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Dolores Wiarco Dweck, known by her nearest and dearest as Lola, has a great appreciation for Mexican cuisine and culture. Lola's culinary mentors include her relatives and friends as well as some of Mexico’s great chefs and home cooks. She preserves and shares her favorite recipes through Lola’s Cocina.
Instagram Inspiration
¡HOLA! This year I’ve created my first-ever holiday gift guide and it includes some of my absolute favorite purchases – most of which were gifts to myself.
I love gifting these items to my amigas, hermanas, and comadres. ¡Espero que les guste! Tag a comadre who needs some holiday shopping inspiration.
LOLA’S HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE: 15 Ideas for Comadres Who Love Comida, Cultura, and Self-Care //lolascocina.com (direct link in profile)
“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” - Ann Lamott
It’s been a busy year and isn’t winding down anytime soon, so I’m very much looking forward to some California sunshine and quality family time over the winter break.
Where will you be spending the holidays?
I couldn’t resist buying some of these beautiful hibiscus flowers. In Panama they’re called saril and they use the fresh flowers to make tea, similar to our agua de jamaica.
What’s your favorite way to use flor de jamaica? After making agua fresca, I season and sauté the rehydrated flowers and use them to fill tacos and taquitos, and to top tostadas.
Happiest of birthdays to my love. We’ve been celebrating all week on a kid-free getaway in Panama. Cheers to many, many more years of travel adventures, love, health, and happiness!
Happy Thanksgiving! Today I’m thankful for a relaxing day at the beach.
Day 6 Highlights:
Waking up at 5:30 a.m. to spend the day at Isla Contadora, which is part of the Pearl Islands archipelago in Panama’s gulf coast. We never saw more than five people at any of the beaches and loved it!
GOOD TO KNOW: Panama City doesn’t really have beachfront hotels. We had to catch an early ferry that took us to Isla Contadora, which was about two hours away. The closest island to the city is Taboga, which is a 30-minute ferry ride away.
Name that flower! Hint: it’s one of my favorites. #nofilter
Today was all about food in Panama.
Day 5 Highlights: Discovering local gems on a @ptylife food tour.
We enjoyed passion fruit cheesecake, pineapple empanadas, appetizers and dessert in a hidden garden oasis, drinks on a rooftop bar with panoramic views of the city, empanadas from a street vendor, and topped we off the night with nutella cheesecake and Geisha coffee.
FUN FACT: Panama is famous for its Geisha coffee, which is the most expensive in the world. While it sells for approximately $7 per cup in Panama, you can spend $18 in NYC and $68 per cup in Dubai.
WHY IS GEISHA COFFEE SO EXPENSIVE? Geisha coffee can cost more than $600 per pound, and Panama’s geisha coffee beans are comparatively expensive for two reasons.
1. They require very specific cultivation conditions and are extremely demanding to both grow and harvest.
2. Demand for the very best Panama geisha coffee beans in the world has been growing consistently for some time now.
¡Hola! What’s everyone in charge of this Thanksgiving? If I were in the States, I’d be making my famous pumpkin cheese flan.
This flan is perfect to enjoy all year long, but is especially delicious in the fall. It combines the flavors and textures of three delicious desserts: pumpkin pie, cheesecake, and flan. Add it to your Thanksgiving menu and it’s sure to be a hit.
To make Lola’s World-Famous Pumpkin Cheese Flan, visit lolascocina.com // direct link in profile
Today we spent the day exploring Panama City!
Day 4 Highlights:
Getting lost in the Casco Viejo neighborhood, which reminded me a little of Cuba with it’s Spanish colonial buildings, some of which have been updated to house hip restaurants, coffee shops, bars, and boutique hotels, while others are dilapidated and condemned.
Viewing the enormous ships pass through the Panama Canal as we enjoyed the sunset (and drinks) at Atlantic & Pacific Cocina. The experience was a lesson in Latin American history, politics, engineering, and international trade, all in one hour.
TRAVEL TIP: You can pay $20/person to watch the ships pass through in front of the Panama Canal’s Miraflores Visitor Center viewing area or put that money toward food and drinks and have the same view from the Atlantic & Pacific Cocina. We arrived at 5:15 pm, right before the last few ships passed through. You do NOT have to pay for tickets if you’re eating or enjoying drinks at the restaurant. We also visited the Museo del Canal in Casco Viejo beforehand after reading that it was better and less expensive than the one at the actual canal.
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