What's Cooking Panama!  Part 4
a few interesting recipes from Panama
By Sherry Boyd

This month we take a look at what’s cooking for breakfast in Panama. Panamanians eat a variety of different foods to start off their day. "Café con leche" (coffee with milk) is a must—one-half part strong, hot coffee; one-half heated milk.

The Panamanian breakfast may consist of something as simple as French bread. A corn tortilla, alone or served with scrambled eggs, is quite typical. The Panamanian corn tortilla is much different than what we may be used to. As you can see by the photo (top food item), it is thick, orange-colored, and disk-shaped. If you’d like to try your hand at Panamanian tortillas, click here for the recipe.

Another popular breakfast food, called carimañola, is made from the root vegetable yucca. The carimañola is stuffed with a meat mixture. It is the middle food item in the photo. If you’d like to prepare carimañola, click here for the recipe.

Also very typical are the empanadas, a turnover filled with cheese or a meat mixture (bottom food item in the photo). Hojaldres, deep fried bread, is also quite popular and often is served with a square of white farmer cheese. The typical Panamanian breakfast is quite simple, but tasty.