Breakfast in Panama City

Image by Leah Koenig
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 . 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.

Image by Leah Koenig
The cappuccinos and other espresso drinks are brewed from beans specially roasted for the restaurant by a local company. When my family ate breakfast there, we rounded out our meal with shakshuka, house made bread served alongside whipped labneh yogurt topped with za’atar and olive oil and a gorgeous plate of sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and olives.
As someone who comfortably eats vegetarian and fish dishes in non-kosher restaurants, I enjoyed sampling the fried fish and plantains, coconut rice and the rainbow of fruit that Panamanian cuisine is known for. But as a Jewish traveler making my way through Panama City, it was lovely to discover Darna’s taste of home.
Leah Koenig is the author of “Modern Jewish Cooking: Recipes & Customs for Today’s Kitchen.” She is a contributing editor at the Forward.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Gaza and Trump have left the Jewish community at war with itself — and me with a bad case of alienation
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Fast Forward Deborah Lipstadt says Trump’s campus antisemitism crackdown has ‘gone way too far’
-
Fast Forward 5 Jewish senators accuse Trump of using antisemitism as ‘guise’ to attack universities
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.