Venezuelan Food and Drinks

Yellow Pants, Grapes and Triqui Traquis - Venezuelan New Year

2011-12-30T10:58:00.001-08:00

Venezuelans have been stocking up on yellow underwear, sparkling wine and grapes in the last few days, in the traditional build up to the celebration of New Year's Eve, or Fin de Año.

The locals love to welcome in the New Year with a massive bang so sales of fireworks or "triqui-traquis" have also been brisk - especially the annoying little firecrackers called "fosforitos", the bigger "empanaditas" and the fearsome rockets with names like "Matasuegra" ("Mother-in-Law Killer") and "Tumba Rancho" ("Shanty Destroyer").

As in many other places in the Spanish-speaking world, New Year traditions in Venezuela involve various ways of saying goodbye to the old year and welcoming the new one in a way that will bring good luck, good health, love and prosperity.

Yellow pants are worn to bring luck and money (they are the colour of gold after all), and red pants are believed to improve your chances at finding love and romance.

Make sure to wear the pants under your clothes, as you would normally.

At my first Venezuelan New Year's Eve party, I made the mistake of pulling over my jeans a pair of canary-yellow bikini briefs I'd been given for the occassion by a well-meaning friend.

While it was funny for about two minutes to strut about like a skinny superhero, it did look a bit wrong on the dancefloor, and if it hadn't been for the gallons of Black Label whiskey and Polar Ice beer we'd been drinking all evening I would have felt a bit self conscious when we went house to house to share a drink with the neighbours.

Some kids in the street even thought it was hilarious to shoot little bottle rockets at me while shouting "mira, aqui viene el supermancito" ("look, here comes the little Superman"), lighting the rockets while holding the sticks in their hands and then firing them straight down the street at my distinctive New Year attire.

Luckily, nobody got burnt, but I did feel a bit confused when I woke up the next day on the sofa with a sore head and these strange pants strangling my nether regions. Even if they'd been bright scarlet I cannot see how they could have brought me any luck in the romance department.

Another popular New Year's custom is to wear new clothes for the first time - known as "estrenos" (just as a new film has its "estreno", its premiere) - again to bring good luck and prosperity.

Generally, New Year's Eve parties follow the same pattern as Christmas Eve, with festive music such as gaitas - classics like "Viejo Año" by Maracaibo 15 or Nestor Zavarce's New Year tearjerker "Faltan Cinco Pa' Las Doce" - and the usual salsa vieja and reggaeton party favourites followed by a meal of yuletide foods such as pan de jamon, hallacas, ensalada de gallina, pernil and drinks like ponche crema.

As the countdown begins to the magic midnight hour guests quickly grab their 12 grapes and a glass of sparkling wine or champagne and try to gobble down a grape for each of the 12 chimes, known as the "12 campanas".

As each grape represents a good month in the year to come you can imagine the rush to get them down.

Any remaining grapes are usually washed down with champagne as the last chime of midnight ends, which is the cue for "los cañonazos" - the deafening fireworks displays that mark the start of the New Year.

This is also time for New Year hugs and kisses, generally to the sound of a traditional New Year song like "Año Nuevo, Vida Nueva" ("New Year, New Life") by Billo's Caracas Boys.

Few traditions are as dramatic as the annual burning of the "Old Year" in the Andean states of Merida, and Tachira, where papier mache figures representing the problems of the old year are paraded through the streets before being burnt at midnight to the sound of gaita music and the deafening explosions of thousands of triqui-traquis.

So now you know what to do to have an authentic Venezuelan New Year's Eve party. Grab some grapes, slip into your best yellow pants and have a fantastic New Year.

Paz, amor y prosperidad and a Feliz Año Nuevo pa' to' mi gente!

Venezuelan Xmas food at UK bazaar - 11 December

2011-11-22T09:33:00.000-08:00

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without all the usual Venezuelan festive foods so the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in London has organized a Christmas Bazaar at Bolivar Hall on Sunday 11 December with stalls selling all the seasonal treats you need for a feliz navidad Venezuelan style, as well as rum, music, and a raffle.

Festive favourites on sale include hallacas (a stew of chicken, beef and capers wrapped in maize dough and a banana leaf and then boiled), pan de jamon (a soft bread with ham and raisins inside), ensalada de gallina (a chicken and potato salad), pernil (roast ham), and some homemade versions of the traditional tipple ponche crema.

The folks from Arepa & Co will also be there, serving the full range of arepa fillings and the pan de jamon they sell on their weekend Camden Market stall.

Given the popularity of the event and the difficulty of obtaining Venezuelan seasonal dishes elsewhere, the following stallholders are taking orders ahead of the bazaar, so nobody goes away disappointed:

Mi Cocina es Tuya
After many years in the business of cooking Venezuelan food Alexis and Mary Calvo know how to adapt the ingredients they find in the UK to make their dishes taste authentic. They also run the only Venezuelan cafe in London, Cafe Latino, at 61 Westow Street in Crystal Palace (SE19 3RW). Alexis says they will have traditional hallacas, ensalada de gallina, pernil, pan de jamon, quesillo (creme caramel), dulce de tres leches (a sticky, sweet cake) and papelon con limon (a refreshing blend of lemon juice and cane sugar). They'll also be selling a seafood cocktail that is widely believed to have "rejuvenating" properties. Popular at Venezuelan seaside spots, it is variously known as "Vuelve a La Vida" (Back to Life), "Siete Potencias" (Seven Powers) or "Rompe Colchon" (Mattress Buster). Try some and let me know if it works.
Phone: 0208-771-4078
Mobile: 0750-862-6486
Email: micocinaestuya@hotmail.com
webpage:Mi Cocina es Tuya

Tu UK Navidena
Roberto Jardin and Luisa Chavez might look like cowboys in the photo, but there was nothing dodgy about their pan de jamon last year which, was one of the best I've had in the UK.
Currently struggling to fill over 200 pre-orders for hallacas, Roberto says this year will be the biggest yet for the bazaar and they promise to have an even wider selection of savoury dishes and desserts.
Phone: 0178-424-1565
Mobile: 0798-523-9852, 0795-610-1227
Email: robertojardin@hotmail.com

Lulu's Flavours
Libia Marulanda has been cooking for the ambassadors of Venezuela for 15 years and makes an excellent ensalada de gallina.
Apart from the hallacas and hallaquitas on her stall, she does a roaring trade in homemade tequenos, the Venezuelan party snack of choice.
She'll also have meat and chicken empanadas and dulce de leche.
Mobile: 0794-487-1422
Email: libiamarulanda@yahoo.co.uk

Venue: Bolivar Hall, 54 Grafton Way, London W1T 5DL
Date: Sunday, 11 December, 2011
Time: 12.00-21.00
Nearest Tube: Warren Street
Click here for a map showing the location

Venezuelan food in London: Cachapas in Covent Garden

2011-11-18T08:08:00.000-08:00

A great video by the folks at Visible Magazine of the stall run by Elias Dayub selling Venezuelan cachapas and arepas in Covent Garden, a market in the heart of central London.

For more information about the stall and a list of the food on offer click here.

How to Make Hallacas - Venezuelan Christmas Food

2011-10-16T06:42:00.000-07:00

The most important dish at Christmas in Venezuela is without doubt the hallaca, a cornmeal-dough pocket stuffed with a host of tasty ingredients, wrapped in a plantain leaf, and boiled.

Culinary legend has it that the hallaca originated from the tradition of the plantation owners giving the leftover scraps from their Christmas banquets to the slaves, who would use them to spice up the boiled cornmeal dough (known as bollos) that constituted their daily diet.

That's why, the theory goes, hallacas are stuffed with such an odd range of things, from chicken, beef and pork stew to olives, raisins, capers and even boiled eggs, depending on the family recipe.

Making hallacas is an elaborate process with many stages, and in Venezuela usually involves the whole family.

Luckily, Adriana Lopez, co-owner of Pica Pica restaurant in San Francisco, has made a very comprehensive set of videos showing how to make your own hallacas at home.

For more great recipes check out Adriana Lopez' blog: AdrianaLopezBlog.com

Venezuelan food now on sale in Southampton

2011-10-12T04:55:00.000-07:00

Hot and tasty Venezuelan snacks are now available in Southampton on Saturdays, after Yasmily Barrios Teran decided to open a stall selling traditional food from her native Venezuela at the seaside city's popular Bargate Market.

