Panama: Rincon Suizo

Rincon Suizo Restaurant

Whenever I feel like a really good meal in Panama, without pretension or having to worry about making a reservation, I turn to Rincon Suizo. Rincon Suizo is definitely one of Panama's truly great restaurants. Their menu is an interesting mix of Swiss, German and Austrian food, all made either classically, or with an infusion of local Panamanian ingredients. Rincon Suizo is not a cheap place to dine, but when considering value for money, I think that Rincon Suizo is hard to beat.

Rincon Suizo Menu

Last night, at Rincon Suizo, I decided to go to Rincon Suizo. I hadn't been in a long time, probably about one year, so I was really excited. My boyfriend and I shared the Camembert Au Gratin, a whole Camembert cheese served with a Passion Fruit and Green Peppercorn sauce. It was an interesting appetizer, the cheese was absolutely divine and the sauce sweet, but not too sweet. For a main course, I chose the Filet San Moritz, a delicious fillet steak, served with a creamy mushroom sauce with some melted cheese on top. It looks somewhat like a heart attack on a plate, but is absolutely delicious, with none of the strong flavours outdoing the others. I chose to accompany my steak with a Rosti potato, one of my all-time favourite side dishes, and one that is not often found in Panama. I could have chosen French Fries, mashed potato, vegetables or rice. My boyfriend went for the Tenderloin Trios, an attractive dish of three tenderloins with a selection of sauces: a Morel mushroom sauce, a Green Peppercorn sauce and a Cafe Paris herb butter sauce. All in all, it was delicious. For dessert, we shared a German-style Apple Strudel served with Vanilla ice cream and I ordered an Irish Coffee, another of my favourite things in the world.

Rincon Suizo Wine

Apart from the spectacular food menu, if you're a wine buff, then you will love Rincon Suizo. With the most extensive wine menu of any restaurant in Panama, Rincon Suizo has a vast selection of wines ranging from the reasonably priced Little Penguin Australian Merlot which was my choice last night (an excellent tipple, I might add), to some outrageously priced French reds at some USD $2,000 per bottle and up. I personally have a serious issue with spending thousands of dollars on a bottle of wine, and prefer to go with several 20-dollar bottles. It just seems to make more sense to me.

If you're in Panama, looking for a dinner that will leave you smiling with joy for at least 24 hours after the fact, then Rincon Suizo is for you!

Rincon Suizo is located in El Cangrejo on Calle Eusebio A Morales. Visit their website for more details.

Panama - Super Gourmet

Super Gourmet Casco Viejo

Super Gourmet Casco Viejo is one of my favorite places in Panama City to eat and hang out. It is a friendly little place that sells a selection of deli items, wines, snacks, some hard-to-find groceries and an excellent selection of sandwiches and salads. They also have daily specials including a soup of the day and treats like meat loaf, chili con carne, smoked salmon pasta salad and buffalo chicken wing dip.

The atmosphere is super laid back and it's quite a community meeting spot, with expats living in the neighborhood generally stopping by for breakfast, lunch or dinner most days.

On Saturdays, Super Gourmet hosts a barbecue party, when people gather for the street-side grill-fest featuring delicious sausages, hamburgers and chicken shish-kebabs. Again, quite a community gathering, Super Gourmet plays good music and has cheap, ice-cold beer. Definitely worth stopping by when you're in Panama City at the weekend.

Super Gourmet is located on Avenida A, next to the Canal Museum

Tel: +507 212.3487

http://www.supergourmetcasco.com/.

Panama - Matseui Sushi

Matseui Sushi

Matseui Sushi is one of the lesser-known sushi restaurants in Panama City, but for me it has always been one of the best. It is a rather old-fashioned place, and could do with a fresh coat of paint, but apart from that, I like it. The wait-staff dress in traditional japanse attire and the sushi is generally very good.

