On our Friday date today I felt like eating something typical Panamanian--rice, beans and some stewed meat or such. The water suggested Rabito de Toro Encendido, so I said OK.
The rice and beans came mixed together, which is what I do to them anyway. The steaming hot meat with sauce looked a little different. The tender, moist chunks fell off the bone easy enough, but the bone was what looked different. It looked like vertebrae from the back. So I dug in anyway.
After eating about half I asked the waitress about the meat, if it was pork. She said it was the highest quality beef from a bull. I asked if it was from the backbone. She said, you’re warm. So I asked, is it the tail? Yes! It had to be the fattest tail I’ve ever seen on a cow. But I kept eating and enjoying it.
The name Rabito de Toro Encendido means Burning Bull Tail. It’s really a popular Cuban meal, that they go crazy for in Miami, we were told. Usually it’s served with a very hot spice in the sauce. I’m glad mine wasn’t. Besides, hot & spicy is not Panamanian style at all. (Remember that Taco Bell went out of business here! :-( emoticon frown).
Kirk Antonio Jones