As most of you will be reading my newsletter over breakfast, let me tempt your taste buds with breakfast flavors we love so much here in Panama with this platter set forth before your eyes!!
Here is a story by Leah Koenig on her experiences with breakfast here.
Before arriving in Panama City with my husband and son last week, we spoke with friends who had made the trip, and they told us to get ready for the fruit. They were right. The tropical metropolis is overflowing with stunningly sweet pineapples, mangos, melons and guavas (and many other species I could not readily identify).
What I was not prepared for was the city’s abundance of Jewish and kosher restaurants.
Take Darna’s Bread Co. Founded in 2003 by Ayelet Vahnish Gal and Esther Dahan — sisters who grew up in both Israel and Panama City — the kosher bakery and restaurant has become a fixture of the city’s growing culinary landscape. In addition to two Darna Bread locations, they also run Lula by Darna, an upscale kosher meat restaurant. (While certified kosher, Vahnish Gal said their clientele extends beyond the city’s estimated 5,000 to 10,000 Jews.)
The word darna translates to “my house” in Arabic (the sisters come from Moroccan ancestry), and reflects the restaurant’s homestyle approach to cooking. Vahnish Gal, who went to culinary school in Israel and apprenticed with baking legend Erez Komarovsky, among others, specializes in sourdough and other rustic loaves. She also turns out an array of cookies and pastries — think croissants filled with chocolate or, in a fun savory twist, cream cheese and smoked salmon, bourekas, cinnamon twists and raisin pinwheels.