Matseui is now promoting itself on Facebook, seemingly trying to boost their market image, and they have an "Open Sushi" promotion, which runs I think every night apart from Saturday. The deal is you pay $21.75 + 5% and you get all the sushi you want to eat, including nigiri (sushi) and rolls. The fish on offer last night was national tuna (maguro), fresh salmon (make), shrimp (ebi), yellowtail (bojala), snapper (pargo) and sole (lenguad0). For the rolls, you can choose California or Maki style, and you make your own out of a selection of ingredients or choose one of the chef's suggestions.

Everything we ate here was absolutely delicious, and the fish was some of the freshest and softest I have ever eaten. Think melt-in-your-mouth Tuna.

Matseui Sushi is located opposite the Hotel Granada in El Cangrejo.

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Panama - The Night Mail

Until a year or so ago, there was a great little company here called Domi (sp?) Expresss. You could call them any time day or night and they would go buy stuff for you, bring it to your home and then you just pay them a delivery fee of $2.00. They operated pretty much round the clock and would get literally anything, as long as it's legal, from wine and cigarettes at the store to picking up food at a restaurant. This is great, because even if a restaurant didnt do delivery, you could order it as takeout and then send Domy to collect it. Alas, Domy went out of business. Perhaps their delivery fee was a little too reasonable.

Anyways, good news!!! A new company, correo de la noche, or Night Mail has openeed up in Panama, and does the same thing, except they charge $5 and only operate from 6pm to 6am. That's fine, because I don't think Domy did much business in the day time anyways!

I used Correo de la Noche for the first time the other night to collect some sushi and was very satisfied. Call them on 393-7777.

Panama - Sushi House

I never knew much about sushi before I got to Panama. Some sushi snobs will tell you that the sushi in Panama is not worth eating. Since "discovering" sushi in Panana, I have eaten in some of the best sushi restaurants in the US, and I still enjoy Panama's sushi, so it can't be that bad!!!

There are several places to choose from, but when it comes to sushi delivered to your door, I think Sushi House is hard to beat. The combination of quality and value is great, and they have a wide selection of sushi rolls and some tasty appetizers, including a carpaccio of tuna.

My regular order comprises the philadelphia roll (ask for it with fresh salmon, unless you prefer smoked which is the standard here), a spicy tuna roll, the unagi especial (that's the eel one with the eel on the outside and the sweet sauce), the mixed tempura, which is usually really good, and I like to order their breaded skewers of shrimp or shrimp and cheese. Sounds weird but it is actually very good. They have a crab salad also, called the Kani Tai salad, which is pretty tasty. Obviously I dont get all that for one meal, but those are my regular pickings.

Sushi House has two locations, one in Plaza New York, Marbella (where the American Airlines office is located), and one in Albrook, next to Farmacia Arrocha. Marbella telephone: 263-1122. They charge a $2.50 delivery fee, and deliver until 9pm.

Panama - Habibi's Restaurant

Habibi's is a great spot on Calle Uruguay, close to the main nightlife action of Panama City. Usually, when I go to Habibi's, it's just to drink a few cocktails, I don't recall ever having eaten there, until today.

The terrace is perfect for people-watching and enjoying drinks, conversation and a hookah with friends. We went at lunchtime yesterday, and with all the construction and traffic in the area, it was quite noisy, but still a nice experience.



We all ordered the same thing, the Greek Salad with Chicken and an appetizer of hummus and pita bread. The pitas are great here, they come to the table fresh from the oven, and puffed up like a ball. The hummus is also delicious, but the Greek Salad was the best thing we ate today. The chicken they use in the salad is marinaded in some interesting spices, and then grilled on a skewer. They take it off the skewer just before laying it on top of the salad. All the ingredients were fresh, and the dressing perfect. Yum!

Panama Salad

While this recipe has nothing to do with Panama, except for the fact that you can get all the ingredients here, it was born in my kitchen here and I find it to be a delightful accompaniment to simple grilled chicken. I also recreated the salad at a party in England and it was thoroughly enjoyed.

