Food in Panama

We have had Panamanian, Colombian and Italian food since we have been here. All of it good.

Panamanian is very simular to Cuban, we went to a restaurant called El Trapiche (the sugar mill) and shared a "Panama Platter", for starters a soup called Sanchocho,made with chicken and yame, a root like yucca. The platter had arroz con pollo, ropa vieja, patacones (tostones), fried yucca (cut like french fries) all very similar to the Cuban versions. They also gave us tamale in olla which was like tamale in casuela but made with masa harina instead of corn meal. One thing we really liked and the name escapes me unfortunately was a yucca fritter stuffed with ground beef. You boil yucca and mash it, make patty, fill it with seasoned ground beef, fold over the edges and fry it. It sounds like tortitas de papas rellenos or stuffed croquettes of mashed potatoes which we´ve had in Mèrida. The Columbian restaurant served papas rellenos as an appetizer which were delicious and similar to the stuffed yucca.To drink had lemonade sweetened with raspa, which is grated sugar cane, I highly recommend it.