Between Christmas and New Years in 2019, Cathy and I met to develop performance improvement training for Dignity Health in the Glendale office. For lunch, we walked around the corner to Cariaco to try Venezuelan food for the first time. Cathy had the beef arepa. I had the Cariaco bowl with chicken. We shared the spinach empanada and the tostones playeros. Cathy liked the tostones playeros best. They are similar to tostadas, but the shell is of flattened fried green plantains. The empanada had a cornmeal crust, like the Colombian empanadas I've had. I enjoyed the bowl best, and all of the food was good and unique.
Just a couple of months later, and as the last adventure we took before the COVID shutdown, Gladys, Joanie, and I went to Mil Jugos in Santa Ana. They also have great Venezuelan food, including arepas, cachapas (this is a sweet pancake), and empanadas. What is unique about Mil Jugos is that they also have juice and smoothies with both familiar and unfamiliar fruits (Mil Jugos means one thousand juices in Spanish). Because we know nothing about Venezuelan fruit, we randomly chose the lulo smoothie. That was fun and I would eat here again to try the other smoothies.
Two and a half years later, several of us went to Chamo Venezuelan Cuisine in Pasadena. Phyllis ordered Pabellon, an arepa with shredded beef, black beans, fried plantains and white cheese. Gladys chose tostones with shredded beef and avocado. Laurie picked cochino frito. She substituted the shredded beef and it came with avocado, tomato and garlic sauce. I selected the plato vegetariano with black beans, rice, plantains, avocado & tomato. The spicy sauce was very spicy and good. I felt like I learned something new about Venezuelan food with each place I visited and I have four more places on my list to try:
· Pica Pica Arepa Kitchen in San Francisco was on my list last weekend when I was visiting my parents, but there is a lot going on right now. I’ll make it there someday!
· Arepax Grill in San Diego is only available at a Tuesday farmers’ market so it’s doubtful that I will make it, but you never know!
· Tropical Star Restaurant & Specialty Market in San Diego has both ingredients and prepared food from all over Latin America. I see enough from Venezuela on the menu that I want to try it.
· Amara Chocolate & Coffee in Los Angeles has been written up by the LA Times for their amazing roasted corn pancakes. I also want to try their chocolate, either with churros or as a drink, as it gets rave reviews on Yelp.
Another option for trying Venezuelan food is to make something from this set of recipes from a Venezuelan cook: https://livingsweetmoments.com/category/recipes-2/venezuelan-recipe-recipes-2/
For Venezuelan literature:
· I read the novel Doña Barbara by Rómulo Gallegos for a Spanish class. It has been long enough that I don’t remember whether my sympathies were with Barbara, who represented the wildness of the Venezuelan plains, or the civilizing forces that win out.
· A non-fiction book of travels through Venezuela is the classic Down the Orinoco in a Canoe by Santiago Pérez Triana: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50506
· A collection of short fiction and poetry from Venezuela can be found here: https://wordswithoutborders.org/read/collection/march-2014/
For videos that show Venezuela and its history, see:
· The Last Forest on Netflix showing an indigenous tribe in the Amazon on the border of Venezuela and Brazil and their struggles to keep their way of life
· Bolívar on Netflix which humanizes the Venezuelan general who liberated several South American countries from the rule of Spain
· The first episode of Magical Andes (also on Netflix)
· The documentary Beauty Factory which shows the experience of contestants from Venezuela who have won more beauty pageants than those from any other country: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu-_xqO7WkU
A series of videos of traditional Venezuelan music starts here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz81WlbkzBs&list=PLhkzy8fOOe0ugHFTxWxzMt8tqZqbJ8NOB
There is a lot of biodiversity and many things to do in Venezuela as shown here: https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-places-visit-venezuela/#more-8554. I would love to go! I hope for a time when broad travel gives us new perspectives. In the meantime, I’m hoping we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace, health, and safety to flourish in Venezuela and throughout the world.
Photo Credit: Rafael Urdaneta https://unsplash.com/photos/dWxMSLBpuFs
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