Thursday, January 31, 2008

How do you say, "Table for two" in Spanish?

This past week, I had the pleasure of traveling to Panama for work. No, not the "redneck riviera", the actual country. What a great trip to follow Montreal. After I had been frozen to the bone, I was happy to thaw out in a locale that has a high temperature of 84F and a low of 80F. Sign me up!

After a somewhat grueling trip into the country, we arrived at our hotel, the Veneto, which is a casino hotel -- Panama City is crawling with them. One of my coworkers and I went to a restaurant just a stone's throw from the restaurant, based on the recommendation of the receptionist at the hotel.

So, off to Pomodoro's we went. And the verdict. Eck. After a wild charades game of "I don't speak Spanish, do you?", we were seated in a really nice patio area. The ambiance was the best thing to come, I found out after we were served.

First, the food was really cheap. I don't want to seem like a snob, but the food was too cheap. I mean, c'mon, filet mignon that is $5? I just don't know about that. Panama uses the US dollar, so there were no conversion obstacles here, and we also knew that things were a lot cheaper down here, but really? Really??

It wasn't fine Italian. It was kind of what I'd expect to find in the food court of a mall. I ordered lasagna, which I figured would be difficult to mess up, but the meat was...I don't know...ground a bit too thin? Kind of similar texture as the chili on a Varsity dog? But not as tasty?

We ended up ordering two glasses of the most expensive wine, two appetizers, and two entrees. Our bill was $34. Wow.

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