dining

Carlito's --- pizza and stuff with an Argentine accent
by Eric Jackson

The Italian influences on Panamanian culture are older --- the capital that Pedrarias the Cruel established at Panama Viejo, the fortifications at Portobelo and Fort San Lorenzo were all designed by Italian architects. But Argentina has by far Latin America's largest Italian community and this has profoundly affected Argentine cuisine.

So do you want Italian with a southern hemisphere twist? Go to Carlitos on Calle 45, near Parque Urraca. (There's another one in Obarrio, which this reporter has not visited.)

The pizzas are different from American Standard. Better, in fact. You can get them with mozzarella, provolone or roquefort cheese, or no cheese at all, with a set of ingredients very different from Domino's.

Argentines are the world's big meat eaters, and they do the filetes, pork chops and burgers here if you come in with the Archie Bunker mentality.

Across the Andes in Chile they have these things they call empanadas for which I personally don't care. They are not to be confused with Argentine empanadas. Carlitos does eight variations on Argentine empanadas, which are not to be confused with the Zonian-style clubhouse recipe or the Jamaican patties that a Colon buay would know and cherish. They are, however, pretty good and the spicy chicken ones fit well with this reporter's tastes and gout prevention dietary restrictions.

They do lasagna at Carlitos, but not as many pasta variations as most Italian Italian restaurants. This reporter has yet to try any of the lasagna.

So what's "the good stuff?"

Surely all of the above, or the desserts, or just some simple pan napolitano as an entree. Yes, all of that, maybe the cheeseless anchovy pizza when in that sort of a mood.

But what this reporter likes best at Carlitos, and which to someone who's been to neither Italy or Argentina seems neither particularly Italian nor particularly Argentine, is the smoked tuna salad. At $7.50, it's one of the most expensive things on the menu and you get your money's worth.

If you go to Carlito's for the pizza rather than the salad, understand that you can get a pizza with smoked tuna as well. Or with salmon, or eggplant, or artichoke hearts, or garlic, or sliced hard-boiled egg, or....

The truth of the matter is that Domino's never made the best pizzas even in its small Michigan place of origin. They just developed a delivery system that beat all others. And if pizza delivery is what you're after you still might want to call Domino's here. But Carlitos also delivers and it's an unfathomable mystery why anyone within range of both would choose Domino's. Carlitos is the place with the good stuff.