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Wolters World for Food! Our videos focus on helping travelers know what to eat when they travel, the traditional food that you always want to eat when you travel.
Hey there fellow travelers! Mark here with Wolters World, and today we’re diving into the traditional eats, drinks, and restaurant etiquette of Panama. Whether you're exploring the food stalls of Casco Viejo, grabbing something quick at a cafeteria-style restaurant, or sitting down for a traditional Panamanian meal, this guide will help you eat like a local and enjoy the delicious (and sometimes surprising) flavors of Panama.
We cover the must-try dishes, the drinks Panama is famous for, and the cultural dining habits that tourists often miss — including how tipping works, what to expect at local restaurants, and why cafeteria-style spots are such a big part of daily life here.
You’ll learn:
Traditional Panamanian Foods You Must Try
— Sancocho: the beloved chicken soup of Panama
— Ropa Vieja: shredded beef served with rice and plantains
— Arroz con Pollo: classic comfort food
— Carimañolas: yuca fritters stuffed with meat
— Hojaldras: fried dough often eaten for breakfast
— Seafood & ceviche: especially fresh along both coasts
— Patacones: fried green plantains that come with everything
Traditional Drinks of Panama
— Seco Herrerano: the national spirit
— Ron Abuelo: Panama’s famous rum
— Chicheme: sweet, thick corn drink
— Balboa & Panama beer
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0:00
Hey there fellow hungry travelers, Mark here with Volters World and today we're here in Casco Viejo in Panama City
0:05
And today we're going to talk about what you should eat when you come here to Panama. Whether you're staying here in Panama City or maybe you're going over to Cologne, maybe you're going to go to Pocas del Toro
0:13
explore this beautiful country, I want to give you some of the best eats and treats you should have when you come here
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And I would be remiss if I don't start with probably the national dish of Panama and that is Sancocho
0:25
And when you see Sancocho explained online, they say, oh it's chicken soup. look, it's more than chicken soup. Yes, it's soup that has chicken in it, but with the yuca and corn
0:35
cilantro, all the stuff that's in there, the flavorfulness is actually a really good soup
0:38
And you're like, Mark, but it's hot and humid all the time in Panama. Why would I want to have a hot
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soup? Because it's good. Okay. So Sancoccio, if you're looking for that, that's really good
0:49
Another really good soup you want to try when you're here is Sopa de Mariscos, which is a seafood
0:53
soup, which will have, you know, the shrimp and the fish, calamari and other kinds of seafood in
0:58
there. It'll be different, different places you go around the country. But anytime you see sopa de moriscos or cosuelo de moriscos, which is a casserole seafood, oh my gosh
1:06
you can't go wrong because seafood is fantastic when you come here. Now, if you're on the Caribbean
1:10
coast and you're looking for that sopa de moriscos, look for rondon. A rondon is basically more like
1:15
has coconut like milk mixed into it. So it gives it a whole more Caribbean vibe than the traditional
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sopa de moriscos, but excellent to have if you get it anywhere in the country. Now it's hot
1:25
it's huge but you're like mark please get away from the hot soups give me something cool to eat
1:30
look i'm going to tell you another traditional dish that's here that's fantastic yes we get a
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lot of places around the world but i'll be honest here in panama they do a fantastic job with it
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is ceviche and if you're not sure what ceviche is think about they put fish octopus shrimp and
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it gets marinated in lime juice oh my gosh it is so good it is so refreshing it's served cool you'll
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have it if you're here in casco viejo here in panama city go to the mercado de moriscos the
1:53
seafood market and go have it there fresh as fresh as can be it is so good but honestly it's so good
1:59
here i've had it at hotels and the hotel like room service version was fantastic but ceviche
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is a must when you come here to panama and there'll be different versions of it as well you might have
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it just with fish you might see ceviche de yuca but just a traditional you know ceviche de mariscos
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is my like go-to with the seafood in general you're gonna love it now ceviche itself isn't really
2:19
necessarily a huge meal. It's great for a snack to cool off, enjoy, but if you're looking for like
2:23
seafood that's really gonna fill you up, probably my favorite is pago frito, which is fried red
