Panama

A Panamanian one-pot rice cooked in coconut milk with pigeon peas and culantro, producing grains that are fragrant, subtly sweet, and stained pale gold from the coconut fat.

A pan-Caribbean and Central American one-pot dish in which bone-in chicken pieces and long-grain rice cook together in a sofrito- and sazón-seasoned broth, the rice absorbing all cooking liquid to yield moist chicken and orange-hued, flavor-saturated grains studded with briny olives.

A creamy New World coconut-milk custard sweetened with sugar and thickened with egg yolks, slow-cooked and chilled — a Latin American dessert whose name means "it tastes good to me."

A Panamanian steamed cake of wet-ground fresh corn dough wrapped and cooked in its own husk, eaten plain or enclosing seasoned pork.

A torpedo-shaped croquette of boiled, mashed yuca encasing a filling of spiced ground beef or pork, sealed and deep-fried until the exterior is crisp and golden.

A thick griddled or fried corn cake, split and filled with crisp pork cracklings, eaten as a hearty Panamanian street breakfast.

Fresh corvina (sea bass) cubed and submerged in abundant fresh lime juice with thinly sliced red onion, cilantro, and sweet pepper, then chilled until acid-set and served immediately as a bright, raw-cured seafood dish.

A Panamanian street beverage of whole nixtamalized hominy corn simmered until tender, then steeped in sweetened milk with cinnamon and vanilla and served cold.

A Panamanian soupy rice porridge in which rice is deliberately cooked down past fluffiness into a thick, creamy mass studded with mixed seafood, culantro and coconut milk.

A Panamanian deep-fried wheat-flour disc that puffs hollow when it hits hot oil, eaten plain or paired with cheese as the canonical everyday breakfast bread.

Twice-fried discs of green (unripe) plantain that are par-fried, pressed flat, then fried again until crisp and golden, finished with salt.

A chilled Panamanian street refreshment of sweetened tamarind pulp poured over freshly shaved ice.

Ropa Vieja is a Cuban Caribbean main dish of shredded beef braised low‑and‑slow in a tomato‑pepper‑onion sofrito until tender, then served hot over rice.

Sancocho de Gallina is a traditional Central American clear chicken stew made with free-range hen, cassava (yuca), and culantro, slowly simmered to develop a fragrant, golden broth.

A Panamanian cold dish of cooked pig's feet pickled in a tart brine of vinegar, onion, and hot pepper.

A Panamanian fish soup built on whole red snapper simmered to a clear, savory broth with starchy yuca and yam and fragrant culantro.

A Panamanian thick pork-and-root-vegetable broth, hearty and restorative, traditionally eaten in the small hours during Carnival.

A Panamanian tamal of achiote-tinted corn masa filled with stewed chicken or pork, olives and capers, wrapped in banana leaf and boiled.

A thick, soft round corn cake made from masa de maíz and cooked on a dry griddle, served as a staple breakfast or side dish across Panama.