Teran, originally from Maracay, only started selling Venezuelan empanadas (fried cornmeal turnovers with savoury fillings) and arepas one month ago.

The empanadas on sale include plain cheese, cheese and plantain, "domino" (cheese and black beans), shredded beef, minced beef, fish, and the very filling "pabellon" (shredded beef, plantain, rice and black beans).

For those with a sweet tooth, she also sells churros con chocolate, a traditional Spanish combination of piped donut mix that is deep fried, sprinkled with sugar or cinnamon, and served with hot chocolate. A great way to keep out the cold on a chilly day.

The response from her British customers has been so positive that she now plans to continue with the stall until Christmas.

"I didn't know what to expect from the local people. There are no other Venezuelan food stalls here, Venezuelan food is not well known and they haven't tried empanadas before. But they love them, especially the domino - filled with cheese and black beans - which really surprised me," she says.

On her stall, Teran stresses the health benefits of arepas and empanadas, which are made with cornmeal flour and are wheat and gluten-free (perfect for coeliac sufferers).

She uses halal meat so the local Asian population can tuck in too.

For an authentic Venezuelan empanada experience, be sure to spoon on the homemade sauces - a smooth guasacaca (wah-sa-kaka), made with avocadoes, and a fiery picante.

Now she's established, Teran hopes the word will spread and more people will seek out her Venezuelan snacks, especially Venezuelans living in the South of England.

If you want to taste Yasmily Barrios Teran's empanadas visit Bargate Market in Southampton from 8 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. any Saturday.

The history of the Venezuela arepa (documentary in Spanish)

2011-09-28T07:56:00.000-07:00

This excellent documentary by the Universidad Monteávila in Caracas charts the history of the humble Venezuelan arepa - a local maize-flour alternative to the bread roll - from its indigenous origins to today.

Experts in Venezuela's food history and gastronomic traditions discuss the boom in arepa bars, called areperas, that occurred in the 1950s with the arrival of Italian, Spanish and Portuguese immigrants fleeing the post-war poverty of Europe for a new life in the sun.

The first filled arepas were called tostadas and a host of breakfast and lunch bars specializing in quick snacks for workers and schoolkids sprung up around the country to sell them.

But the arepa boom really took off with the arrival of pre-cooked maize flour in the 1960s, such as the ever popular Harina P.A.N., which drastically cut the preparation time for arepa dough and turned areperas into the ultimate fast-food outlets.

The queen of arepa fillings must be the Reina Pepiada, a gooey concoction of shredded chicken, avocado and mayonnaise. The documentary tells the story of how this emblematic dish came to be named after Venezuela's first international beauty queen, the exquisite Susana Dujim who in 1955 was crowned Miss World in London.

Here's a menu of arepa fillings - with translations - for anybody wanting to try one of these delicious Venezuelan snacks.

Related posts:
Recipe: How to Make Arepas

Buying Harina Pan in the UK

Arepa and Co: The only Venezuelan food outlet in London

Arepa de Maiz Pelao: Making Arepas the Hard Way

Recipe: Caraotas Negras - Venezuelan Black Beans

Recipe: Carne Mechada - Venezuelan Shredded Beef

Pabellon Criollo - Venezuela's National Dish

A Glossary of Arepas

Venezuelan Food in San Francisco - Pica Pica Maize Kitchen

2011-08-29T02:35:00.000-07:00

If you're in San Francisco and you feel like savouring the authentic flavours of Venezuela, check out the Pica Pica Maize Kitchen run by Adriana Lopez and her father Leopoldo Lopez Gil.

The menu focuses on tasty Venezuelan street food, such as empanadas, cachapas and the the maize buns known as arepas, which are stuffed with a variety of fillings, from traditional shredded beef and plantains to devilled ham (Diablitos).

They even have some more exotic fusion food, like the tofu-filled arepa they call the Vegetariana.

Pica Pica currently have two outlets, one at 401 Valencia Street, San Francisco, and another at Oxbow market in Napa.

For full details see the Pica Pica website.

Venezuelan arepas go burgundy for La Vinotinto football team

2011-07-20T09:09:00.000-07:00

Venezuela's national snack, the round corn-flour arepa, has been given a makeover to celebrate the national football team's remarkable success in this year's Copa America football tournament.

Nicknamed La Vinotinto (The Burgundy), and more recently La Remolacha Mecanica (The Clockwork Beetroot), the Venezuelan side have played consistently well in the tournament beating Ecuador 1-0, Chile 2-1, and drawing with Paraguay 3-3.

They now face Paraguay again in the semifinals in what is sure to be nailbiting, end-to-end game. Whatever the outcome, the team have played so well there are sure to be parties throughout Venezuela tonight.

In Merida, a city in Venezuela's Andean region, the owner of a small foodstall in the Periferico Market of Merida is selling burgundy-coloured arepas made with beetroot, served with fried eggs, avocado and cheese for 15 Bolivares ($4) a plate.

What more could a fan want?

Venezuelan food is back in Bournemouth

2011-03-29T13:59:00.000-07:00

Sandra Sardan with Bar Zuka owner Majid Razi (photos by Maria Isabel Antonini Fernandez)

Lovers of Venezuelan and Latin American food in the UK will be pleased to know that Venezuelan entrepreneur and cook Sandra Sardan is back in the British seaside resort of Bournemouth at a new venue serving up all the old favourites from her previous place at Munchies: arepas stuffed with shredded beef and cheese, empanadas, guasacaca sauce and even tequeños.

Given there are so few places in the UK to sample Venezuelan food this is very good news indeed.

Operating every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the spacious Bar Zuka restaurant and tapas bar on Charminster Road, Sandra hopes the Venezuelan-food day will attract locals from the Bournemouth area interested in exploring new Latin American food flavours and Venezuelans in the UK looking to combine a day in Bournemouth with a chance to savour the traditional tastes of home.

So come along to the opening day on Sunday, 3 April, and enjoy an arepa or two, washed down with a coffee, or a cold beer (the new venue has a drinks licence and a nice open patio area out the back).

If you have a large group and you want Sandra to prepare something special, contact her before you go at scsardanc@gmail.com or call her on: 0759-966-2300.

Bar Zuka is located at 59 Charminster Road (tel: 01202-299-998). A map showing how to get there is available here:

A comer! World's biggest arepa made in Venezuela

2011-03-23T13:13:00.000-07:00

To mark its 70th anniversary and 50 years producing Venezuela's first and most popular pre-cooked maize flour, food and drinks firm Empresas Polar has made it into the Guinness Book of Records by cooking the world's largest arepa.

The monster maize bun was created from scratch on Wednesday, 23 March, by a large host of Polar employees at the company's headquarters in Los Cortijos, Caracas, who used traditional techniques to mix the Harina P.A.N. flour with water, salt and a little oil to produce the masses of dough needed for the record-breaking attempt.

The final mega-arepa measured over 6 metres in diameter and had to be cooked on a specially-designed budare (griddle).

Weighing in at over 632 kilos before it was cooked, it was made with 236 kilos of harina P.A.N. (the pre-cooked maize flour used to make arepas).

The final weight before it was served came in at 493.2 kilos.

The invigilator from the Guinness Book of Records, Ralph Hannah, said the arepa had "to be made in a the traditional way, that's to say, by hand, and must be cooked".

He then tried a slice and certified that it complied with the criteria for consistency and taste, effectively giving Empresasa Polar and Venezuela the record for the largest arepa in the world.

The president of Empresas Polar, Lorenzo Mendoza, used the occasion to stress the importance of arepas in the Venezuelan diet, saying that "there is nothing more Venezuelan than the arepa" and that Venezuelans consume 33 kilos of pre-cooked maize flour per capita every year.

Empresasa Polar began in 1941 with the production of Polar beer, still the most popular beer in Venezuela. In 1960 it launched the country's first pre-cooked maize flour, Harina P.A.N.

Recipe: How to make your own Venezuelan arepas

Buying Harina Pan in the UK

Glossary: Eating at an Arepera

La Reina Pepiada: The Curvy Queen of Arepas

Arepa and Co: The only Venezuelan food outlet in the UK

Pabellon Criollo - Venezuela's National Dish

Recipe: Caraotas Negras - Venezuelan Black Beans

Recipe: Carne Mechada - Venezuelan Shredded Beef

Piaroa kids snack on tarantulas in the jungle

2011-02-03T13:13:00.000-08:00

This cute little clip from the BBC's new Human Planet series follows a group of young Piaroa children from Venezuela's Amazonas State as they hunt for spiders to snack on.

