Dinner & Evening Ritual in El Valle
Dec. 30th, 2024 06:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerPanama Travelog #24
El Valle, Panama - Thu, 26 Dec 2024. 9pm.
In my previous blog I said I'd start posting one-a-day entries from our trip to Panama to speed things along. Here I am now, just one entry later, and I'm going to break that cadence by posting a second daily entry. I didn't even last one day. 🤣
The reason I'm breaking stride is that we've just had an amazing dinner here in El Valle. How ironic that it was only on our fourth and final night here that we figured out how to do this. Instead of solving for "What's most convenient and doesn't look terrible?" we decided to search TripAdvisor reviews with a cuisine in mind. Hawk found a well regarded Mexican restaurant that wasn't far away. Actually it was in a neighboring hotel that was so swank it made us sad all over again about the bare-bones, false-advertising place we got stuck at.
After a round of drinks and an appetizer of guacamole, our main dishes— platos fuertes, they call them in Panama— arrived. Hawk ordered two steak tacos. They came beautifully presented on a plate and with plenty more guacamole, which she loves.
Meanwhile I'd ordered a full order of birria tacos....
What landed was more like a quesadilla— and a humongous one, at that. But that was okay because what was on my mind tonight was, "Hmm, what I really want tonight is a quesadilla"! It was delicious. And it was so big I could only finish half of it.
After dinner we drove back to our dumpy, disappointing hotel. We made our usual after-dinner stop by the Rey supermarket. Rey is a chain here in Panama and is far-and-away the nicest "mini-super" in El Valle. We've gone shopping every evening to pick up a few drinks and snacks. Why every evening? Because our Spartan little hotel room doesn't even have a fridge! So every evening I've bought a bottle of soda, a snack for dessert, and two bottles of beer. Fortunately mini-supers in Panama all sell beer by the individual bottle. And Rey has an amazing selection of singles available. Even better, the single bottle price is basically just 1/6 the price of a 6-pack. Trying buying a single normal bottle of beer at a fair price in the US.... You literally can't!
I was told, in paternalistic tones, by a store's district manager when I challenged them about that once that "Selling single bottles promotes alcoholism." Sure, 7-Eleven, keep selling your refrigerated 18-packs. That's not promoting alcoholism! 🙄
El Valle, Panama - Thu, 26 Dec 2024. 9pm.
In my previous blog I said I'd start posting one-a-day entries from our trip to Panama to speed things along. Here I am now, just one entry later, and I'm going to break that cadence by posting a second daily entry. I didn't even last one day. 🤣
The reason I'm breaking stride is that we've just had an amazing dinner here in El Valle. How ironic that it was only on our fourth and final night here that we figured out how to do this. Instead of solving for "What's most convenient and doesn't look terrible?" we decided to search TripAdvisor reviews with a cuisine in mind. Hawk found a well regarded Mexican restaurant that wasn't far away. Actually it was in a neighboring hotel that was so swank it made us sad all over again about the bare-bones, false-advertising place we got stuck at.
After a round of drinks and an appetizer of guacamole, our main dishes— platos fuertes, they call them in Panama— arrived. Hawk ordered two steak tacos. They came beautifully presented on a plate and with plenty more guacamole, which she loves.
Meanwhile I'd ordered a full order of birria tacos....
What landed was more like a quesadilla— and a humongous one, at that. But that was okay because what was on my mind tonight was, "Hmm, what I really want tonight is a quesadilla"! It was delicious. And it was so big I could only finish half of it.
After dinner we drove back to our dumpy, disappointing hotel. We made our usual after-dinner stop by the Rey supermarket. Rey is a chain here in Panama and is far-and-away the nicest "mini-super" in El Valle. We've gone shopping every evening to pick up a few drinks and snacks. Why every evening? Because our Spartan little hotel room doesn't even have a fridge! So every evening I've bought a bottle of soda, a snack for dessert, and two bottles of beer. Fortunately mini-supers in Panama all sell beer by the individual bottle. And Rey has an amazing selection of singles available. Even better, the single bottle price is basically just 1/6 the price of a 6-pack. Trying buying a single normal bottle of beer at a fair price in the US.... You literally can't!
I was told, in paternalistic tones, by a store's district manager when I challenged them about that once that "Selling single bottles promotes alcoholism." Sure, 7-Eleven, keep selling your refrigerated 18-packs. That's not promoting alcoholism! 🙄