2:28
snapper, and it's so good. And the literally is it's very simple. It's fried up and you might
2:33
serve with rice or patacones, which I'll talk about later, but just fried up red snapper is awesome
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Also, you might see corvina, which is sea bass. Sea bass is also very popular. You get that fried
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you can get it grilled up. Really, really good seafood when you're here. You're gonna get octopus
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which is basically octopus cooked in you know garlic and butter i mean look seafood you're
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gonna do fine when you're here and you'll notice some of the menus will have like from the land and
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they'll be from the sea look for the sea stuff because you'll be happy when you're there but if
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you do want to get the land stuff probably the most famous meat dish here is ropa vieja and if
3:07
you ever had like shredded pork like pulled pork imagine like shredded pulled beef yes shredded beef And then it in like almost like a tomatoey sauce Like it almost like if you sometimes
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you'll have like we had it in empanadas, like fried corn empanadas. And it was like having like
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pulled beef in there. But it's really, really good. You have with rice and beans. Oh, you can't go
3:28
wrong with Rope Vieja. That's on a lot of the national menus. And the rice and beans, I think
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it's important to mention rice and beans will come up a lot and here in Panama lunch is a big
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meal dinner is more of a smaller meal so like at home some people might just have rice and beans a
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little bit of meat for dinner but lunch is where you have the big meal kind of thing so if you're
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going to go out to have meals with locals here do lunches with them because that's when it's more
3:51
about eating and enjoying and taking your time whereas dinner is a quicker thing but rice and
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beans let's get back to that if you're looking for something very simple like maybe you're having tummy trouble orroz con pollo which is rice with chicken is basically a big thing of rice and there's
4:04
some shredded chicken in there very very nice easy thing to have liam really likes that but i will
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tell you throw the hot sauce on it to really make it good they got some good hot sauce here too so
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uh the orange one yes you get the orange one no idea what it's called it's orange it's fantastic
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i think it's maybe some scotch bonnet in there really really good but the rice with chicken is
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a nice thing to do also if you're near the caribbean coaster and if you can find restaurants
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around there's a coconut rice they have that you can have when you're here which is really it's like a little bit more robust and actually the rice itself is almost like a meal in itself
4:35
because it's so flavorful so i'd look at that and then there's a rice dish that i want to tell you
4:40
that my italian friends would say it's in the direction of risotto my local friends was like
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it's more in the direction of rice soup that's guacho and guacho i will tell you when you have it
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think of it like a rice porridge or rice soup or almost a risotto you can have that very traditional
4:56
thing here but when you see it on the menu make sure you can see what it's served with because it
5:00
might be served with pigtail and not everyone likes that so do be aware of it also if you're
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coming from costa rica gallo pinto it's not gallo pinto here gallo pinto in costa rica is rice and
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beans mixed together gallo pinto here a little bit different that's the thing that had the pigtail
5:13
in it you're right in the guacho so be aware of that now one thing you need to realize is when
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you're going around palma street food is a thing you can eat for the street vendors the food's been pretty good we've had and you get things like empanadas which i would call like a hand pie it
5:25
could be stuffed with meat or cheese or basically anything that's there that's a good one sometimes
5:29
you'll see the baked ones sometimes you see the fried ones but you can't go wrong with that