These are no ordinary spiders, but the largest spider of all, the fearsome Goliath tarantula (Theraphosa blondi) which can give a nasty nip with its venomous fangs and also protects itself with irritating urticated hairs that it flicks off its abdomen when threatened with attack.

The effect is similar to horse-hair itching powder on the skin, but if breathed into the throat it can cause serious respiratory problems.

The clip was first shown on British TV on 3 February 2011.

Sabor Venezolano! Cachapas in Covent Garden

2010-12-08T10:47:00.000-08:00

Authentic Venezuelan corn pancakes, or cachapas, are now available in the centre of London thanks to Elias Dayub, 27, and Daniel Garcia, 28, two enterprising young Caraqueños who have combined a flair for business with a passion and skill for recreating the flavours of their homeland.

Their busy "Sabor Venezolano" ("Venezuelan Flavour") stall is open every Thursday at London's fashionable Covent Garden market, just on the edge of the beautiful cobblestone piazza where buskers, jugglers and street performers entertain the crowds.

The stall lives up to its name with a good selection of tasty Venezuelan staples, such as thick cachapas cooked fresh on a griddle while you wait, and arepas - cornbread buns filled with combinations of carne mechada (shredded beef), caraotas negras (black beans), pollo guisado (stewed chicken) and queso rallado (grated cheese).

The cachapas are reasonably-priced at £5, arepas with a filling at £4, and kilo bags of Harina PAN (the pre-cooked corn flour for making arepas) selling for £2.50.

To really tickle the tastebuds visitors are encouraged to liberally drizzle the fine sauces the boys provide, including a more-ish avocado-based guasacaca and a fiery but flavourful Venezuelan-style picante, or hot sauce.

According to Elias, the idea for the stall came about when they realised that there was nowhere in the UK serving cachapas.

"We have a lot of love and passion for Venezuelan culture and we realized that there was nothing similar to a cachapa available anywhere in the UK so we decided to take a risk," says Elias.

"Thank God it has been so well received by the British public, who are our main customers. The colours and the flavours and the fact that cachapas and arepas are gluten, wheat and dairy free has really caught the attention of many people in Covent Garden," he adds.

As well as the savoury snacks on offer, the boys also sell their own homemade mermelada de guayaba (guava jam) and jalea de mango (a chunky mango jam), made from the finest fresh ingredients.

For details on how to get to Covent Garden, check here:

For information on how to order Venezuelan Christmas food in London, check here:

Venezuelan Xmas food on sale at UK bazaar

2010-11-22T13:02:00.000-08:00

For details of the 11 December 2011 Venezuelan Christmas Bazaar at Bolivar Hall, London, click here.

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without all the usual Venezuelan festive foods so the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in London has organized a Christmas Bazaar at Bolivar Hall on 12 December with stalls selling all the seasonal treats you need for a feliz navidad Venezuelan style, as well as rum, music and arts and crafts.

The annual event at the Venezuelan cultural centre has become a firm favourite with Venezuelans living in the UK and all those who appreciate exotic South American cuisine.

Festive favourites on sale include Venezuelan hallacas (a stew of chicken, beef and capers wrapped in maize dough and a banana leaf and then boiled), pan de jamon (a soft bread with ham and raisins inside), ensalada de gallina (a chicken and potato salad), pernil (roast ham) and some homemade versions of the traditional tipple ponche crema.

Given the popularity of the event and the difficulty of obtaining Venezuelan seasonal dishes elsewhere, the following stallholders are taking orders ahead of the bazaar, so nobody goes away disappointed:

Mi Cocina es Tuya

After many years in the business of cooking Venezuelan food Alexis and Mary Pulido know how to adapt the ingredients they find in the UK to make their dishes taste authentic. They have provided the catering at Anglo-Venezuelan Society events and have a well-established food stall at the annual Carnaval del Pueblo in Elephant and Castle, the largest Latin American outdoor festival in Europe. They recently opened the only Venezuelan cafe in London, Mi Cafe Latino at 61 Westow Street in Crystal Palace.

Telephone: 0208-771-4078
Mobile: 0750-862-6486
Email: micocinaestuya@hotmail.com
webpage:Mi Cocina es Tuya

Tu UK Navidena

Roberto Jardin and Luisa Chavez might look like cowboys in the photo, but there was nothing dodgy about their pan de jamon, which was one of the best I've had in the UK. Currently struggling to fill over 200 pre-orders for hallacas, Luisa says this year will be the biggest yet for the bazaar and they promise to have an even wider selection of savoury dishes and desserts.

Telephone: 0178-424-1565
Mobile: 0798-523-9852
0795-610-1227

Email: robertojardin@hotmail.com

Lulu's Flavours
Libia Marulanda has been cooking for the ambassadors of Venezuela for 14 years and makes an excellent ensalada de gallina. Apart from the hallacas and hallaquitas on her stall, she was doing a roaring trade in homemade tequenos, the Venezuelan party snack of choice. She'll also have meat and chicken empanadas and dulce de leche.
Email: libiamarulanda@yahoo.co.uk
Mobile: 0794-487-1422

Venue: Bolivar Hall, 54 Grafton Way, London W1
Date: Sunday, 12 December, 2010
Time: 12.00-21.00
Nearest Tube: Warren Street

Christmas cachapas on sale in Covent Garden - more here.

Recipe: How to make Venezuelan empanadas

2010-11-18T10:30:00.000-08:00

A short video with step-by-step instructions on how to make Venezuelan empanadas from scatch using harina P.A.N. (pre-cooked corn flour).

Simple and quick to make, the half-moon-shaped corn pockets are filled with cheese, shredded beef or chicken, minced beef and even cheese and black beans (called a domino) and then fried.

Easily the most popular snacks in Venezuela, they are eaten as a quick bite for breakfast, a snack between meals or to soak up the beers at the beach.

At the seaside they are often made with seafood, such as cazon (baby shark) or chipi-chipis (baby clams).

The most filling empanada I ever had was known as the pabellon criollo, a full-blown meal of shredded beef, black beans and fried plantains stuffed into a larger than usual deep fried corn pocket. One was enough!

This is my first instructional video and I owe a great debt of gratitude to Jorge Franca (who edited the clips and added the soundtrack) and, of course, mi bella asistente Yadira.

Please let me know what you think.

Recipe: Cachapas - Tasty Venezuelan corn pancakes

2010-11-09T01:33:00.000-08:00

Cachapas are thick, tasty pancakes made from maize (sweetcorn) and served with a slab of white cheese at street stalls all over Venezuela.

The usual way to make them is to grind the maize kernels through a special machine, which gives the cachapa mixture just the right consistency, and then cook them on a flat griddle plate.

Anybody living outside Venezuela should try this easy to follow recipe by Jorge Franca, which adds an egg and plain flour to the maize and cleverly replaces queso de mano (a soft white Venezuelan cheese) with Mozarella.

Cachapas are an integral part of Venezuela's culinary history and their origin dates back to pre-Colombian times, when the indigenous population would grind corn with stone pestles and then cook it cachapa-style on clay budares, flat griddle plates that have been found in archaeological digs at many sites in Venezuela.

This sweet and savoury treat is best served with cheese, either a white cheese like Mozarrella or even a grated yellow cheese like cheddar.

The most exotic cachapa I've ever had was at a tiny roadside stall with a tin-roof in the Gran Sabana. The owner was selling "cachapa con cochino" and the steaming maize cachapas were topped with lashings of margarine, a thick slab of cheese, a pork chop and some chicharron, or fried pork rinds. Washed down with a cold Polarcita, it was like cachapa heaven.

Venezuelan flavours to raise charity cash at London food fair

2010-10-13T10:34:00.000-07:00

Feeling peckish for traditional Venezuelan dishes such as arepas, pabellón criollo, torta de plátano, bienmesabe and quesillo? Want to pick up some hallacas ready for Christmas? Well head for Kensington Town Hall in South Kensington, London W8, on Saturday October 16, where Venezuelan food and drinks will be on sale from midday to 1830 as part of the Latin American Gastronomic Festival.

