One of the things I miss the most about Venezuela is the food. I love breakfast and lunch and miss the quality of the final product and the care that goes into every bite. So here you have it: a whole entry dedicated to my favorite topic: Food. And yes, my diet went down the drain for a week, so sue me.
First, let me remind you (or inform you) that lunch is the big meal in Venezuela, not dinner. You will see this trend throughout this post.
Breakfast at my grandmother’s consisted of arepas with white cheese and ham. Arepas are a “bread substitute” made of corn flour and water, and are commonly eaten stuffed with cheese, eggs, beef, or anything you can think of depending on the time of day you have them. They can be as wide or as fat as you want. Venezuelan style arepas are round, about 1.5 inches thick, and about 4 inches wide. They are commonly made on a stovetop grill, but they can also be deep fried (arepas dulces). My grandmother’s maid made Andes style arepas for us, which are like 5 inches in diameter, and just under an inch thick. Still good for stuffing, though.
The very first day Brian and I were here this week, which was Sunday, we met my uncle, aunts and cousins at Santiago’s rabbit hole. This is a restaurant owned by a man named Santiago who serves the most delicious rabbit, fried peppers, steamed potatoes and salad. To close the rabbit ceremonies, get the quesillo for dessert! The place doesn’t appear to have a sign at all, and the actual name of the restaurant is a complete mystery. This is a hole-in-the-wall in the outskirts of the city in Filas de Mariche. It has been there for over 25 years and people hear about it by word of mouth. You can email me or comment here if you would like their phone number. They are only open on weekends, and they only take reservations ahead of time (so they know how many rabbits to cook).
The meal is spectacular, and the restaurant’s rustic and open atmosphere makes you forget about the fact that you are eating Bugs Bunny’s cousins. My husband Brian, who is the pickiest eater in the world, even had seconds of the peppers and rabbit. It is truly the best place to come and have a good time. And if you’re lucky, you might persuade Santiago to play the acordeon for you and the other patrons! He graced us with his stylings on sunday to sing “Hoy es tu día” and “happy birthday” to one of my cousins.
Monday, after my mother and I went downtown, we got home close to 3pm and had lunch made by my grandmother. She made gratinated ziti with a corn and bechamel sauce. I love this very simple meal, yet I keep forgetting to jot down the recipe. I’ll share it with you when I get it! Brian just had ziti with homemade tomato sauce (his favorite fast meal). I think my grandmother and Marie, Brian’s mother, should face off in a cooking challenge some day. That’s something I’d watch for sure! 🙂 Sorry I didn’t take a picture of it 🙁 Maybe next time 🙂
On Tuesday we headed for my favorite restaurant in all of Caracas: Jardin des Crêpes in Las Mercedes, a trendy area where you will find the best restaurants in all cuisines. I always beg my mother to bring me here. We start with crunchy bread and an orange spread which looks like Cheez Whiz but tastes nothing like it. It doesn’t even have cheese in it! Apparently it’s a bell pepper mixture with garlic and mayonaise, although I cannot confirm this conjecture. Whatever it is, it’s delicious, and they’ll bring it to you without you even asking.
I got the Tenderloin Carpaccio to start, and in my eagerness to taste this delicious dish, I forgot to take a picture of it. Take my word for it: best I’ve ever had.
As main course, I usually get the corn crêpe. It’s corn in bechamel sauce wrapped in a crêpe with gratinated cheese on top. I love it every time. They changed their menu to include Guayanés cheese in it, but you can ask for it without.
My mother and grandmother went for the spinach crêpe, while my aunt went for the mushroom. I can’t say how they were, but they looked yummy.
And of course, my ever-so-safe husband went for the steak and fries, which was amazing as well.
To close the ceremonies, my mother and I usually share a Comédie Francaise, which is a crêpe topped with coconut ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate syrup. It’s to die for. I think it’s better shared! Unfortunately, they did not have coconut ice cream, which broke our concentration a bit. We ended up ordering the nutella and dulce de leche crêpes. Sorry I got carried away and forgot to take a picture BEFORE we devoured it. Hope you still get the feel for it.
Something else deserves its own paragraph, and that is, again, the QUALITY of the food here. We don’t have many chains, which means that all meals are made from scratch. None of that frozen ready-to-microwave crap. They truly care about the ingredients. One way I love to remind myself of this is by ordering fruit punch wherever I go. Do not expect the radioactive color of Hi-C fruit punch. In fact, do not ever expect this drink to taste the same ANYWHERE you go. They make it for you to order with whatever fruits they have on hand. Try it out, and you’ll know what I mean! At the Jardin, mine tasted a little on the passion-fruity side.
