Food!

I think one of everybody´s favorite things about traveling is trying new foods. And one of everybody´s favorite things about hearing about other people´s travels is hearing about their culinary mishaps. With that in mind, although sadly I do not have any horror stories about food other than Patricia´s attempts to make me a jockey through her less than enticing cooking, I thought I would give everyone a taste of what kinds of food are most popular in Venezuela.



Keep in mind that I believe I have eaten at a ¨real¨ restaurant (by real I mean one that has tablecloths on the tables and/or that takes more than five minutes to deliver food after it has been ordered) three times since I have been here, since I am living on a budget. So I won´t be mentioning steak, tuna tartar, or creme brulée, though they are all available if you have the means and inclination.

The staple food of Venezuela, without a doubt, is the arepa. An arepa is a round, flat patty made out of some kind of mix of corn and flour, usually cooked in a pan with oil or grilled. It looks a little bit like a cross between a biscuit and an English muffin, but with a bigger circumference and smaller width. And not nearly as fluffy. It is sliced in half (not all the way through) as is an English muffin or bagel. Venezuelans eat arepas at all meals of the day. They can be eaten for breakfast, usually with cheese and possibly ham or another meat, with some butter spread directly on the arepa. They can be eaten at lunch or dinner with almost any imaginable filling, but again ham or chicken with cheese and possibly some beans is the most common. Or if you´re Patricia you can just go with all tuna all the time. The créme de la créme of arepas is the reina pepiada, which is filled with something similar to chicken salad and avocado. It is delicious. An arepa at a street stand will cost between 15-20 bolívares.

Arepa con reina pepiada

The other two staples of street food in Venezuela are empanadas and cachapas. Empanadas are pretty well known in the U.S., so I won´t explain what one is. In Venezuela they are most commonly filled with cheese, ham and cheese, ground beef (molida), shredded beef (mechada), chicken, or cazon, which is dogfish. Venezuelans eat empanadas primarily for breakfast, but I usually eat them for lunch. It is practically impossible to find them after 2:00, as most stands and restaurants make batches of them during the morning but then shut up shop or stop serving them when they run out. Empanadas almost universally cost 7 or 8 bolívares each.

A peek at an empanada with a guayaba juice.

A cachapa is the equivalent of a giant pancake made out of batter that is almost pure ground corn. To that a cook adds sugar, a bit of salt, and (this draws great debate, as I discovered) possibly milk and a little flour. I went to a friend´s mother´s apartment to learn how to make cachapas and had two different people giving me two different sets of instructions, each claiming to be explaining the ¨true¨ cachapa. After it is cooked in a pan the cachapa is always served with a giant slab of white cheese (the exact type varies) and sometimes with ham to boot. The pancake is then folded around the filling. Cachapas are generally 15 or 20 bolívares with just cheese, and 20 or 30 with ham.

The cachapa I made, with (believe it or not) a light serving of  guayanés cheese and a side of unwrapped hallaca.

Although these three dishes are probably the most commonly consumed here (certainly by me), the true national dish would probably be pabellón criollo. Pabellón criollo consists of black beans (which in Mexico and most of the rest of the Spanish speaking world would be known as frijoles, but which here go by the name of caraotas negras), white rice prepared with garlic, salt, and diced onions, fried plaintains, and shredded beef made from a skirt steak and cooked with onions, garlic, salt, a little chili pepper, and maybe some tomato. Almost every birthday in Venezuela is celebrated the same: by an entire extended family gathering together and eating a pabellón criollo (or at least most of one) and sitting around and talking for most of a day.

Caraotas are another food that is eaten on a daily basis here. There are red beans and white beans, but the black ones are the most common. They can be served salty or sweet (which I find distasteful), but either way they somehow taste much more like baked beans to me than the Mexican black beans which I really like.

Caraotas negras, with cheese on top.

Almost every fruit known to man can be found in Venezuela, with the exception of some of the berries which are common in the U.S. Fried plantains are a diet staple, while small oranges, apricots, pineapples, apples, and grapes are sold on street corners every where. Juices, though, seem to be an even more popular form of consuming fruits. Fresh juices, which are thick and closer to what Americans would call a warm smoothie (I guess? there´s no milk or ice cream in them) are one of my favorite nourishments here, especially guayaba - guava. Another interesting idiosyncrasy of Venezuela is that all drinks (non-alcoholic) are consumed with a straw. One time I made the mistake of drinking a coke straight out of the bottle shortly after admitting to someone that I was American, and he laughed at me, saying ¨you really are an American drinking like that.¨

A menu that can be found across the country on just about every street. Note all of the varieties of juices.

Vegetables, on the other hand, aren´t really that popular. Side salads are typically served at restaurants, and avocado (I know it´s a fruit but it´s green so that counts as a veggie for me) is pretty common, but other than various forms of beans not many people eat cooked or steamed vegetables. Soups, which are very popular, do usually have some carrots and beans in them, and lentil soup is one of the best dishes I´ve had here. It´s the only thing Patricia makes that I try to be around for.

For proteins, pork and chicken are the most widely eaten. Patricia and I will go to the grocery store and buy an entire frozen chicken, and then unfreeze and eat parts of it over the next 7-10 days. Fresh fish is widely available, but it´s pretty expensive. Good cuts of beef are less easily attainable, though the ground version and the parts necessary to make mechada are easy to find.

One other food worth mentioning that does not fit easily into any category is hallaca. An hallaca is a cornmeal dough not unlike that used to make arepas wrapped in plantain leaves. The leaves are wrapped with string to keep the dough inside and then steamed. If you´re lucky then the cook will add some kind of meat and possibly some olives or raisins to the cornmeal. At first I was not a huge fan of the dish but I have to come to like it a lot. It is probably the most common side dish in Venezuela, though normally you can ask for yuca (fried or steamed) or potatoes instead.

Hallacas

Finally, there are two desserts here that are served everywhere - quesillo and tres leches. Quesillo is pretty much identical to flan, but usually baked in the form of a small cake and cut and served in pieces rather than as a mini round dish. In addition to the basic flavor, which I guess is custard with caramel, it can be made with rum, coconut, or lechosa - papaya. Despite its innocent appearance and strong personal references (being a member of the fruit family), papaya is undoubtedly one of the two worst foods I have ever eaten, along with cucumber. It has fooled me time and again as I decide that there is no way such a sweet looking food can taste so bad, but every time it still does and I will not fall for its tricks again. Tres leches is a sponge cake soaked in, you guessed it, three different types of milk - evaporated, condensed, and cream. I am told that somehow it is not soggy, though I have never actually eaten one.

So there you have it, a culinary overview of Venezuela. I would not say that it is the most gourmet cuisine that I have experienced, but all in all it´s pretty good. I am a little tired of eating various forms of meat in fried corn meal, but as I say that I would glady welcome the opportunity to visit a Bojangles and eat a Cajun Fillet Biscuit, so who knows. I have already made a date with my roommate John to order a giant pizza from Vace at the first opportunity when I get back to Washington. And I give my word to everybody that I will not eat another can of tuna for as long as I possibly can.