This major charity event bringing together food stalls from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Central America, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay to raise money for disadvantaged children across Latin America.

Visitors can sample the gastronomic delights of South and Central America as they browse stalls selling food, drink and arts and crafts from the region.

Music will be provided throughout the afternoon by groups playing Salsa, Son Cubano, Argentine Tango, Mexican Mariachi and folk songs from Bolivia.

Bradt travel guides will be selling their award-winning guide books to the countries of the region and there will be a raffle at 1630 with prizes such as plane tickets to Rio de Janeiro, Paris and Madrid

The Venezuelan stall has been organized by CHAMOS, a not-for-profit UK charity that aims to improve the living standards of the most deprived children in Venezuela, whether living in urban or rural areas, or in indigenous communities.

CHAMOS has no political or religious affiliation, and all funds raised through volunteer work are used to financially support NGO’s working in Venezuela.

For more details of the Latin American Gastronomic Festival visit the website of the Anglo Latin American Foundation (ALAF) or the home page of CHAMOS.

Tickets are priced £5 for adults, £2 for under-16s, and free for under-5s are available on the door or in advance from Miriam Iturralde (osorio.mb@hotmail.com; 020 8337 9516).

One of the Venezuelan charities supported by CHAMOS is the Hogar Santa Ana in Maracaibo, which feeds over 150 children every day. CHAMOS were able recently to provide colourful new tables and chairs for the dining area, which can be seen in this short video highlighting the fantastic work being done at Hogar Santa Ana:

Venezuelan food at Carnaval del Pueblo - 1 August

2010-07-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

Click on photos to enlarge
This Sunday, 1 August, thousands of Latinos and lovers of all things Latin American will be heading for Burgess Park in South London for the annual Carnaval del Pueblo, an all-day celebration showcasing the best of hispanic music, food and culture. This is a full-on Latin fiesta so expect lots of hip-swinging salsa, merengue, cumbia and vallenato.

Not only is this the largest Latin outdoor festival in Europe but it's completely free, with events from 10 in the morning to 9.30 at night.

The party kicks off at midday with a colourful procession of dancers and floats that takes about two hours to wind its way down Elephant Road, Walworth Road and Albany Road to Burgess Park.

Once in the park, there are stalls selling CDs, rum, beer, and tasty traditional dishes from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.

Concerts and dance competitions are scheduled throughout the afternoon on the large central stage, and will culminate with an eagerly-anticipated performance by Nuyorican salsa legends the Lebron Brothers.

Elsewhere in the park, there are separate areas for the music of Brazil, Bolivia and Mexico, and a special area dedicated to Latin hip hop and reggaeton.

There will also be an attempt in the main field to break the Guinness world record for the biggest ever salsa dance, so bring your partner and get ready to bust some killer moves.

The current record of 451 couples was set in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2006 and organizers of Carnaval del Pueblo are hoping to attract 500 dancers to the event. The warm-up will start at 10.30 in the morning and salsa dancers who want to take part are advised to wear black shirts or T-shirts.

Venezuelans looking for a taste of home should head for stall 39, close to the main stage (see map), where Alexis Pulido and Mary Calvo of "Mi cocina es Tuya" will be serving up typical Venezuelan dishes such as cornmeal arepas stuffed with cheese, shredded beef and black beans, as well as empanadas, tequeños and even Christmas treats like hallacas.

Last year, one of their best sellers was Venezuela's national dish, pabellon criollo, a filling combo platter of shredded beef, black beans, white rice and fried plantains (carne mechada, caraotas negras, arroz blanco y tajadas).

Alexis and Mary have been serving up traditional Venezuelan food at the Carnaval del Pueblo for several years now and recently opened up "Cafe Latino" in Crystal Palace (61 Westow Street, Crystal Palace,
London, SE19 3RW).

To find the "Mi Cocina es Tuya" food stall just look for the yellow, blue and red of the Venezuelan flag.

I'll see you there. Nos Vemos. Todo chevere!

Pabellon Criollo - Venezuela's National Dish

Recipe: How to Make Arepas

Buying Harina Pan in the UK

Glossary: Eating at an Arepera

La Reina Pepiada: The Curvy Queen of Arepas

Arepa and Co: The only Venezuelan food outlet in the UK

Recipe: Caraotas Negras - Venezuelan Black Beans

Recipe: Carne Mechada - Venezuelan Shredded Beef

Ordering Venezuelan food in London

Guasacaca - Venezuela's tastiest sauce

2010-04-28T10:05:00.000-07:00

Guasacaca is probably one of the finest sauces ever invented. It has a cool name that rolls off the tongue and a taste that makes your mouth go ñum ñum!

It's a simple but staggeringly tasty combination of avocado, fresh parsley and coriander, green bell pepper, onion, garlic, salt, oil and vinegar.

And it's quick and easy to make. You just throw the ingredients in the blender and whoozh until you get the consistency you want: thicker for dips, runnier for drizzling on empanadas and meat.

In Venezuela, guasacaca is eaten with barbecued meat from the parilla - beef, sausage, chicken, and my favourite morcilla (black pudding).

Unlike a lot of US chefs, George knows the difference between Venezuelan guasacaca and Mexican guacamole. He was born in Caracas to Armenian parents, before moving to New York, where he lives today.

The only change I would make to George's excellent recipe is to replace the olive oil with corn oil, to keep it 100 per cent authentic.

If you have a family recipe for guasacaca you want to share just add a comment below.

George Duran's Guasacaca Recipe:

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
2 green sweet peppers, seeded, deveined, and roughly chopped
2 ripe avocados, peeled and seeded
2 cloves garlic
Half a bunch of fresh parsley leaves
Half a bunch fresh cilantro leaves
A third cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon salt, or to taste
Pinch of black pepper
1 cup olive oil

Preparation:
Put everything except the olive oil into a food processor and process until mostly smooth. Add the olive oil in a stream with the processor running and process until smooth. Let stand at room temperature for at least 1 hour for the flavors to blend. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve sauce at room temperature with meats, fish, or vegetable chips. If made in advance, store, covered, in the refrigerator, but bring to room temperature before serving.

Venezuelan rums on sale in UK

2010-04-03T12:11:00.000-07:00

British drinkers are picking up a taste for the caramel flavours and superior quality of dark Venezuelan rums, especially now they are becoming more freely available in the UK.

Santa Teresa's aged rum Añejo is an excellent example of a quality sipping rum that also works in cocktails and sells for £14.99 at the supermarket chain Waitrose.

Pampero's Ron Añejo Especial is another good choice and sells for £17.99 at Tesco supermarkets.

All we need now are some more cocktail recipes:

Venezuelan Rum Cocktail Recipe: El Ritual

US chef brings Venezuelan food to Connecticut

2010-03-31T09:37:00.001-07:00

Valencia Luncheria, a small Venezuela-themed restaurant in Norwalk, Conneticut, has been featured on Guy Fieri's show "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives".

Fieri and his film crew take viewers into the kitchen to watch US chef Michael Young prepare some of the restaurant's signature snacks, including empanadas, pastelitos, stuffed arepas, pernil and tostones.

Young says he serves up "Venezuelan beach food" at the 16-seat snack joint.

Best of all, he knows his avocado salsas, serving both a chunky Mexican-style guacamole on his shrimp tacos and a drizzly Venezuelan guasacaca that goes on just about everything else.

To visit the Luncheria Valencia website click here.

Arepa and Co: Authentic Arepera in Camden Market, London

Glossary: Eating at an Arepera

Pabellon Criollo - Venezuela's National Dish

Buying Harina Pan in the UK

Recipe: Caraotas Negras - Venezuelan Black Beans

Recipe: Carne Mechada - Venezuelan Shredded Beef

The Ultimate in Arepa Chic... Tosty Arepa

2010-03-24T11:35:00.000-07:00

Gustavo Dudamel gets a hot dog named after him!

2010-03-12T13:18:00.000-08:00

You know you've made it in Los Angeles when you get a hot dog named after you. Just ask Venezuelan conducter Gustavo Dudamel, the hottest property in classical music at the moment at just 29 years old.

Dudamel, who comes from Barquisimeto, currently spends his time between Sweden, where he is the principal conductor of the Gothenberg Symphony Orchestra, and the United States, where he's the musical director of the Los Angeles Philarmonic.

