Panamanian food and dishes
Panamanian food is ordered with names that do not survive translation: the dish, the ingredient and the stand that sells it each have a word of their own. This list puts together what people eat and what they call it, with the province where the name is local — it is not always said the same way in the capital as in the interior — and an example of how you would actually order it.
55 entries in this list
ají chombo
The Panamanian habanero: small, wrinkled and very hot.
almojábano
A long fritter of corn dough with cheese, folded into an S shape.
arroz con coco
Rice cooked in coconut milk, a staple of Panama's Caribbean coast and of Bocas del Toro.
arroz con guandú
Rice cooked with pigeon peas and coconut milk.
arroz con pollo
The obligatory dish at any Panamanian gathering: birthday, first communion, wake, office party.
bienmesabe
An interior sweet of ground rice (or rice flour) cooked with milk, sugar and cinnamon until thick.
bistec picado
Strips of beef stewed with onion, sweet pepper and tomato, one of the fixtures on the counter of any fonda.
boli
Juice or milk frozen inside a long plastic sleeve, opened by biting off the tip.
bollo
Corn dough wrapped in corn or bijao leaf and boiled.
carimañola
Boiled and mashed cassava dough stuffed with seasoned ground meat, shaped like a torpedo and deep-fried.
ceviche
Fish cured in lime with onion, chili and culantro.
chicha
A fresh fruit drink made with water and sugar.
chicha fuerte
Fermented corn drink — the one that does contain alcohol.
chicheme
A thick drink of hulled corn, milk, cinnamon and vanilla.
chirrisco
A homemade alcoholic drink prepared in Panama's rural interior, known for being strong.
chiwis
A bagged salty snack, the kind sold at the corner store or the school snack stand.
cocada
A sweet of grated coconut with sugar or cane syrup, cooked until it sets.
corvina
The most popular fish of the Panamanian table: white, firm, few bones.
culantro
A long, serrated-leaf herb with a far more intense flavor than cilantro.
duro
Homemade ice or ice pop frozen in a small plastic cup or bag, sold by neighbors.
empanada panameña
Corn dough filled with stewed beef, chicken or cheese, folded into a half-moon and fried.
ensalada de papas
Potato, carrot, egg, beet and mayonnaise — the side that comes with arroz con pollo at every Panamanian party.
guacho
A soupy rice cooked in its own stew until thick.
guanábana
A large fruit with a soft-spined skin and very aromatic white pulp.
guandú
A round-seeded legume brought from Africa through the slave trade, harvested at the end of the year.
guarapo
Sugarcane juice pressed fresh at the mill, served over ice with lime (optional).
guineo
The fruit known as banana.
hojaldre
Deep-fried wheat dough, fluffy inside and golden outside.
huevito de leche
A small firm sweet of milk cooked down with sugar, with the shape of an egg, wrapped in colorful papers.
jonicake
A dense round bread from Afro-Antillean cooking, baked or fried, eaten with coffee or alongside stew.
mamón chino
Rambutan: a red fruit with soft hairs and translucent white flesh.
mango
A seasonal fruit that in Panama falls from backyard trees between March and June in such quantity that people give it away.
marañón
A juicy, astringent fruit with the seed growing outside it — the cashew nut.
nance
A small yellow fruit with a strong smell, eaten raw with salt, drunk as chicha, or boiled into a sweet.
ñame
A white-fleshed, firm-textured tuber, the backbone of sancocho and many stews.
otoe
An earthy-tasting tuber used in soups and stews, similar to malanga or taro.
patacón
A slice of green plantain, fried, smashed flat and fried again.
pesada de nance
A thick sweet of nance cooked with corn and raw cane sugar, served in a small cup.
pipa
A green coconut you drink straight from, opened with a machete.
pixbae
The orange fruit of the peach palm, boiled in salted water and sometimes eaten with mayonnaise.
plantintá
A sweet baked turnover filled with red colored sweet plantain, typical of Afro-Antillean baking in Colón and Bocas del Toro.
raspadura
A block of evaporated, unrefined cane juice.
raspao
Shaved ice, scraped by hand from a block, served in a cup with colored syrups and condensed milk on top.
rondón
A coconut-milk stew of fish or meat with root vegetables and plantain, cooked until everything falls apart.
ropa vieja
Shredded beef stewed with tomato, onion and sweet pepper.
sancocho
Panama's national soup: free-range hen, yam, culantro and oregano.
sao
Pig's feet cured in lime with onion, cucumber and hot pepper, served cold.
seco
Sugarcane liquor, Panama's national spirit.
seco con leche
A Panamanian drink of seco with evaporated milk and plenty of ice.
sopa borracha
Sponge cake soaked in liquor syrup, topped with raisins and prunes.
tajadas
Slices of ripe plantain, fried, sweet and soft.
tamal panameño
Corn dough stewed with achiote, filled with chicken or pork, wrapped in bijao leaf and tied.
tamarindo
A pod with sour pulp used for chicha, sweets and ice pops.
tasajo
Beef salted and sun-dried, kept without refrigeration and soaked before cooking.
tortilla (panameña)
A thick disc of ground corn, fried or grilled — very different from the Mexican tortilla: thick, dense, and eaten as a breakfast base, sometimes topped with…