dining

Chicken to go

by Eric Jackson

Lots of options to choose from here, because just about every little kiosko that does frituras does chicken. In that form, they usually deep fry the stuff and score the breasts and thighs to make them cook more quickly. I sometimes do that, but let me exclude the kioskos from this discussion, to narrow down the field rather than out of disrespect.

And then there are all sorts of little diners and not so little ones where you can get chicken, and the burger chains usually have some chicken offers too. Also with all due respect from one who ordered a chicken sandwich on the occasion of my last visit to McDonald's on my last visit to its Perejil locale not long ago, let me exclude those.

Let's narrow it down to just the chicken chains, and not all of them at that. I'm considering Pio Pio, Kentucky Fried, Popeye's and Pollo Colorao.

Kentucky Fried is the international industry standard and you generally pay a few cents more for the brand name. Here it's indistinguishable from what you get at KFC in Ypsilanti, Michigan --- the globalized, industrialized good stuff. I'm partial to the regular recipe and the gooey barbecue stuff depending on my mood shifts, but I don't consider the crispy version bad. If you're a homesick gringo this is the place to go --- but remember that the double-l sound in Spanish is like an English "y." You are not, in fact, in the USA at a KFC franchise here, so pronounce it "poyo," not "polo."

None of the US-based fast food franchises do French Fries as well --- and I'm sure that none of the pseudo-patriotic fast food places that now style them "freedom fries" as well as Popeye's does. Last I heard New Orleans was part of the USA and its culture part of Americana, even if the politicians would rather spend the taxpayer's money on warfare and other priorities before restoring the Crescent City. Popeye's is a corporate franchise just like KFC, but it that Louisiana flavor and I like its spicy version best. I go to Popeye's much more frequently than I visit Kentucky Fried, even though my usual routines take me by the latter more often.

I only occasionally get to Pollo Colorao, which is a small chain based in the Interior and apparently growing. This is roast chicken with a reddish color. In proper Spanish you'd say "pollo asado," but more and more I have seen this rendered in the Panamanian Spanglish "pollo rostizado." Pollo Colorao is really good, and really mild, and cheap. For those of you new to Panamanian cuisine, our cultural mainstream is not into the hot stuff and the red spice in Pollo Colorao is achiote, the seeds of what we old Zonies used to call the lipstick tree. It's very colorful, and very mild. I'd compare it to paprika but it's redder and milder than that, and just different. Pollo Colorao will give you the best commercial demonstration of how this subtle spice should be used.

Then there's Panama's big chain, part of Arturo Melo's chicken and real estate and building materials and farm/garden supplies conglomerate, Pio Pio. (Panamanian roosters don't say "cock-a-doodle-doo," they say "quiquiriki," and the chicks don't go "peep peep" they go "pio pio." This isn't Kentucky, you know. I do Pio Pio quite often, as they are close to my office and cheap. One of the unfortunate economic developments of our times, however, is that they have cut costs by giving you less that the whole chicken breast when you get that cut. I have therefore found myself less often ordering a box of three or five pieces and more often asking for a specific selection that doesn't include the breasts. And why get their mediocre fries when you can get their relatively excellent fried yucca?

The real deal, however, is something I shouldn't do because of my propensity for gout, but can't resist. You go buy fresh michis at the bakery around the corner on Via España and then get fried chicken hearts at eight for 35 cents, and slather on a little mayonnaise if you have it, to make the classic poverty rations special, the Pio Pio chicken hearts sandwich. If you are craving the heat at the moment, put some D'Elida's aji chombo sauce on it. A little bit of lettuce or tomato will do nothing to alleviate the gout or heart attack risk, but it will add vitamins and fiber. Put some cheese in it if you want to jack your cholesterol level up a few notches.

So there you have it --- Panama offers a lot of tempting opportunities for chicken carry-out, but the budget buy that has gotten me through so many days of scant resources is something that Pio Pio doesn't sell as such, the fried chicken heart sandwich.