The mop-top conductor has made such a big splash in LA that Pink's, the most famous hot-dog joint in town, has invited him onto its Super Specials menu.

The "L.A. Philarmonic Conductor Gustavo Dudamel Dog" is a mouthful even before you tuck into this "stretch hot dog" covered as it is with guacamole, American and Swiss cheese, fajitas mix, and jalapeno slices topped with tortilla chips.

Family-run hot-dog haven Pink's has been feeding Hollywood stars and A-listers since Paul and Betty Pink first opened a fast-food stand on the corner of La Brea and Melrose in 1939.

Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Snoop Dog, Jay Leno, the Hoff, there are few LA stars who have not popped in to this world famous landmark for a treat, but few are ever offered the chance to appear on the menu.

Dudamel joins a very select group of the hot-dog-honoured elite that includes Martha Stewart, Rosie O'Donnel and Ozzy Osbourne.

But why go for typical Tex-Mex ingredients, when the folks at Pink's could have made the maestro's dog more Venezuelan?

Where's the salsa rosada, for example, the unforgettable mixture of ketchup and mayonnaise that you only seem to find in Venezuela?

My last hot dog from a street stall in Caracas was a true work of art, a symphony of crushed potato chips and chopped up cabbage and onions slathered, with a conductor's flourish, in about six different sauces.

Venezuelan fiesta in London- 13/03/2010

2010-03-10T07:11:00.001-08:00

Vamos a rumbear! The Venezuelan community in England will be congregating at London's Abacus Bar on Saturday, 13 March, for the second big, sweaty fiesta of the year.

With DJ Hernan Atencio spinning the hottest tropical tunes, Ron Santa Teresa providing the rum cocktails and Arepa & Co serving up typical snacks like arepitas and tequeños, Venezuelan partygoers can look forward to a big night out.

The party is being organized by Venenin (Venezolanos en Inglaterra), a social group that caters for Venezuelan expatriates in the UK, and a big crowd is expected.

Doors open at 9 p.m. and hardcore revellers can dance their way thru to 4 a.m. Admission is £7 before 11 p.m. and £10 after.

Abacus Bar is located in the City of London at 24 Cornhill (EC3V 3ND), a short stroll from Bank tube station.

For more information go to http://www.venenin.co.uk or check out the Venenin page on Facebook.

Feliz Navidad Con Sabor! Venezuelan Christmas

2009-12-25T06:49:00.000-08:00

I'd like to say a massive Feliz Navidad to all those who have visited the blog and sent me their comments. Thanks so much for all your support. I promise I'll post more recipes in the New Year.

I also have to say a big thank you to Luisa and Roberto from TU-UKSABORVENEZOLANO for making my Christmas dreams come true.

Thanks to them I was able to enjoy a traditional Venezuelan Christmas dinner on 24 December with homemade ponche crema to keep out the cold, hallacas wrapped in plantain leaves, ensalada de gallina and a huge pan de jamon - with my name on it!

They also made me a wicked quesillo, Venezuela's creole version of the classic French dessert creme caramel, or flan.

All I had to do was crank up the gaitas for some traditional sounds to accompany the great Venezuelan food and drinks.

To order Venezuelan specialities in London contact Luisa or Robert on 0798-523-9852, 0795-610-1227 or 0178-424-5231 or email them at: tu-uksaborvenezolano@hotmail.co.uk

Willie's Cacao Launches Las Trincheras Bar

2009-12-16T12:56:00.000-08:00

After a few weeks of looking for Willie harcourt-Cooze's new "Limited Edition" chocolate bar made from special cacao beans sourced from the Las Trincheras hacienda in Venezuela's Carabobo State, I was lucky enough to find one in Waitrose this morning.

At £2.99 for two small, individually wrapped chocolate squares, Willie's chocolate bars are more suited to an occasional expensive treat - or Christmas gift for a special friend - than a daily cacao fix.

But what can you do? Where else am I going to find Venezuelan chocolate of this quality in the UK?

Hacienda Las Trincheras is a small but historic cacao plantation and as such it is being supported by the Venezuelan environmental NGO Tierra Viva, which promotes sustainable development at a number of small cacao plantations that continue to produce unique cacao strains.

Click here to see Willie's new Chocolate Factory Cookbook

Willie's Wonky Chocolate Factory brings Venezuelan cacao to UK

Chuao: In Search of World's Finest Cocoa Beans

Arepa and Co: The only Venezuelan food outlet in the UK

Hallacas and Pan de Jamon - Venezuelan Xmas in London

2009-12-07T02:42:00.001-08:00

For details of the 11 December 2011 Venezuelan Christmas Bazaar at Bolivar Hall, London, click here.

There was a tropical twist to the usual run-up to Christmas in London on Sunday, 6 December, as the Venezuelan community turned out in force to savour traditional festive dishes at the annual Bazaar Navideno held in Bolivar Hall, the Venezuelan Embassy's cultural centre in Grafton Street.

To the sound of gaitas and the aroma of hallacas, the assembled visitors made the most of the opportunity to catch up with old mates, swap stories and introduce British friends to the essential elements of a Venezuelan Christmas.

All the delicious dishes you'd expect to grace the table of a Venezuelan Christmas meal were on display, from hallacas and pan de jamon, to ensalada de gallina, pernil and sweet desserts such as torta de navidad and quesillo.

The most surprising thing about the event this year was the number of stalls making Venezuelan food "por encargo" ("to order") and the range of dishes being offered, from pasapalos (party snacks) like tequenos to Christmas drinks like Ponche Crema.

Venezuelans offering traditional food to order

Mi Cocina es Tuya

After many years in the business of cooking Venezuelan food Alexis and Mary Pulido know how to adapt the ingredients they find in the UK to make their dishes taste authentic. They have provided the catering at Anglo-Venezuelan Society events and have a well-established food stall at the annual Carnaval del Pueblo in Elephant and Castle, the largest Latin American outdoor festival in Europe.

Telephone: 0208-768-2701
Mobile: 0750-862-6486
Email: micocinaestuya@hotmail.com
webpage:Mi Cocina es Tuya

Tu UK Navidena

Roberto Jardin and Luisa Chavez might look like cowboys in the photo, but there was nothing dodgy about their pan de jamon, which was one of the best I've had in the UK and the pastry was just right.

Mobile: 0798-523-9852
0795-610-1227
0178-424-5231
email: tu-uksaborvenezolano@hotmail.co.uk

Lulu's Flavours

Libia Marulanda has been cooking for the ambassadors of Venezuela for 14 years and makes and excellent ensalada de gallina. Apart from the hallacas and hallaquitas on her stall, she was doing a roaring trade in homemade tequenos, the Venezuelan party snack of choice.

Mobile: 0794-956-3783
0794-487-1422

Ponche Crema - Venezuelan Xmas in a glass

2009-12-04T06:17:00.000-08:00

December is here and it's time to break out the glasses and share a cordial round of Ponche Crema, Venezuela's most typical festive drink.

Made from alcohol, milk, egg-whites, sugar and a few a closely-guarded secret ingredients, Ponche Crema has been infusing Venezuelan family gatherings with Christmas spirit since Eliodoro Gonzalez P. first came up with the concoction in 1900.

It wasn't the first ponche ever invented, as Venezuelans had been making their own home recipes of milk, sugar and rum (even cognac in some cases) for years and continue to do so today, but Don Eliodoro's Ponche Crema had the distinction of becoming a household name and a national tradition.

A chemist, perfumer and tireless entrepreneur, Don Eliodoro really hit the jackpot with his Ponche Crema, which was so popular when it first came out that the president of the republic, Cipriano Castro, personally signed the patent for it on 17 March 1904.

Not content with local glory, Eliodoro then took his patented cream punch on a tour of the great fairs of the United States and Europe. It was a smash in London, where it won the "Grand Prix" at the 1908 fair, and was received with accolades at the Saint Louis World Fair in Missouri, the International Maritime Exhibit in Bordeaux and the Food and Hygiene Exhibit in Paris, the capital of fashion and taste at the time.

A commentator wrote afterwards: "With the same confidence in his dreams he felt like a Columbus in reverse: he wanted to conquer the Old World, the ancient and arrogant Europe. For this endeavour he did not need an army, nor religion, nor violence, and even less the useless promise of gold... A little milk, eggs, sugar and a 'touch' of alcohol would be all he neded to amaze those who, with the sheer passage of time, had lost faith."

