dining

At the Caravana de Asistencia Social

photos and review by Eric Jackson

Forget about anything approaching a complete review --- I'm obese enough as it is, and just looking at the chocolate crepes being prepared above made it worse. There is just too much food and too many beverages to choose among for any one reporter to try enough of the goodies at the Caravana de Asistencia Social to be able to begin to make a fair judgment about what was best.

Suffice to say that the best stuff I tried this year were the pistachio, honey and filo dough pastries that the Israelis were selling, and the runner-up had to be Ecuador's version of shrimp ceviche. The mathematical odds are that these judgments slight at least a dozen other things that I never tried.

Judging by the afternoon crowd, this year's Caravana was the biggest I have seen, which means a lot of money for Christmas toys for poor kids and other good works to which the money raised is  contributed. This annual event was begun by the women of the various diplomatic missions here in Panama, but the diplomats now mobilize their citizens residing this country, both male and female, along with friends of many other nationalities to lend a hand.