Casa del Helado

Casa del Helado
Calle 50 and Via Brasil
Panama City, Panama

As far as I know, most of my readers are not from tropical regions. Sure, chances are you might have been there for a trip during winter (or flocking to the tropics like migratory birds, as I used to say to, oddly enough, a friend from Panama who lives in Mississauga) or maybe a cruise but… Assuming this is true, most people will not have experienced one of the greatest blessings and curses at the same time of the tropics: the weather. As far as I can remember, in Panama City, temperature have never dropped to single digits (in Celsius, that would be below 50 Fahrenheit), given its location and because it is at sea level. In fact, I don’t remember the temperature drop below 18C/65F! During my trip, the temperature was in the low 30C/high 80F almost all the time. However, that was not the killer: it was humidity. Other than my very last day in Panama, in every single day, the humidity was over 80%! I must mention that Panama, like most tropical countries, have two seasons: dry season, from end of December to mid April, and rainy season during the rest of the year. Guess when I was there! (BTW, as a “funny” Canadian joke, it is said that Ottawa has also two seasons: winter and election season. Har, har, har… NOT… ^_^;;;)

Everytime I went out for a walk, within the city (most of my friends were working so asking them to drive me around would have been really difficult), after an hour or so, I was drenched. It did not matter what I wore, as long as there was sunlight, it was cursed to be like that. And, of course, walking outside during noon hours was not an option. Wearing shorts/lighter clothing? Not necessarily an option either… Now that I bring this, I have sort of a running joke on how to recognize a tourist: If you see somebody wearing shorts on a weekday in a busy Panamanian street, chances are, that is a tourist(*)! See, Panamanians are proud. Even with the heat, they will be dressed accordingly. Sure, people have started to deviate from the norm; however, in some places (specially banks and government offices), you are not allowed in if you are wearing shorts or flip-flops or similar. So, how do people deal with this? Simple: (1) You get used to it – in my case, after living in Canada all these years, I have been “de-programmed” and, as a result, suffered from it… again… (2) Most cars have their air conditioners (AC) on the whole time. Same with buildings, almost all stores have AC units. (3) Drink lots of liquid (water, or the young coconut I showed previously) or, in the case of today’s post, have some treats, like “ice cream” – in this case, La Casa del Helado.

A far shot of the shop; this was taken in the morning, which explains why it is completely empty.

La Casa del Helado, literally, Ice Cream House has been an institution in Panama. As mentioned in the sign above, it has been there since 1976, more than 30 years. In an age where independent shops are being pushed by giants or chains (for example, there are/were? Baskin 31 Robbins in Panama) it is good to see that small shops like this are still kicking around. Oddly, though, from what I was able to gather afterwards, their mix is purchased from one of the (for purpose of this post, unnamed) largest dairy producers in Panama. But, still, as long as it does not carry their logo, I am OK with that…

Wait, is that a soft serve machine? But soft serve and ice cream are not the same! What give? OK, here is a case of lost in translation: in Spanish (or, at least the way, it is used in Panama), soft serve does not have a direct translation and, instead, helado (the straight translation of ice cream) is used to encompass almost all frozen custard dairy dessert. Technically, that will include gelato; however, there are also stand alone shops selling gelatos and calling them, well, gelato. But, you might wonder, what about places like McD’s or DQ? How they call their soft serve products? The usually call them conos (cones). With that settled (hopefully!), let’s take a look at the flavours…

From top down, first a mango salad for $0.70 and then flavours: vanilla, strawberry, sugar cane, chocolate, peanuts and passion fruit. Not sure if it was necessary to say it but the strawberry one was not something I would order. Why? While Panama does produce strawberry in really small quantities (in mountainous/high regions called Volcan and Boquete), more often than not, when you see anything strawberry-flavoured, chances are, they will be using artificial flavouring. In this case, the strawberry flavour had a really bizarre pinkish colour similar to that of bubblegum pink. Yes, it was scary… Anyway, here is what I ordered: a small serving of sugar cane helado.

How much was it? US $0.90! Side note for environmentalist: yes, that’s a styrofoam cup. Unfortunately, Panama is not yet at the same level as other countries when it comes to recycling. In fact, you can see plastic bottles and aluminum cans in the trash, if not as litter (which, in its own way, is another problem).

Not sure if it is really noticeable from this shot but the soft serve was really thick! Think of DQ soft serve thick, not Wendy’s soft serve thick. If you were greedy and wanted a large spoonful, there was a chance the plastic spoon might break! (Just for fun, I did try that and the spoon was staring to bend a bit too much for my liking). As for the taste, yes, it had that sweet, raw sugar-y taste you would only experience when you chew/suck sugar cane. And, believe me, it is at a different level from refined sugar! Did I like it? While I will have desserts/treats like this once in a while (yeah right!), a second visit during a short period of time would have been an indication. Yes, it was good!

On a different day, they did not have passion fruit, rather they had papaya!

Tagged under: Dessert • Ice Cream • Panama City