Don Eliodoro died on 29 January, 1923, with his place in Venezuela's culinary history firmly established. The secret of his punch was passed on to his relatives, known as the Successors of Eliodoro Gonzalez P.

They have continued to produce Ponche Crema in exactly the same way to the present day and it is now exported to Miami and New York in the USA, the Canary Islands, Panama, Costa Rica, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Saint Marteen, Antigua and Saint Thomas.

Today, only four people are entrusted with the secret - which many have tried to copy but which none have bettered - and the company is keen to stress that the famous recipe is the best kept industrial secret in the world.

Whatever Ponche Crema contains, served over ice in punch glasses this exotic eggnog definitely hits the spot.

The company's slogan is "Navidad es compartir!" ("Christmas is for sharing") and in my experience Ponche Crema is the one thing guaranteed to bring the family together and get otherwise straight-laced tios and tias shaking their stuff to the latest reggaeton tracks following the traditional Christmas meal, held late on 24 December.

As a friend once said to me after I turned down a glass of the sweet, Bailey's like drink: "No tienes miedo pana. Bebetelo! Es nacional y hoy es navidad!" ("Don't be scared, mate. Drink it up! It's a national drink and today is Christmas!").

Before I knew it I was doing my best(?!) Daddy Yankee impression while elderly auntie Caridad showed off her "perreo" and everybody stood round and clapped.

That's what I call a feliz navidad. Gracias por exisitir Don Eliodoro Gonzalez Poleo.

Drinking cerveza Maracucho style

2009-11-05T13:12:00.000-08:00

Our good friend from Maracaibo explains how to drink a beer in Record-Guinness-style.

For Munchies in Bournemouth Try Sandra's Arepas

2009-08-13T09:48:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: As of 3 April 2011 Sandra Sardan is now selling Venezuelan food from Bar Zuka on Sundays only. See here for details.

There's no excuse for missing out on arepas and empanadas in the seaside town of Bournemouth after enterprising Caraqueña Sandra Sardan started selling Venezuelan food on Saturdays and Sundays from a food outlet called Munchies.

A journalism and media student who presented TV travel documentaries in her native Venezuela, Sandra now swaps the pressures of her English media course for the humbler pleasures of the kitchen at the weekends so she can bring a small taste of her tropical homeland to the UK.

From 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sandra sells arepas stuffed with traditional fillings such as grated cheese, shredded chicken and shredded beef as well as traditional combinations such as La Peluda (shredded beef and grated cheese), La Catira (shredded chicken and grated cheese) and the queen of arepas, the Reina Pepiada.

A speciality of the house is Sandra's homemade guasacaca sauce, a Venezuelan staple made with avocadoes, garlic, coriander leaves, olive oil and vinegar.

Unlike Mexico's chunky guacamole sauce, which is also made with avocadoes, guasacaca is runny - just right for drizzling over arepas.

Sandra also prepares tequeños (fried pastry twists filled with cheese) and soft drinks like papelon con limon (cane sugar lemonade).

"Munchies is only open at the weekend because I study from Monday to Friday and just don't have the time to open every day," says Sandra, who adds that opening a Venezuelan arepera in an English seaside resort was "a crazy idea that I dreamt up when I first got to Bournemouth."

"It was hard at first," she says, but "good recommendations have brought new customers and now many local people know the place.".

"It's also great when other Venezuelans come by looking for the taste of home," she adds.

So do yourself a favour and get down to Munchies at 236 Old Christchurch Road in Bournemouth.

Arepa and Co: Authentic Arepera in Camden Market, London

Glossary: Eating at an Arepera

Pabellon Criollo - Venezuela's National Dish

Buying Harina Pan in the UK

Recipe: Caraotas Negras - Venezuelan Black Beans

Recipe: Carne Mechada - Venezuelan Shredded Beef

Rum cocktails - El Ritual

2009-07-23T06:20:00.000-07:00

When it comes to rum cocktails, most people who like the occasional umbrella in their drink have tried a Cuban Mojito, a Strawberry Daiquiri or a Pina Colada, but how many people have tried Venezuela's wild and wonderful rum concoction El Ritual?

Closer to a Tequila slammer than a true cocktail El Ritual, as its name suggests, is not about mixing interesting flavours in a glass, but creating an event, performing a set of steps that allow you to mix the raw flavours in your mouth for a full-on explosion of taste bud-tingling tropical nonsense.

And you don't need to be a barman to make it. Trust me.

The first ingredient - and there's no point starting without this - is a shot-glass-sized-helping of aged Venezuelan rum.

Quality sipping rums like Pampero Aniversario, Cacique 500 or Santa Teresa 1796 are excellent for this, because they have the most complex flavours.

But don't be put off, any dark Venezuelan rum will do.

Second, you need a few limes cut into wedges.

Third, you pour brown sugar and instant coffee into two separate piles on a dish or tray.

Then all you do is take a lime wedge, dip one side into the sugar, the other into the coffee and bite and suck on it.

Immediately the bitterness of the coffee and the sweetness of the sugar will fill your mouth and threaten to overwhelm your tastebuds. But don't panic. Help is at hand.

Take the glass of rum and have a swig. You don't need to down it one just take enough rum into your mouth to let all the flavours mingle.

A second swig from the glass will bring in new flavours, as the rich warm buttery taste of the rum replaces the slight bitterness of the coffee and the shallow sweetness of the sugar.

When you've finished just lick your lips, get back in line and have another one.

It sounds like an unlikely combination, I know, but somehow it works.

And it's like rocket fuel at parties. Apart from the alcohol in the rum, the coffee and sugar work well together to lift the energy of a flagging get together or dinner. Serve a couple of rounds of El Ritual just before the salsa tunes kick in and strictly dance floor mayhem is sure to ensue.

There are no excuses for not experimenting with Venezuelan rums in the UK, Waitrose supermarkets currently stock a good aged rum from Santa Teresa called "Gran Reserva" and I've seen Pampero "Gold" on sale in bars, so it must be on sale somewhere (let me know if you find out where).

In Italy, El Ritual is a key element in Pampero's publicity campaign, which went out with the rather odd slogan: "Il rum piu bevuto nei peggiori bar di Caracas" ("The rum most drunk in the worst bar in Caracas".)

The TV ad (watch it below)shows a motley bunch of drinkers downing shots of Pampero Aniversario with lime, sugar and coffee as they watch a boxing match.

Given the usual parade of beautiful people with perfect smiles, gym bodies and silicone enhancements who populate drink ads in Venezuela, some Venezuelans took offence at the image of Caracas depicted in the ad - with its less-than-glamorous drinkers tottering about in a dive bar - but it was a big hit with the Italians and helped establish Pampero as a major player in the Italian rum market.

So try something new. Give El Ritual a go and let me know if it works for you.

Venezuelan Rum - Ho Ho Ho!

2009-07-07T04:56:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not posting for a while but I was travelling in Venezuela for work. I'm currently researching material for an update to the "Bradt Guide to Venezuela", a travel guide in English which will come out next year.
It's a lot of work but I'm loving the opportunity to criss-cross the country, catch up with old friends, make new friends and have some adventures.
I'm hoping this impressive shelf of Venezuelan rums, aquired on my last trip, will inspire me to come up with some recipes for exciting rum cocktails, although Venezuelan rum is so smooth it's good enough to sip neat or over ice.

Venezuelan Rum Cocktail Recipe: El Ritual

Guayoyo o tetero, flaco? - Venezuelan coffee glossary

2009-05-21T08:30:00.000-07:00

You can credit Starbucks for the annoying coffee snobbery that turns seemingly normal people into seething wrecks of a morning if they can't get hold of their usual "grande, half-caf, non-fat, sugar-free, double-shot, extra-foam, no-whip, pumpkin-spice latte - with extra cinnamon", or whatever over-frothed, over-priced muck they drink in place of regular java.

But all the Starbucks snobbery in the world will cut no ice in Venezuela, where the usual coffee rules don't apply and the etiquette of ordering is as important as knowing the subtle differences between a con leche grande and a marron claro grande.

Where to buy?

The best place to get a caffeine fix in Venezuela is definitely at your local panaderia. Literally translated as "bakery", a panaderia is much more than a place to buy bread and cakes.

