Tropical Fruits

For most of my life I’ve turned my back at fruits.  Since I lived in a banana plantation, bananas were so abundant, that we didn’t perceive the value of the fruit.  The same was true with other fruits such as oranges, grapefruits, papayas, mandarins and so forth.  After I started feeling the pinch of getting old, our family doctor has consistently advised me to start eating fruit. It’s excellent for your health.

Being Panama a country with an ample variety of tropical fruits, I’ve heeded my physician’s advice and fruit is now part of our daily diet.  My wife has always been a devout fan of fruits, that’s why she looks a lot younger than me.  Every time we go to the supermarket to buy our stuff, we try to squeeze as much fruit as our budget will permit.

Below are several pictures of tropical fruits recently purchased at El Machetazo, the supermarket where we buy our groceries every two weeks, after receiving our Social Security’s check.  Even though they look a little rough on the outside, they were in good condition on the inside.  Here we go.

Snapshot of an assortment of tropical fruits which form part of our daily diet. We take fruits very seriously to enhance our health. Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of several tropical fruits found in Panama. Are you able to recognize and name each one of these fruits? Give it a try and test your fruit knowledge. Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of an assortment of tropical fruits which we try to eat whenever our budget permits. We are now aware of the importance of eating fruit to enjoy a healthy life. Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

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Maize, The Gift From the Gods

There is hardly a household in Central America that doesn’t eat a corn-related meal during the day.  Corn or maize, as it’s often called, is the core of the daily diet in this part of the world.  It’s also true of many countries of South America as well.

Great civilizations need a great asset.  Ancient Egypt had the Nile,  The Mayans had maize, or corn as other call it.  Maize is accepted as Man’s first, and perhaps his greatest, feat of genetic engineering.

Maize was definitely seen by the Mayans as a gift from the gods.  One version of the creation myth states that when the Medicine Rite was first created by the good spirits, each of them contributed something that would help the humans overcome the evil spirits.  Grandmother (Earth) came forward and spoke to Hare:  “Look at my breast, grandson.”  Then, unexpectedly, there grew from one of Grandmother’s breasts a plant that no-one had ever seen before.  It grew immediately from her nipple into a full stalk with ripe ears of corn ready to eat.  “This grandson,” said Earth, “is maize.  The two-legged walkers may eat its corn forevermore.”   

The Mayan mind believe—or realized—that not only had the gods given them maize, the gods would continually need to be thanked for guaranteeing the success of the yearly corps.  In the end, the symbiosis between Man and maize was a contract between us and the gods.

Since then we have been eating corn.  Even in the United States, corn flakes, is present in every home during breakfast time.  In the U.S., corn production measures more than two times that of any other crop. Your bacon and egg breakfast, glass of milk at lunch, or hamburger for supper were all produced with U.S. corn. Corn is a major component in many food items like cereals, peanut butter, snack foods and soft drinks. Corn is used to produce fuel alcohol. Fuel alcohol makes gasoline burn cleaner, reducing air pollution, and it doesn’t pollute the water.

Corn is produced on every continent of the world with the exception of Antarctica.  The gift from the gods has taken the whole world by storm.

Below are pictures of a humble home similar to the ones inhabited by our peasants in the remote villages from our countryside.  If you look closely, you will find a maize or corn milling machine (clamp type) ready to go.  Obviously in this home, corn was part of the daily diet.

Snapshot of a corn milling machine (clamp type) and a gourd used to carry water to the working fields. Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

A closer look at a manual corn grinder (clamp type) exhibited at Mi Pueblito in Panama City, Panama. I noticed the grinder was manufactured in Honduras. Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

A snapshot of a corn mill grinder used in the countryside by many of its inhabitants. Corn in this part of the country is king. Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of a stone corn grinder very similar to the ones used by the Mayan Indians in Mexico and Guatemala. Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

Below is a list of popular culinary uses of corn in Panama.

• Chicha fuerte (fermented corn beverage)
• Tamales
• Almojábanos
• Torrejas de maíz nuevo
• Tortillas
• Empanadas
• Bollos
• Chicheme
• Corn coffee
• Alfajores
• Totorrones
• Serén Cream
• Changa

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Separating the Grain From the Chaff

Culture can be defined by the diet of a nation.  Such is the case of Panama and rice.  Without rice there are no meals.  Rice is the backbone of the Panamanian diet.

For lunch there has to be rice, generally white rice along with a miniestra (beans or lentils), vegetable and a meat, chicken or seafood. Others replace rice with fried green plantains—patacones—, baked potatoes, and french fries if they go to a restaurant, but if they’re eating at home rice will always be there.  There’s a popular saying in Panama, “If you don’t eat rice, you haven’t really eaten.” My wife is adamant in her preference for a portion of rice during her daily meals.  Rice is serious business at home.

