Panama – Design Goodiness

Last week, I got to campus on Monday and to my surprise there was a gift bag waiting for me outside my door! In the gift bag there were two bags of chicheme.

A little back story:

Back in January, I had coffee with a colleague in my department who was planning to go to Panama over Spring Break. It was her first time and she was traveling with her family. She needed guidance on places to visit, and the unwritten rules of traveling to Panama. You may not know this about me, but I absolutely love giving suggestions and guidance about travel to Panama. I promise, I will only share my absolute favorite places!

Later in the semester, while my colleague was enjoying her spring break in Panama, she had the courtesy to text me and ask if there was anything she could bring back for me. Of course, without a doubt, my mind thought of food! One of my absolute favorite treats from Panama is a drink called “Chicheme.”

Chicheme is a milk-corn drink that we drink year-round in Panama. But, it is specially good in a hot summer day. One of my high school classmates, who is a foody and a pretty amazing person, wrote the best blog post about Chicheme and includes a recipe: https://www.cocinerita.com/chicheme/

I can’t imagine a better drink to enjoy that is both refreshing and filling at the same time like Chicheme is. When my mom makes Chicheme she makes more than plenty but it never lasts more than one day in the fridge. This recipe is very easy and versatile; every time I prepare it I make changes to it. If you find evaporated milk too heavy, you can always try with almond or coconut milk. I’m sure it should work wonderfully with any type of milk.

The corn that we use to make chicheme is small and is easy to pack for travel!

Connecting back to the beginning of this blog post:

So, after seeing these bags of chicheme, I proceeded to send my colleague a text message back and thanked her for bringing me the bags of chicheme!

Then, this past weekend I embarked on a chicheme-making journey. We made two versions of chicheme at home: vegan and non-vegan. Both of them tasted delicious!

I used a fairly similar recipe to the one described by JC in her blog post:

Chicheme corn
Water
Cinnamon sticks
Evaporated milk or Coconut evaporated milk
Vanilla extract
Sugar
Ground nutmeg

I hope that someday you get to enjoy the deliciousness that is Chicheme! If you ever go to Panama, put it in your list of traditional Panamanian food to try while you are visiting.

The year of 2022 gave me wonderful professional opportunities. After 9 years at The University of Tampa I accepted a position at The University of Tennessee Knoxville. It was not an easy decision from me because living in Tampa allowed me to surround myself with a large Latinx community. I spoke Spanish regularly, had a favorite radio station, and could eat all the amazing Latin American food that I wanted. I also just had to take a 3 hour non-stop flight from Tampa to Panama City. But there were also many concerns I had. Some were related to my family members (i.e. school district, future employment opportunities of partner, etc.) and others were related to my own career goals and aspirations as well as my changing level of satisfaction with living in Florida. When the opportunity came to apply for positions, with the support of my family, I decided to move forward with it. I accept a position and that meant relocating across states. I had an idea of the level of work and commitment the relocation would take but it was so much more than that. I am so glad I had cleared my schedule last summer. Selling a house was emotionally exhausted. The move itself was not as draining but dealing with one of the craziest real state markets was too much mentally. What kept us moving forward with knowing that the move would give better educational opportunities for our son, a career change for my partner, and a position in which I could further my career goals, while living a city and region that we knew we would enjoy exploring.

Long intro that leads me to say that unlike most people, last summer was anything but relaxing. So with lots of work and school assignments during the Fall term we decided that it was time to reclaim so rest and relaxation during the Winter Break. Those plans took us two sunny destinations: Panama and Costa Rica. After leaving Panama in such a rush at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, I wanted to go back to finish the trip that was cut short for us. We also wanted to enjoy beautiful Costa Rica. During his undergraduate years, my partner spend a Summer studying Spanish in Costa Rica and he is full of stories of his travels throughout the country. I had visited Costa Rica as a child with my parents but was limited to mostly visiting the capital city, San Jose (and surrounding areas: Cartage and Queretaro). So needless to say we were all very excited to explore Costa Rica as a family. Words can not really describe the beauty of these two countries. I would highly recommend them. I am so incredibly grateful and I know also privilege to have taken this time to rest, recharge, and give myself permission to have fun.