Panama: Food and the National Dish

A cuisine shaped by two coasts and a canal

Panama's geography, a narrow isthmus with a Caribbean coast on one side and a Pacific coast on the other, connected by the canal that gives the country its global significance, produces a food culture that draws from both coastlines and from the many cultures that have passed through as a result of that maritime crossing point.

The national dish: sancocho

Sancocho, a hearty soup of chicken, ñame (a yam that thickens it) and culantro, a herb similar to but distinct from cilantro, often with yuca, corn on the cob and otoe added, is Panama's national dish. Genuinely comfort food, sancocho is cooked in Panamanian households for gatherings and often recommended as the best remedy for a hangover, and the dish is closely related to versions found under the same name across Colombia, the Dominican Republic and much of the wider Caribbean and Latin America.

Coconut rice, fried fish and the coastal pantry

Along Panama's coasts, coconut rice, fried fish and patacones (fried, flattened plantain) form a beloved everyday combination, reflecting both Caribbean and Pacific coastal influence. Corn, in tamales and other forms, and a wide range of tropical fruit round out a pantry shaped by Panama's position between two oceans.

History behind the crossing point

Panama's role as a narrow land bridge between two oceans and two continents has shaped its food for centuries, first as a Spanish colonial transit route for goods crossing between the Pacific and the Caribbean, and later through the canal itself, which brought workers and cultural influence from across the Caribbean, particularly Afro-Caribbean communities from islands like Jamaica and Barbados who were recruited to build the railway and the canal from the mid-19th century to the early 20th.

Dishes to know

Five more to recognise across Panama:

• Patacones — fried, flattened green plantain, a common side dish

across the country.

• Ceviche — raw fish cured in lime juice, commonly made from corvina,

popular given Panama's coastline on both oceans.

• Tamales — corn dough filled with meat and wrapped in leaves, with

chicken tamales a fixture of the Panamanian Christmas table.

• Ropa vieja — shredded beef in a tomato-based sauce, a dish of

Spanish origin shared with Cuba, where it is a national dish.

• Chicheme — a sweet drink of pounded corn spiced with cinnamon and

nutmeg, a speciality of Chiriquí and La Chorrera.

Drinks

Chicheme, a sweet corn-based drink, and fresh tropical fruit juices are common everyday refreshments. Seco Herrerano, a sugarcane spirit distilled in Pesé, is the country's best-known liquor, and Panamanian coffee, grown in the Chiriquí highlands around Boquete, has built a genuine international reputation, with Geisha beans fetching record auction prices.

Eating as a traveller

Vegetarians will find rice, plantain and bean dishes manageable, though meat and fish are central to most traditional Panamanian cooking. Bottled water is easy to find. Trying sancocho at a family table or a simple local eatery is an authentic way to experience the national dish as comfort food rather than a restaurant special.

What to take from the table

Sancocho, hearty and shared with several neighbouring countries under the same name, is the dish Panamanians call their own comfort food — and a plate of coconut rice and fried fish from the coast shows just how much the country's two oceans shape everything else on the table.