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um another thing you're going to see a lot is what's called patocones well patocones is actually
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i should say this plantains are huge here like the kind of banana things you'll see plantain chips
5:42
you'll see plantains as the side dish you'll see fried plantains up for a side but probably the
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biggest one you're going to see is patacones which is green plantains that get fried smashed down
5:52
fried again and it comes like a big kind of chip kind of thing if you're going to have your red
5:56
snap or that pargo frito that's probably the traditional side dish you have i like rice better
6:00
so i get that but patacones will come all over and sometimes you have patacones with a ropa vieja
6:05
on top of it you can't go wrong with that i mean those are a go-to like snack kind of thing if
6:10
you're looking for tamales tamal or one tamal or more tamales you know the corn the corn dough that
6:15
has the meat inside. You can get those. A lot of places at restaurants on the street kind of things Also tamales for breakfast Another thing you can have Uh which are basically like fried dough Another thing you can grab on the street also a popular breakfast thing Think of like Panamanian donut kind of direction
6:32
would be the best way to kind of phrase it when you are here. I guess don't think of it as a donut
6:36
just think of this fry bread. If you've ever been to the Southwest US or West part of the US, just fry bread
6:41
It's good. But for me, my favorite little snacks, things you'll get, maybe you'll get it on the street
6:47
maybe you'll get it at restaurants, are the carmenolas. And caramaniolas, basically what it is, they grade up the yuca and they batter it and fry it
6:54
But inside they put like meat and cheese in it. And if you get it on the street, a lot of times there's not a lot of meat and cheese
6:59
It's mostly just a fried yuca. But if you go to some of the places that have like the nice little like meat in it and the cheese in it
7:04
Oh my God, they're so good. Like that is if you get anything like this
7:08
The sweet cheese is fantastic. The pago frito is great. But these, the caramaniolas are a must when you're here
7:15
All right. You got to have that. That's one of the fantastic appetizers. Grab one
7:18
Get one for everybody. Don't share them. You might not want to share them, but I know I don't want to share them, so that's something
7:23
you should have. Now, let's talk about desserts, because there are some traditional desserts you're going
7:28
to see around here, and a lot of them you might have seen in other places around Central America, and you will see some influences from other countries in them, but there are
7:35
some really good ones. Probably the go-to default is the rosco leche, which is basically, you know, sweet rice
7:40
like rice pudding. You can have that. There'll be raisins in there, cinnamon on top. Really good
7:44
That is the simple one to do. If you're having tummy troubles, it's a nice, easier thing to get down and you don't worry about it when it, you know, whatever's
7:52
But that's a really nice one. Cocadas, which is basically like, think about shaved up coconuts made into like a candy ball
7:59
You may have seen this like a, like maybe your hometown like bake sale sometimes
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You'll have that there. It's really, really good. Obviously, Tres Leches Cake, which is all over Central America, which is, you know, a sponge cake with all the different like types of milk that are in there
8:12
Canis milk and stuff. That's one of my favorites. You can do that. um also you get caramelized plantains as well really really nice when they like caramelize
8:21
them up and cook it up it makes it sweet and delicious another thing you might see is bien
8:25
me sebe which is basically i guess i maybe call like a coconut cinnamon pudding dulce de leche
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kind of like theme kind of thing i mean it's really good that's one of you can find that and
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i want to tell you there's a lot of bakeries around here where you can get cakes and like
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pieces of cake piece of pie little pastry things you can do that because the bakeries here are
8:44
really nice. You can grab a snack like that. So that's kind of good. Now let's talk about the
8:48
drinks. First thing I want to tell you is if you're in Panama City or like other big cities
8:52
like Cologne, you can drink the tap water. You don't have to worry about it. The water is treated
8:56
You're okay. I will say though, if you're in the rural areas, don't drink the tap water there. If
9:00
you're going on tours in the rainforest and stuff, stick to the bottled water. All the hotels we've
9:04
been to have actually given us bottled water too, just in case. But just know you're not going to
9:08
