone clubhouse, whose beef and pork fillings get their distinctive flavor from pickled cherry peppers. There are baked empanadas and fried empanadas, with pastry shells that may be of wheat flour or may be of corn meal

And now, on Via España not far from the corner of Avenida 1, kitty corner from the Glidden paint store, you have Jam Patty, purveyor of Jamaican-style empanadas, a new business primarily dedicated to the lunch crowd. Its limited menu includes beef, chicken, callaloo and cheese empanadas, plus coconut bread, ginger beer and an ordinary selection of sodas and packaged fruit drinks. The two condiments on the counter are Pickapeppa Sauce and the hot sauce made by the same Jamaican company.

The principal ingredient of callaloo and of the filling for that kind of empanada is cabbage, and I have ecountered no other place in Panama that serves this variety of vegetarian pastry.

The chicken and cheese selections are rather ordinary, but a little bit of Pickapeppa Sauce on the side of the plate to dip them into as you eat transforms them into something different.

Jam Patty's beef empanadas are, on the other hand, extraordinary. The dark brown, gooey filling is not much to look at, but the simmering sweet heat of its Caribbean spice is wonderful to a Colon Buay's sense of taste. I intend to be back for more of these.