Panaderias also sell tasty savoury delights such as empanadas (cornmeal or pastry pasties filled with cheese, chicken or beef) and cachitos (crescent-moon-shaped pastries stuffed with chopped ham).

But it's the coffee that pulls the customers in, and panaderia coffee is worth standing in line for.

The quality of Venezuela's locally-grown coffee is excellent - mainly because the export market is so small that the best quality beans are consumed in the country, unlike neighbouring Colombia where all you can get most places is lukewarm Nescafe from a thermos.

The great coffee experience to be had in Venezuela is also due to the huge influx of Italian immigrants - both before and after the Second World War - who not only brought with them Gaggia coffee machines but also the methods of dark-roasting the beans that gives them such a strong flavour.

No matter where you go, from the biggest city to the smallest village, every panaderia worthy of its name will have a Gaggia machine pumping out strong black coffee and steam to froth the milk.

What to order?

Ordering coffee can be complicated for first-timers in Venezuela. Asking for "un cafe por favor" won't get you very far.

Basically there are two sizes available in most places: the larger cafe grande, which isn't that big by Starbucks standards and the smaller cafe pequeno, which is equivalent to a small expresso.

A large black coffee, or cafe negro grande, is strong enough to give some people the caffeine shakes, so one solution is the oddly-named guayoyo, a black coffee that has been slightly watered down.

If you're looking for a latte equivalent order a con leche grande. If you want it extra milky order a tetero grande. A tetero is a baby's bottle in Spanish so don't expect much of a caffeine kick.

For a darker, stronger coffee ask for a marron grande. I like it strong and dark so I always ask for a marron oscuro grande.

If you like it extra strong remember to add the word fuerte at the end of your order.

Some people complicate the issue even further by ordering odd combinations like a marron claro grande, which is so close to a con leche grande that I can't see any difference.

The only other coffee you might want to order is the carajillo, a black coffee with a shot of rum or Brandy. The drink has its roots in the Spanish ocupation of Cuba, when the troops would get a little courage, or corajillo before a battle by adding rum to their coffee.

How to order?

Don't expect the staff to fall over themselves to take your order. Most panaderias will a have signs up on the wall saying you have to buy a ticket from the cashier before ordering your coffee or snacks, so simply asking for stuff without a ticket to wave can result in a complete blank.

Even when you do get the ticket you still have to expect the sometimes overfamiliar interaction between staff and customers that is typical in Venezuela.

The first time I walked into my local panaderia, the girl who sold the empanadas and cachitos greeted me with a big smile and a cheeky: "Hola, ojos del mar, que quieres hoy?" ("Hi, blue eyes, what do you want today").

The serious looking kid with the moustache, meanwhile, would rarely utter anything more than: "Dime flaco!" ("Tell me, skinny!").

Any hesitation in giving my order would result in a lengthy wait while he served everybody else in the store, spoke to the empanada girl and swept up a bit, before finally coming back round to me with another: "Dime flaco!"

I guess I'm lucky, because I always liked the instant familiarity you get wherever you go in Venezuela. A lady friend of mine with a healthy, fuller figure was not so impressed. She never got used to people in stores saying things to her like: "Dime gorda!" ("Tell me, fatty!").

It was in my local panaderia that I made my worst ever Spanish error. Sent down by my mother-in-law to buy pan sobado , or soda bread, I made the mistake of asking for pan sobaco.

The girls behind the counter scrunched up their noses with that quizzical look that says "What?", looked at each other and then burst into fits of giggles.

Before I could reflect on my mistake they started shouting across the panaderia what the crazy gringo had just asked for, causing even more merriment from staff and customers alike.

"Que quieres flaco?" asked the coffee guy, cracking the first smile I'd ever seen on him and adding: "Ese pan que tu quieres no sabe nada bien" ("That bread you want doesn't taste nice at all").

In my confusion I had asked for "armpit bread".

I Love Arepas - Ñum Ñum

2009-04-25T08:13:00.000-07:00

I really like this cool graphic so I thought I'd share it.

What's the point of having a blog if you don't share.

Venezuelan cacao back on TV as Willie "Raises the Bar"

2009-03-17T11:03:00.000-07:00

Venezuelan chocolate sales in the UK are expected to get a boost after funky new logos were unveiled recently for William "Willie" Harcourt-Cooze's 100 per cent cacao products. The launch coincides with a new three-part Channel 4 series called "Raising the Bar: Willie's Chocolate Revolution" and his brand new chocolate bars, which will be sold initially in Selfridges from 1 April.

It's all about Willie now.

The dogs that featured on the old wrappers for Willie's "Venezuelan Black" criollo cacao have been replaced by the logo "Willie's Supreme Cacao" in day-glo colours that tie in with the playful spirit of the Channel 4 documentary that helped launch the products in the first place: "Willie's Wonky Chocolate Factory".

There is also added emphasis on explaining how to use the product.

The labels carry the slogans "Grate in food" and "Great on food", urging consumers to experiment as Willie does by throwing a little cacao into their cooking as they might an expensive herb or spice.

The contents of the three bars remain the same: Hacienda El Tesoro is made from cocoa beans from Willie's cocoa plantation near the beach resort of Choroni, while Rio Caribe Superior and Carenero Superior are single-estate beans sourced by Willie from other haciendas.

The beans are imported directly from Venezuela and processed in Willie's chocolate factory in Tiverton, Devon.

The rebranding and repackaging designs were created by Bristol-based Taxi Studio, who have already won several awards for the designs.

As well as "Willie's Supreme Cacao" there are logos for "Willie's World Class Cacao", "Willie's Rambunctious Cacao" and "Willie's Delectable Cacao", suggesting the success of the products has injected a greater confidence in the marketing.

Willie has certainly done well, the 100 per cent cacao bars are modelled on the traditional cylinders of home-made cocoa sold from people's homes or small shops in Venezuela's cacao-producing areas as a source of extra income. In Venezuela, these are simply grated into milk and used to make hot chocolate.

By focusing on the prime quality of the cocoa beans and marketing his "Venezuelan Black" bars as a gourmet cooking ingredient, Willie has effectively introduced a brand new product into the UK market.

Buyers now see "cacao" as something separate from cocoa, and that's all down to Willie.

So it was no surprise to learn that he picked up the 2008 "Chocolate Personality of the Year" award at the Academy of Chocolate's annual prizegiving ceremony, which must have been sweet.

Willie's new Channel 4 documentary series will be shown on 7 April, 8 April and 9 April and follows the wonky entrepreneur as he produces his first real sweetened chocolate bars: the Rio Caribe Superior chocolate bar, which is 70 per cent Venezuelan cacao, and a 72 per cent Peruvian San Martin chocolate bar.

The blurb that accompanies the series makes it sound like Willie faces some stiff challenges, but there'd be no point watching otherwise:

"Will Willie get the funding and new equipment necessary to produce his new bar; can he persuade retailers to stock it; and will the public change their tastes? Can one individual, no matter how passionate, really hope to take on the chocolate giants and win?"

Well it seems he can. Priced at £3.49, the bars will go on sale at Selfridges on Oxford Street on Thursday, 2 April and interest in the launch is huge.

Already more than 1,500 people are on a waiting list for the first 3,000 bars.

Selfridges food and restaurants director, Ewan Venters, told reporters that the store has set up a new customer phone line to cope with the expected flood of orders and manage the waiting list.

"Willie's two bars will be a huge hit. This time last year his bars, which require customers to cook with them, became our food hall's fastest-selling line," he said.

Expect mayhem then when Willie visits the Selfridges food hall from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, 18 April, to sign copies of his new book "Willie's Chocolate Factory Cookbook."

The book combines recipes that use his cacao bars with the story of how he and his wife Tania bought a remote hacienda in Venezuela and started the journey that has brought him back to the UK as a famous TV star and "the nation’s most-loved chocolate chef" as Selfridges calls him.

Willie is also working on a hot cocoa drink called "Get-Up & Gocoa", which he told Waitrose's Food Illustrated magazine "will be as close to Aztec cocoa as you can get."

"The conquistador Hernan Cortes said: 'An army can march all day on one glass of chocolate'. It wasn’t until hundreds of years later that it was made into bars. I’m taking chocolate back to its roots," Willie added.

