Pollos Jap Jap
Several Locations in Panama
Avenida 1AB Norte, El Cangrejo (Location visited)
Panama City, Panama
Around 20 or so years ago, a small food revolution occurred in Panama. Before that revolution, if it was late night (heck, even in an afternoon), and you wanted some snacks, aside from some 24 hours places (how Panama have them while we barely have one here in Vancouver is beyond me…) most likely you would end up in some shady, run down place with some mysterious characters running it. I know this quite well, as I used to live near one of these shady, run down places and knew those mysterious characters well! The food was usually fried: fried fish being the main staple, other frituras (fried food) like chicharrón, empanadas (fried savoury pocket pies) and hojaldras (similar to johnnycakes), yuca (cassava root), patacón (fried plantain) were usually found along. In some “special” days, morcilla, the local version of blood sausage could also be found. In the afternoons, I usually end up buying $0.50 of fried chicken heart (I was given about two dozen small morsels). Of course there were the legit ones and those that open only after 6:00 p.m. *cough**cough* In the later case, they had other sides to go along: potato salad (made with mayo from a jar and no fridge nearby!), arroz con pollo (chicken rice) and so on. Feel free to call it, “the old times”…
The revolution came in the form of chicken. But not any chicken (we already had KFC and similar local chicken shops): It was grilled chicken. People took 55 gallon barrels, cut it in half, added some hinges, a rack and you have a grill. What to cook in a grill? While pork is not that popular in Panama compared to beef (and this one not being cheap in Panama to being with), grilling fish is always a tricky business (besides, fried fish tasted a lot better), it left one small bird as an option: chicken. So, suddenly, in almost every other corner had one of these selling grilled chicken after 6:00 p.m. However, there was a precursor, somebody who triggered this chain of events. From what I can remember, the precursor of this is Pollos Jap Jap. (Oh, just in case, in Spanish, the “J” has a soft intonation, similar to how you would usually pronounce the “h” in English. However, in this case, despite its spelling, “Jap” would be similar to jab, as in the punch).