On Wednesday we headed out to La Colonia Tovar. This is a German colony that was established in 1843 northwest of Caracas, up and down the mountain. It’s a great spot to visit as a tourist. The weather is usually cold, which gives you the feeling of being in a foreign land (much different from the heat of the city). Up there you will find great restaurants, cozy hotels, and tons of things to do: shopping, strawberry picking, tours of the rainforest (get startled by men in monkey suits and see a real walking tree), horseback riding, go-karts, target shooting, or just set up some tables outside and play board games. In my family we love to play Rummy Kub.
We didn’t have much time to hang out, but we did take a few pictures and had lunch at the Bergland Hotel. I couldn’t tell you exactly where this hotel is located, but I’m sure you could ask the locals.
Now, listen to me: THE ONE REASON TO GO TO LA COLONIA TOVAR TO EAT, IS TO HAVE THE CREMA DE AJOPORRO. It’s a soup based on a vegetable that to this day I cannot translate (can someone help me with that?). You can get it at ANY restaurant at La Colonia Tovar. We went to the Bergland because it’s simply the best. I had the pork tenderloin in mushroom sauce, and my family had some version of pork. My aunt got the trout and my grandmother had the turkey, and they all looked amazing. You will not have a better meal anywhere! Now, I’m no food critic or connoceaur in any way, so please pardon my lack of description of every dish… they look AWESOME but I have no idea what the actual names were. Each name was like 3 lines long!
Everyone got the house natural strawberry juice to drink, while I, of course, got the fruit punch. It tasted a lot of strawberries. Not surprising, considering we were in strawberry land! Yummy.
On Thursday we ate at home. My grandmother made a truly typical Venezuelan dish for us, called Pabellón. This dish consists of 4 main ingredients, which are served separately: seasoned shredded beef (carne mechada), white rice, seasoned black beans (best if served with crumbled white cheese on top), and fried plantains (tajadas). This is just what I needed to feel I had really been in Caracas. My grandmother bragged about the special way she seasons the black beans, with wine and some other spices you wouldn’t expect to find in there. Even Brian had seconds. After I had mine, I finished off the few bites he had left on his plate. I like to eat it by making the “perfect bite” every time, meaning that every bite has a little bit of everything in it. I was just sorry my grandmother didn’t have bigger forks.
In case you hadn’t noticed, if I had my choice of soda, I always picked Uvita Hit (grape soda, “Hit” brand). It is NOTHING like Grape Fanta in the US. I miss it. Funny thing is that Hit is owned by Coke.
On Friday we just went to the food court at the Paseo El Hatillo mall. I’ll post a separate blog about El Hatillo, but it doesn’t hurt to tell you that I had a ham and sun dried tomatoes panini on oregano bread, while Brian had a burger with fries. Not the best meal of the week, but it did the trick in our rush.
Saturday, our last day, we had cheese empanadas for breakfast from the local stand in Río Chico (beach town), and grilled cheeseburgers made by my cousins at the beach house. Typical beach foods for when you’re on vacation. We also got shredded beef (carne mechada) and ground beef (carne molida) empanadas. It still makes me laugh: my cousin Lara Croft had ordered a couple of the ground beef for herself, but since all the empanadas look the same from the outside, and they were not labeled, she had to eat whatever she bit into first. Eventually, my other cousins found her empanadas and proceeded to eat them while she cursed them out. Oh, great times 🙂
This morning I had breakfast at the airport. They have a very Venezuelan spot in the food court inside the terminal, called El Budare. They have all kinds of stuffing for arepas, and all kinds of cheeses for cachapas. Cachapas are oversized corn pancakes. You can have them plain with just butter, or put cheese inside and fold it like an omelette. I recommend “queso de mano” which is tough to find in the US, but you might get lucky in latino markets.
I guess that’s it for food. If you have a Venezuelan restaurant in your area, I completely recommend you head out there as soon as possible and try our typical dishes. You will wonder how it is that you had missed out on it your whole life!
In Boston, you can head out to Orinoco’s Restaurant in either of their two locations in the South End and Brookline.
Happy eatin’ and thanks for readin’!
ina
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