Panama’s first-ever narrative feature film, produced by the Igar Yala Collective, a group made up primarily of rural and urban Kuna youth. This contemporary coming-of-age story introduces two young Kuna: a boy raised by his grandfather in his ancestral homelands and a girl who has never been there.

The movie starts at 7 p.m. The movie is free, but you must register online. We’ll follow up on the festival after the 14th.

UPDATE

One of the most complicated aspects of examining the food featured at Mitsitam and Native Amerian cuisine in general is the influence of other regional cuisine on Native American cuisine, as well as the regional variations within the food throughout the Americas. Although the festival was called The Power of Chocolate, we did not see any chocolate samples and the festival mostly focused on a few tables explaining how chocolate grows and is cultivated (some focusing on children) and live dancing.

Mitsitam was out of many of the foods around 5 when we arrived, but we were able to sample some of the cuisine there (although not the chocolate soup, venison, buffalo, or wild rice salad). The restaurant is on the ground level of the museum and has a high end cafeteria buffet feel to it. The menu items are grouped by region, which is kind of interesting. The plates of food are mostly small, similar to tapas, with the exception of some larger entrees. After selecting the food we wanted to eat, we paid and were able to find a seat by the window. The cafe has large windows that look out onto the fountains, which is nice.

Native American cuisine is extremely varied due to environmental aspects. Mitsitam’s cuisine focuses on several regions and arranges the food items by region, which makes it easy to understand the context of all the different dishes. The Northern Woodlands features ingredients like oysters, maple syrup, pumpkins, wild mushrooms, venison, turkey, cranberries, dandelions, sunchoke, watercress, wild rice, duck, corn, and winter squash. South America features escabeche, hearts of palm, fish, salsa, chicken, coconut, ceviche, tamales, peanut sauces, pork loin, tomatoes, squash, amaranth, jicama, guava, flan, and blue corn. The Northwest Coast features ingredients like clams, salmon, steak, roots, blueberries, sweet potato, birch bark syrup, wild mushrooms, tomatoes, wild rice, pumpkin, and bison. Meso America includes burritos, plantains, chili sauce, spinach, tortillas, mole, squash, pumpkin, guacamole, corn chips, carrots, cotija cheese, and pepitas. The Great Plains food items include buffalo, pinto beats, fry bread, chayote, cinnamon, honey, berries, heirloom beans, wild onion, pinion cookies, popcorn balls, and sarsaparilla. The cafe also has a wide range of desserts and the menu changes seasonally. Based on what we read on Native American food, these items reflect typical food items that were eaten by Native Americans. Wikipedia also has a lot of information on Native American cuisine.

Mitistam reflects the wide range of food in native cuisine and the different staples that come out of lifestyles based on hunting, fishing, gathering, farming, and the use of domesticated animals. We ended up trying only a few things because each plate was rather pricey, even with the discount. Also, a lot of the food items were unavailable because of the high demand thanks to the festival.

We started out trying a chocolate arepa, which was warm, savory, and had a rich chocolate flavor. The sweetness was not overpowering and it tasted similar to a pupusa without any filling. We learned on Wikipedia that an arepa is a bread made from corn that is popular in Columbia and Venezuala. The corn patty is unleavened and flattened, either by grilling, baking, for frying. A lot of variation exists from region to region on the consistency, color, size, thickness, garniture, and fillings of the arepa. Wikiepda notes that “Arepa is a native bread made of ground corn, water, and salt which is fried into a pancake-like bread. It is either topped or filled with meat, eggs, tomatoes, salad, cheese, shrimp, or fish.” Our arepas seemed to be more Venezuelan than Colombian since they were about 3/4 of an inch thick and were “arepa dulces,” or sweet arepas, which are common in Venezuala. Although most arepas are savory, ours tasted delicious.

We also tried the empanadas with chocolate sauce (an empanada is stuffed bread or pastry). We were curious about the history of the empanada and learned that they are Spanish and Portuguese in origin. The name comes from the verb empanar, which means to wrap or coat in bread. The Spanish empanada is usually larger and more circular, but cut into smaller portions for consumption, while the South American empanada is smaller and more half moon shaped. The empanada was brought to South America by colonists. Empanadas vary tremendously from region to region. Their fillings can include meat, potatos, or sausage, etc. We looked up whether there are sweet empanadas, and found that these typically exist in the Columbian city of Leticia, where they are often filled with tropical fruit. These sweet empanadas exist in Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Haiti, in addition. We couldn’t figure out which region ours was from, but they were small and reminded us more of a wonton than an empanada. Ours were savory, with the exception of the chocolate sauce they placed on it, which was syrupy (not like a mole sauce).

We were especially pleased that the cafe had fry bread, which we love and is hard to find in this area. Fry bread is distinctly American and was first made in the 1600s. It is a flat dough deep-fried and then topped with various ingredients. Mitsitam features the Indian Taco, which we thought was their invention. However, we learned from the taco entry on Wikipedia that “Indian tacos, sometimes known as Navajo tacos but served in various parts of the American West and Midwest, are made using frybread instead of tortillas. They are commonly served at pow-wows, festivals, and other gatherings.” Their Indian Taco is $11 and consists of buffalo chili, pinto beans, picklled chilis, lettuce, tomatos, and cheese. We found it to be extremely filling and delicious. We also liked the fact that we got to try buffalo. We also learned that fry bread (also written as “frybread”) has such a large role in Native American cultures that it was named the official “state bread” of South Dakota in 2005. We also tried the fry bread with honey, which is another way fry bread can be served (also powdered sugar can be used instead of honey). This was also pretty yummy. We ended up getting an agua fresca, which are refreshing beverages of various concoctions that originated in Meixco, but now are popular all over the Americas. Ours was milky, mild, and sweet. We probably ended up having agua de horchata, which is a type of agua fresca that is made from either almonds, sesame seeds, rice, barley, or tigernuts. The drink originated in Valencia in Spain and then spread to Latin America, so we don’t know how typically native it is. Ours was tan and milky, so we think we got more of the Mexican variety, which often is made from rice and has a cinnamon flavoring.

We would have liked to have tried more food items, however the food was fairly filling and some of the more interesting dishes were sold out. We were offered a sample and were able to try amaranth; we recommend asking for samples if it seems possible. Amaranth is a grain that is cultivated in Asia and the Americas. It was one of the staples of the Incas and known as kiwicha in the Andes. Compared to other grains, amaranth was very tiny and had a harder texture. Amaranth, although not well-known, was incredibly important to native cultures like the Aztecs, who used it in their ceremonies and created compositions of the gods using the grain and honey. It also apparently is referenced a lot in literature and music.

TOTAL: ~$30 for lunch for two people

Add Your Own Photos

Select an image to upload:	Browse for file  Enter URL Import Image by URL
Caption:

power-of-chocolate-nmai nmai-mitistam-baked-oysters nmai-mitistam-checkout nmai-mitistam-chefs nmai-mitistam-chefs2 nmai-mitistam-chocolate-arepa nmai-mitistam-chocolate-arepa2 nmai-mitistam-cocoa nmai-mitistam-duck-salad nmai-mitistam-exterior nmai-mitistam-fry-bread-honey nmai-mitistam-indian-taco nmai-mitistam-interior-2 nmai-mitistam-interior nmai-mitistam-lamb-empanada nmai-mitistam-lamb-empanada2 nmai-mitistam-meal nmai-mitistam-meal2 nmai-mitistam-performance nmai-mitistam-performance2 nmai-mitistam-power-of-chocolate nmai-mitistam-power-of-chocolate2 nmai-mitistam-tacos nmai-mitistam-venison nmai-mitistam-wild-rice-fact