Panama City Is Becoming A Culinary Capital forbes.com

The ABC of XYZ is a travel writing cliché, but it’s fair to call Panama City the Dubai of Central America. Glass-and-steel towers stretch skyward, rising above the surrounding rainforest and the Pacific Ocean beyond. Commerce hums along, driven by the global importance of the Panama Canal and an entrepreneurial spirit that attracts luxury hospitality, contemporary design ideas and an increasingly international cuisine. (Perhaps it’s par for the course in the country that produces the most prestigious specialty coffee in the world.)

Dim sum is the traditional Panamanian breakfast, for a start, and it has been for decades. But now this metropolis of some 2 million people has more and more options for later in the day, ranging from an intimate dining counter where a local chef nerds out about indigenous ingredients to a sleek izakaya bar where the city’s scene-seeking gastronomes gather for spicy tuna hand rolls. Together, they make the Panamanian capital more than just a stopover—it’s a culinary destination in its own right.