Best snorkeling

Staying in a house standing in water in Isla Colon at the Caribbean coast of Panama. There is a long strip of coral right in front of the house just a meter below. This is the best snorkeling I had so far in terms of convenience and closeness.

Red frog

This thumb nail size red frog is unique to the island Bocas del Toro, in the north west corner of Panama.

Cocoa plantation

Stayed in an Eco-lodge in Bocas del toro in the north west of Panama, it is also a small organic cocoa plantation.

Cocoa flower is small and comes any time of the year, fertilized by insects and the football size fruit takes 4 to 6 months to mature.

Coffee fruit tea

Boquete is 2000m above sea level and is the coffee growing area in Panama. Visited a farm that sun dry coffee berry for 20 days, then take out the bean for roasting, (instead of the traditional method using water to wash away the fruit pulp hence wasting a lot of water.)

The left behind dried fruit pulp is used to make an infusion, light brown like tea with a mild sour taste, has lots of antioxidant, sounds like an up coming superfood.

Tree tomato

A species of tomato that grown on pereniel tree in South America. The skin is tough but the flesh is soft and juicy like tomato, tasted like a cross between tomato and guava.

Local people add water, sugar and serve as a drink, or mix with chili as a hot sauce, or made into jam. Needless to say I have saved some seeds.

Panamanian drink

Tasted this concoction in a beach resort in the Pacific coast of Panama. A generous mixture of lime juice, coconut cream, sugar and ice shaving, delicious and suit the environment.

Panama Canal

The Canal just reached a hundred years old, consisting of 3 locks with 6 steps to bring ships across Panama, from Pacific to Atlantic Ocean, or vice versa.

The locks are gigantic, very expensive to build and very difficult to fix, no mistake is allowed in driving the ship into the locks. So instead of the captain driving the ship into the lock, it is connected to 6 to 8 powerful tractors along the 2 side walls of the lock, to slowly pull the ship into position.

Gamboa rainforest discovery centre

My favorite birds and animal spotted in the centre.

Ant eater

Blue crowned motmot

Slaty tail trogon

Roufus motmot

Keel bill toucan

Keel Bill Toucan

Amazon King Fisher

Fish

In the fish market in Panama City, there are a lot of fish available, good size too. However in average restaurants, they simply deep fried and hence overcooked the fish, quite sad.

In Isla Taboga, it is easy to spot shoals of big fish jumping out, being chased by even bigger fish. Anyone with basic fishing skill can easily bring fish home. 

In the holiday house, I like to grill them on barbecue or cook in a pan with half cm water to simulate steaming, around 5 minutes is enough.

Panama City new and old

The water front area  of new Panama City with these skyscrapers is the most photogenic of the city.

Whereas old Panama, which is undergoing massive renovation, is very charming with 19C French  built houses.

Curry pork loin

An easy way to add curry flavor to pork loin/chop.

1. Season half an inch thick pork loin with salt for half an hour, then sear both sides golden, the middle is still raw.

2. On a baking tray, cover both sides of pork loin generously with curry powder, add desiccated coconut on the surface.

3. Bake at 150˚C until coconut is lightly golden, the pork cooked through, around 20 minutes. The juice that came out will form a thick curry sauce. Decorate with confit garlic.

Grilled khol rabi

Other than pickling and eating raw, another good way to serve khol rabi is to bake or grill it on barbeque, concentrating the mildly sweet flavor, making it a good vegetable to serve on bbq dinner.

Cut khol rabi into half cm slices, place in a big bowl, drizzle olive oil and give it a good shake. Grill on barbeque or bake at 2000˚ until lightly golden, around 20 minutes.

Grilled pumpkin with anchovy

A simple way to add saltiness and flavor to grilled/or baked sweet pumpkin.

Cut pumpkin into slices, oil both sides and grill or bake at 200˚C until soft and lightly golden. Lay anchovy on top and serve.

Cranes flying south

An indication that winter is coming soon is to see groups of crane flying south, with unique squeaking noise like they are communicating to each other or are enjoying themselves.

 

Salted fish egg with lemon & chili

In Spring I have salted and frozen some Shad fish egg, a bit like making Korean salted fish egg (明太子).

I cook it with juice of a lemon and chili flakes, very tasty and great on as a dip or serve on toast.