get sick from brushing your teeth or anything like that if you're in the city. So just be aware of that. You know, Duran Duran, your favorite band from the 80s. Well, Duran Coffee, Cafe Duran
9:16
that's the local coffee you're going to have when you are here. And they do love their local coffee
9:20
Now, in terms of drink, you're going to have when you go out to the restaurants and stuff. Well, if you're looking for the local rum, the local rum is called Abuelo, so Grandpa's Rum
9:28
You can get that. There's a lot of local beers when you're here. Balboa is my favorite. It's a
9:32
little bit stronger than things like Panama beer but they fine More like lager style beers kind of stuff like lighter beers You have that because it so hot and they do serve the beer nice and cold so that can be helpful other things when i go around with the kids we go to the mercados or we going around
9:47
patios patios are basically smoothies with all the fresh fruit and everything you can have
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fantastic smoothies when you're here also another drink you're going to see is chicha
9:56
and basically different kind of fruits you got chicha de maracuya which is passion fruit
10:00
basically juice and made with corn all kinds of stuff but a super refreshing drink here in Panama
10:07
and you could never go wrong with getting a paleta and you might hear guys yelling paletas paletas
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pushing around a little cart they're selling these little popsicles which are
10:16
a must here in Panama really anywhere in Central America so paletas tasty tasty tasty grab one
10:23
also if you're missing some stuff from home fried chicken in Panama super good so uh don't pass
10:29
of the fried chicken. Good stuff. Now, if you want to eat with the locals when you are here in Panama
10:33
you don't have to go to a sit-down restaurant. The local Panamanians at lunchtime will go to
10:37
these little cafeteria kind of stuff things, and you'll pick your rice, your beans, your meat kind
10:42
of stuff and have it all together. Affordable prices, really tasty food, and you get to hang
10:47
out with the locals, and this is where they're eating. But I know for some tourists, they feel uncomfortable doing the like buffet style thing sometimes, but don't worry, you'll be fine, and the
10:55
food is fantastic. So don't forget to do that when you're here. If you look at what's up with a little
10:59
more kick the kind of national liquor is seco herrara herrara no i know it is hard to say herrara
11:06
no and basically what it is it's it's like like grapple you might have it's made from grace but
11:10
this is actually made of sugar cane and it's just a distilled spirit you'll have you can drink it
11:14
straight but i'd recommend mixing with stuff some people mix it with coke i actually mix mine with
11:19
uh maracuyo juice a passion fruit juice or you can have that you have those that's a really nice
11:24
thing to have and they have all the international sodas that you're here you'll notice when you're in Panama. Any international thing you want, they have. So if you're tired of the local food
11:31
you're tired of having the fantastic seafood. Yes, you get everything from Taco Bell to McDonald's
11:35
to Carl's Jr. if you want that. Okay. But honestly, lots of options here. I will say if you're in
11:41
Panama City, you're going to notice a lot of international restaurants because the c
11:45
all the business that goes through here, you do have a lot of Indian restaurants, Chinese restaurants
11:50
Italian restaurants, Mexican restaurants. So you have American restaurants. You have a lot of
11:54
options as well if you're not looking to have you know traditional panamanian food and i will say
11:59
in panama city sometimes it's hard to find traditional panamanian food you got to go into
12:03
the high rise and you'll find like the real stuff when you go there um some things i think is
12:06
important i mentioned before lunch is a big meal dinner is smaller um tipping you do tip here in
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panama 10 is fine but i will tell you make sure you look on your bill to see if they don't already
12:17
have the propina or servicio already included because they do you don't have to but you can
12:21
always tip more but 10% is the tip and if you go to somebody's house you're going someplace remember
12:26
don't forget to leave just a little bit of food on your plate because it means you're full and very
12:30
satisfied so I know we didn't get all the great food here in Panama please let me know down in
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the comments below what other food travelers should travel and taste when they are here in
12:38
Panama whether you're on a cruise going through the c or you're more exploring a hidden San
12:42
Blas Islands or wherever you're gonna go let us know and have a great time here in Panama and I'll
12:46
Say bye from Casco Viejo right on the Plaza de Independencia here in Panama City
12:51
Adios
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