• 

• 

On a quiet, unsuspecting road in Bocas Town, I spotted smoke wafting from an open barbecue and I knew I’d found it. I travelled thirty minutes on a bumpy, flooded road to get myself to Octo, for what I’d heard was one of the best restaurants on Isla Colon, maybe in the whole country, for Caribbean food. When I read that chef Joseph Archbold had returned to his country to pay homage to Panamanian cuisine after training abroad and competing on Top Chef, I expected his “gourmet Caribbean” might be served in an upscale joint. I was surprised to discover a casual leafy outdoor space adorned with hanging lights and picnic tables from which we could watch the only two cooks (besides chef Joseph) work in the food truck and attend the outdoor barbecue.

• 

• 

They told me that day’s menu was not the norm. By relying on local products, their daily-changing menu is often limited by what’s available. Main options included jerk chicken, urel with escabeche, and a marlin sandwich with curried caramelized onions and garlic mayo. If this was their menu on a bad day, I can’t imagine what a good day tastes like. The standout was the roast vegetable dip made of roasted peppers, onions, garlic oil, ginger and Archbold’s “smokey-spicy sauce”. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

One taste of that sauce and I needed to know more. Archbold would later tell me “Its a love story, this sauce. I really like to make condiments but this smoke sauce is one of my favourites because it’s a combination of situations and products that I really like and are the soul of our cultural flavours ands smells. Like aji chombo peppers that we smoke slowly with coconut shells gives a lot of the fragrance and flavour to that sauce.”