Panama Salad (4 side servings)

Ingredients

Chickpeas/Garbanzo Beans, 1 can (I like the low sodium brand available here)
Black Beans, 1 can (I like the low sodium brand available here)
Celery, 2 ribs, finely chopped
Apple, 1, finely chopped
Tomaotes, 2, finely chopped
Small Onion, 1, finely chopped
Cilantro, 1/2 bunch, finely chopped
Red Bell Pepper, 1, finely chopped
Jalapeno Pepper, 1, finely chopped
Ground Cumin, 1 tsp
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp garlic & parsley powdered seasoning. If you dont have any, use 1/2 garlic powder and 1/2 ground dried parsley.

The Dressing
Cilantro, 1/2 bunch
4 limes, juiced
Parsley, 1/2 bunch
Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 1/2 cup
1 tbsp honey
salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Start with the dressing. Juice the limes and place in a food processor or blender with the cilantro and parsley. Blend together until the herbs are finely chopped. Slowly incorporate the olive oil until the mixture is nicely emulsified. Season with salt and pepper and add the honey. Give it one more whizz in the blender and then place in a large salad bowl.
2. Take all the chopped ingredients and add to the dressing in the salad bowl.
3. Drain the black beans and chick peas. In a large, non-stick pan, heat 1 tbsp olive oil. Add the beans and chick peas and toss in the oil. Add the cumin and the garlic/parsley mixture. Heat the beans and chickpeas together with the spices for about 5 minutes, tossing. Make sure they don't lose their shape or texture.
4. Add them to the salad bowl, mix everything together quickly and serve. You can leave the salad to stand for a while if you prefer, this allows all the flavors to mix. Either way, enjoy!!!

Panama - Cevicheria Tip Top

Despite the name, when I visited Cevicheria Tip Top last Sunday, there was no sign of any ceviche. The grilled chicken however, which was the reason for my visit, was abundant and perfect.

Tip Top is one of those places that everyone has heard of, indeed it's somewhat of a Panama landmark and every taxi driver knows where it is. This said, no one that I know really goes there. It is, nevertheless, always busy, which is always a good sign.

After four years in Panama, I finally made it, and the chicken was fabulous. I am a big fan of rotisserie or grilled chicken and this is definitely some of the best I have found in Panama.
At only $5.25 for a whole chicken, and lower prices for 1/2 or 1/4, it really doesn't make sense to make it yourself, when a raw chicken costs around $4 in the store here.

Tip Top is located on Via Brasil in El Carmen, just opposite Exedra Books.

Panama - New York Bagel Cafe

The New York Bagel Cafe, located in front of the Cabeza de Einstein Monument in El Cangrejo, is the only place where you can find really good, freshly-baked American-style Bagels in Panama. They have a great of bagels, including Everything, Cinnamon & Raisin, Sesame, Chocolate, Sourdough, Onion, Salt and Garlic. You can go here to purchase bagels to take out, or you can eat there, where they will toast your bagel and top it with your choice of cream cheese (scallion, sundried tomato and plain are among the choices), or you can go for a delicious bagel sandwich, chosen from a vast menu that includes smoked salmon and cream cheese and bacon and egg.

Coffee is served on a refill basis, so if you want to hang out, read the newspapers and magazines on display here, you can stay as long as you like. This is a one-of-a-kind place in Panama. Well worth the visit!

New York Bagel Cafe
El Cangrejo
Tel:+ 507 390-6050
www.newyorkbagelcafe.com

Panama - Deli Gourmet

Deli Gourmet has various locations throughout Panama City - San Francisco, Obarrio, Costa del Este and El Dorado. They sell great sandwiches, fresh salads and soups, good Duran coffee and an amazing variety of hard-to-find treats and delights. Anything from Jamon Serrano to Red Onion Jam, you can find it here. It's not cheap, but everything is sooooooo tasty that it's worth having lunch here once a week.

Deli Gourmet, Calle 50, Opposite HSBC San Francisco
Tel: + 507 300-2071
www.granddeligourmet.com