lifestyle

Mayor Aleman Soup at the Mirador del Canal in Paraiso
by Mark Scheinbaum

Okay, I couldn't wait any longer. After doing the academic research I had to see this classic Panamanian soup for myself.

This is at the poor man's Miraflores eating place --- alongside the Panama Canal in the village of Paraiso, at the Mirador de Canal Chinese restaurant. It costs $3.65 without your senior discount and could easily feed four people.

Both fresh portobello and shiitaki mushrooms; fresh bok choy (Chinese cabbage), crunchy water chestnuts and bamboo shoots; thin fresh slices of lightly steamed carrots and florettes of broccoli. Baby ears of corn sliced the long way, onions, fresh scallion slices and then comes the protein!

Homey don't do no metric, so I figured at least three ounces each --- of medium sized shrimp, lean roast beef, strips of smoked ham, very well-trimmed and tender roast pork slices, and strips of chicken breast. All of this atop a bed of noodles and simmering and real chicken stock like (my) momma never made.

Most chefs who make the soup don't know the story. The literal translation of the Big German, or the Major German, or Majority German is useless --- that was the guy's name. I'll skip most of the details but:

In the 1920s and later a local notable in Panama named Mayor Alemán --- well connected with both the business and political power structures --- became incensed at raw and blatant discrimination against the local Chinese community that had been in Panama since the mid-19th century and helped to build the railroads and canal, along with many of the business and agricultural infrastructures here, and yet were relegated to second or even third class citizenship. (In 1941, all Panamanians of Chinese ancestry were formally stripped of their citizenship of whatever class, until a coup changed the government later that year.) Alemán started drumming up public outcries and demanding prosecution of people who mistreated the Chinese.

Along the way he picked up political support in the old Chinatown area near Santa Ana, frequented the local restaurants, and sort of encouraged his cronies to "go slumming" with him once in awhile for lunch and dinner in the neighborhood near 13th Street now known as "Salsipuedes" (a raucous, kiosk-filled lane which means "get out if you can.").  He always instructed cooks to fix his special soup the way he liked it. By the 1950s  Sopa Mayor Aleman was synonymous with the special house mixed soup at many restaurants.

So, if you have 35 cents for the Diablo Rojo ride to Paraiso, and want a lunch overlooking the canal for less than five bucks, order up the Mayor Aleman special soup. Try not to ride the bus back around 1 p.m. on weekdays or you will be swamped with school kids screaming to their friends at the top of their lungs!

 

Former UPI newsman Mark Scheinbaum teaches at the University of Louisville, Panama