A lot of Panamanians love soup as well, always with white rice.  Chicken soup or “sancocho” is quite popular, especially at family reunions during the weekends.  Other types of favorite soups are, (e.g., “guacho” or rice soup, meat soup, lentil soup with green plantains, fish or seafood soup). Supper is more or less the same as lunch, unless you’re on a diet.

In some small villages in the countryside, farmers called “campesinos” still remove the chaff from clusters of rice using a wooded instrument called “pilón de arróz”—rice pounder.  A rice pounder is a solid piece of wood hollowed in the middle where the clusters of rice are placed and a woman or child uses a pounder to manually pound, and pound and pound the rice until the chaff is totally removed.  Some of these peasants are so skilled in the use of a pilón, that they can do it with only one hand.  Not even Superman can do that.

The rice pounder is used in several African countries and in Southeast Asia as well.  I recently saw a pilón exactly like the ones we use in Panama, in a small village in Laos.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  Indeed we are living in a small world.

Below is a photograph of a pilón inside a restaurant located at Casco Viejo in Panama City, Panama.  Here we go.

Photograph of a pilon inside a humble restaurant located at Casco Viejo in Panama City, Panama. You can see a small cluster of rice on top of the rice pounder. Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

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Yuca, the Bread of Panama

In almost every supermarket, street market, Chinese store or mom-and-pop grocery store in Panama, you will most likely find a decent stock of yuca, often called the bread of Panama.  Next to rice and red beans, yuca is essential in every Panamanian home.

Cassava (Manihot esculenta), also called yuca or manioc, is a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae (spurge family) native to South America. The yuca plant is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible  starchy tuberous root,  a major source of carbohydrates.  Nigeria is the world’s largest producer of yuca.

Yuca was a staple food for pre-Columbian peoples in the Americas, and is often portrayed in indigenous art. The Moche people often depicted yuca in their ceramics.

Thailand is the largest exporting country of dried cassava with a total of 77 percent of world export in 2005. The second largest exporting country is Vietnam, with 13.6 percent, followed by Indonesia (5.8 percent) and Costa Rica (2.1 percent).

The yuca root can be cooked in various ways. The soft-boiled root has a delicate flavor and can replace boiled potatoes in many uses: as an accompaniment for meat dishes, or made into purées, dumplings, soups, stews, gravies, etc.. Deep fried (after boiling or steaming), it can replace fried potatoes, with a distinctive flavor.

Fried yuca is one of my favorite foods, specially for breakfast or supper.  Today,  my wife and I had fried yuca for breakfast.

Below are several pictures of yuca at a farmers’s market at San Miguelito in Panama City, Panama.

Photograph of a yuca root; brown on the outside and snow white on the inside. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Photograph of a nice stack of yuca roots together with yam (ñame) and several corn husks. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Photograph of a stack of yuca together with lemons and yellow plantains at a farmers' market in Panama City, Panama. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Photograph of yuca roots packed inside rustic plastic sacks. This is how some humble farmers bring yuca from the countryside to be sold in Panama City. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Whenever there’s a shortage of bread in Panama, which sometimes happen, I have no problem.  There’s always the alternative of good ole fried yuca.  Good Day.

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A Farmers’ Market at San Miguelito

Farmers’ markets are markets, usually held out-of-doors, in public spaces, where farmers can sell produce to the public, bypassing the middleman which sometimes takes the bigger slice of the pie.

Farmers’ market produce is renowned for being locally grown  and very fresh. People argue farmers’ markets allow farmers to pick produce at the peak of flavor, preserve the nutritional content of fresh produce, and since locally grown produce does not travel as far to get to your table, the difference in mileage saves fossil fuels.

Farmers’ markets are a traditional way of selling agricultural and home manufactured products. A weekly market day is a part of normal life in villages and town squares throughout the world. A good way for a traveler to sample local foods and learn about local culture is to attend market day, especially when it coincides with a festival, such as the fiestas in many towns in Latin America. In France  and other European countries, there are street markets, as well as covered marketplaces, where farmers and purveyors sell. Farmers’ markets are starting to appear online.

Whenever we can, we buy at a farmers’ market located not far away from our house at San Miguelito.  The prices are extremely cheap and the quality of the products are tops.  In Panama these food stands are called “ferias libres”. Many stands sell government subsidized products to ease the pain of the people who are having a hard time stretching their scrimpy incomes.

For example, you can buy high quality long-grain rice at thirty cents a pound.  The price tag at the supermarkets is approximately forty cents a pound.  The difference in price represents a walloping twenty-five percent.  Other subsidized products are sardines, lentils, red beans and canned tuna, just to name a few.

Starting today, I will start posting photographs of a picturesque roadside market at San Miguelito displaying popular food of the Panamanian diet.  The whole gallery of photographs will take about a week.  As an introduction to the topic, below is our first picture of a farmers’ market in this neck of the woods.  Here we go.  (Please click photo to enlarge it.)

General view of a farmers' market located at San Miguelito in Panama City, Panama. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

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