What the locals were eating when, 505 years ago, Pedrarias The Cruel occupied an ancient indigenous village and began to set up what has become Panama City. Photo from Kristof Zyskowski & Yulia Bereshpolova’s Cataloging Nature.
Piva nut soup – a more international way to consume
one of Panama’s most ancient staples
by Eric Jackson
We now get to mid-August, that traditional time when the Bactris Basipaes – piva in Zonian English, or variously styled pixbae, pifá, pibá, or peach palm (etc.) is fruiting in many places across the tropical and subtropical Americas. It’s a stick-to-the-ribs starchy staple – the edible orange flesh of each piva nut has about 180 calories. These things, most commonly prepared by boiling in salted water, then peeled with the hard pit in the middle discarded, are loaded with Vitamin C and has lots of Vitamin A, phosphorus, iron, calcium and magnesium. It’s rich in polyunsaturated fats, which help to lower blood cholesterol.
So, when Pedraias the Cruel took over this ancient village 505 years ago today, he subjugated people who grew the palm trees that produce these fruits and boiled them in seawater to sustain themselves. That tradition and recipe continue to this day, but Panama was conquered, colonized and otherwise culturally influence by wave upon wave of foreigners and their tastes. The Spaniards brought in African slaves. The Americans first came in great numbers to build a railroad, bringing, among others, a lot of Chinese laborers to work on the project. The French were here to build a canal, a project finished under US direction and with the establishment of a colony known as the Canal Zone. Britannia ruled the waves, and its ships and sailors regularly called at Panama.
You would expect many of these foreigners to acquire the taste. You wouldn’t be so unreasonable as to expect them to leave it at that, would you?
Can you notice the French and Gringo influences?
Piva soup in an international way
Ingredients (no need to be exact)
- Piva nuts
- Bacon (lonja or other)
- Water
- Onions
- Potatoes
- Carrots
- Salt
- Sour cream
- Sherry
Directions:
- Cut the bacon into bits and fry it to where it at least starts to brown. Set the meat AND the grease aside to add later.
- Steam the pivas to be fully cooked enough to eat. Let them cool and then peel them remove the pits cut them into chunks and put them in pot with a cover with a bit of salt and simmer them until quite soft, then mash them.
- Add more water if necessary, and cut up carrots, potatoes and onions. Mash and stir as you go. Add water if need to keep it as a viscous liquid. Add the bacon bits and grease and continue to simmer.
- To get that perfect consistency, you may want to run the mix through a blender.
- You got this orangey glop with the flavor sort of like you want it now? Heat it up again, add a dollop of sour cream and a bit of sherry, stir to mix it all in well, remove from heat.
- You have a modified Jackson family recipe for Piva soup.
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