A Chiriqui woman visits her local farmer’s market to pick up a few staples: blushing mangoes, earth-dusted otoe roots, and brilliant red aji chombo peppers. For tonight’s sancocho, she buys a “free-range” chicken from a farm she can see from her house.
You might call her spoiled. I mean, she lives in one of the most fertile tropical regions of Panama. Her environment comes equipped with exterior decoration. Mist mantles the mountains sheltering her village. Sparkling streams glitter through the edge of the bush. Her life seems idyllic. But in the Chiriqui highlands of Panama, her life is fairly typical.
Chiriqui food culture
Fresh, locally-grown produce is available year-round in most regions of Panama, and you’ll find an abundance of fruits and vegetables in the farmer’s markets of Chiriqui. The traditional Panamanian diet relies heavily on produce, as well as tubers. But not starchy, white-potato kind of tubers. In Chiriqui, vitamin-rich roots such as otoe, yucca, and yams make appearances in soups, improving consistency and adding flavor. Panamanians also fry or grill these – fried yucca looks and tastes a lot like a fried white potato, but you’ll find the texture a little stringier.
When you’re pursuing all the adventure Panama has to offer, keep your energy up by snacking on fresh tropical fruits throughout the day and staying cool with fruity beverages such as batidos (sweet, thick fruit smoothies).
Vegetables are also a staple of many Panamanian meals, and although Panamanian cuisine is rarely overtly spicy, peppers feature prominently in many traditional dishes. The aji chombo, for instance, is a spicy pepper indigenous to Panama. For generations, natives have used it — sparingly — to season their food, and it’s still an excellent additive to soups and sauces.
Meat and fish are natural components of many traditional Panamanian dishes and they continue to make delicious appearances in contemporary Chiriqui cuisine. Meat (including high-quality beef from the local cowboy culture) features more prominently in the highlands cuisine, and accordingly, fish figures into the food culture of Chiriqui’s coastal regions.
Keeping it good and simple
TAGS: Chiriqui Food & Drink Organic Farming Panama Food & Drink Panama History & CulturePanamanian cuisine is known for its fresh ingredients and its simple, wholesome preparation. Accordingly, many native Panamanians insist on buying their produce directly from farmer’s markets and their meat and seafood directly from cattle ranches and fisheries. Modern-day Chiriqui cowboys spend their days rustling cattle, cooping chickens, and tending to the pigs and boars they care for. They know organic, humane livestock practices from the inside out. And Chiriqui isn’t all farms and fields – the province also encompasses many miles of coastline, bordering both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. As such, the waters around Chiriqui promise some of the best fishing in the world, and restaurants in the coastal areas offer some of the best seafood in the province.
Many of Chiriqui’s most celebrated dishes feature fish and other types of seafood. Ceviche, for instance, has long been a part of traditional Chiriqui cuisine, but it’s also a popular fixture of contemporary cuisine. And, because ceviche contains raw fish, it’s incredibly important to use only the freshest, finest fish in its preparation. Fortunately, fresh, high-quality fish can be bought in many markets throughout Chiriqui, and dishes like ceviche can be a cinch to make with the proper ingredients. Other rustic, traditional dishes such as sancocho — a simple stew composed of chicken, herbs, and vegetables — abound with wholesome flavor, prepared using fresh ingredients and high-quality livestock.