The word cacao was taken by the Spanish from the Aztec word "cacahuatl" but Aztec cocoa was very different from the hot, sweet beverage we enjoy today and was usually served frothy, cold and laced with crushed chili peppers.

Now, if Willie can get my old mum to sip an Aztec cocoa while curling up on the sofa watching his new series he really will have raised the bar.

Click here to see Willie's new Chocolate Factory Cookbook

"Venezuelan Black" is currently available in selected Waitrose supermarkets and Selfridges store in London. The website williescacao.com is currently under construction.

Willie's Wonky Chocolate Factory brings Venezuelan cacao to UK

Chuao: In Search of World's Finest Cocoa Beans

Arepa and Co: The only Venezuelan food outlet in the UK

Arepa & Co - Authentic Arepera in Camden Market

2009-02-19T17:14:00.000-08:00

Arepa & Co is one of the few authentic Venezuelan areperas in the UK and a gastronomic experience that global food junkies just cannot miss.

Tucked away in Camden Lock Market, the hippest market in the capital, Venezuelan entrepreneur Gus's small food stall has been turning on Londoners to the true tastes of his native Caracas for four years with the catchy slogan: "Venezuelan Food with a Pinch of Love".

If you've never tried a traditional Venezuelan arepa before, this is the place to start.

The cornmeal arepas are large - about 6 inches across - and come with a variety of stuffings, from play-safe options such as grated cheese to the more adventurous Reina Pepiada, a combination of shredded chicken, avocado and mayonnaise.

Targetting health conscious British marketgoers, the large banners on either side of the stall make much of the fact that arepas are made from cormeal, which is wheat and dairy free, low in gluten, and contains no nuts.

Vegetarians can combine cheese with fried plantains or black beans, which are rich in anti-ageing, health-boosting anti-oxidants.

Gus also serves up hearty portions of Venezuela's other staple dish pabellon criollo , a full meal consisting of white rice, shredded beef, black beans and soft fried plantains. (I'm getting hungry just writing about it.)

The success of the Camden stall has allowed Gus, an enterprising MBA student, to branch out into catering, providing some suitably criollo canapes for the UK launch of Santa Teresa rum and doing the food for Venezuelan expat events.

The lastest addition to the menu is Venezuelan white cheese, which Gus has sourced from a secret supplier in London and tequeños, deep-fried pastry twists filled with cheese, which no Venezuelan wedding party, however humble, should ever be without.

Most Venezuelans will eat their tequenos dunked in ketchup, but they're just as tasty dipped in Arepa & Co's guasacaca sauce, made from avocadoes, garlic and parsley leaves, or the spicy picante (hot sauce).

To be honest, the only negative I could find is that Arepa & Co is only open on Saturdays and Sundays.

For Munchies in Bournemouth Try Sandra's arepa bar

Glossary: Eating at an Arepera

La Reina Pepiada: The Curvy Queen of Arepas

Pabellon Criollo - Venezuela's National Dish

Buying Harina Pan in the UK

Recipe: Caraotas Negras - Venezuelan Black Beans

Recipe: Carne Mechada - Venezuelan Shredded Beef

La Reina Pepiada - The Curvy Queen of Arepas

2009-01-19T06:07:00.000-08:00

The "Reina Pepiada" is one of the most popular arepa dishes in Venezuela: a lip-smacking combination of shredded chicken, mayonnaise and petit pois stuffed into a grilled cornmeal arepa with slices of soft avocado.

Like the doner kebab in Britain, the Reina Pepiada - or Reina Pepeada in some places - is a firm favourite with drinkers and ravers who flock to late night areperas after the bars and clubs shut to soak up the alcohol with a "Reina" or two, preferably drizzled with spicy hot sauce.

But even after fifty years at the top of the arepa food chain few people know that this local delicacy is named after Venezuela's first international beauty queen Susana Dujim.

A stunning morena with jet black hair and a smile that could light up a city, Dujim was crowned Miss World in London in 1955, becoming the first South American to ever hold the title.

Venezuelans all over the country were immensely proud of her achievement but none more than the Alvarez brothers from Trujillo State who had recently opened an arepera on Gran Avenida between Plaza Venezuela and Sabana Grande in the capital Caracas.

That was back in the days when stuffed arepas were called "tostadas".

Heriberto Alvarez, now 83, said that in order to pay homage to Susana Dujim's amazing achievement the brothers decided to dress up their 12-year-old niece as a beauty queen and sat her on a kind of altar so she could be seen from the street.

"A man passed and asked us why we had this girl here," Heriberto told food writer Alberto Veloz.

Much to Heriberto's surprise, the man turned out to be Susana Dujim's father. He was so pleased with their tribute to his daughter that he brought her to see them the next Friday.

"I gave her a tostada and I told her: 'Look, this tostadita was specially prepared by my mother and its going to be called La Reina, just like you,'" said Heriberto.

"And because in those days curvaceous women like Susana were called 'pepiadas', we gave that name to the arepa," he adds.

So there you have it. The origin of the "Reina Pepiada" or the "Curvy Queen" - named after a true Venezuelan beauty, Susana Dujim, Miss World 1955.

A Glossary of Arepas

Recipe: How to Make Arepas

Buying Harina Pan in the UK

Arepa and Co: The only Venezuelan food outlet in the UK

Arepa de Maiz Pelao: Making Arepas the Hard Way

Recipe: Caraotas Negras - Venezuelan Black Beans

Recipe: Carne Mechada - Venezuelan Shredded Beef

Pabellon Criollo - Venezuela's National Dish

Arepa de Maiz Pelao: Making arepas the hard way

2009-01-17T08:23:00.000-08:00

Edelmira Jimenez from Cojedes State makes her arepas the old-fashioned way by pounding shucked maize kernels in a large wooden mortar called a pilon.

The pilon is believed to have been brought to Venezuela from Africa with the slaves who worked the sugar, cacao and coffee plantations. Before that, the indigenous tribes of Venezuela used stone metates for grinding their maize, similar to the ones still used in Central America and Mexico.

Working with her son, it takes Edelmira half an hour to pound the maize, before collecting it in a pan and washing it to remove the hard husks.

She then boils the maize, drains off the water, and puts it through the grinder.

Finally, she makes the resulting dough into arepas which she cooks on a flat griddle.

Seeing how much work is involved in making arepas this way, it's easy to see why pre-cooked maize flour like Harina P.A.N. took off when it was introduced in 1960 by Empresas Polar.

The original slogan for the labour-saving instant dough mix was: "Se acabó la piladera!" ("No more pounding!")

Recipe: How to Make Arepas

Buying Harina Pan in the UK

La Reina Pepiada: The Curvy Queen of Arepas

Glossary: Eating at an Arepera

Arepa and Co: The only Venezuelan food outlet in the UK

Recipe: Caraotas Negras - Venezuelan Black Beans

Recipe: Carne Mechada - Venezuelan Shredded Beef

Pabellon Criollo - Venezuela's National Dish

Recipe: Carne Mechada - Venezuelan Shredded Beef

2008-10-04T11:41:00.000-07:00

Shredded beef is a key dish in Latin American cooking, from Cuba's rather unappetizingly named but utterly delicious "ropa vieja" ("old clothes") to Venezuela's national dish Pabellon Criollo, where the beef is typically accompanied by white rice, black beans and slices of fried plantain.

It is also used as a filling for empanadas and arepas.

The name shredded or pulled beef comes from the long strands you get when you pull the boiled meat apart.

In Spanish mechar or desmechar mean literally to separate hair into strands or to pull your hair out in fury.

Hopefully, this recipe is simple enough to avoid any hair pulling and tasty enough to justify the time it takes to boil, shred and fry the meat.

The secret to this dish is in the beef and the best cut to buy is skirt - known as flank in the USA - which will give you the right kind of strands.

I usually boil and shred the beef the day before I make my carne mechada and then leave it overnight in the fridge.

Shredding is easy and can be done with a knife, or two forks or your hands, whatever you find easiest.

The strands do not have to be uniform in size and you can experiment with different thicknesses of strands until you get the consistency you want.

Make sure you keep the water used to boil the meat as it will add extra flavour to the final sauce, which is made in typical Venezuelan style, with a sofrito of onions, bell peppers and garlic that the meat and tomatoes are then added to.

If you are serving as a meal with rice and beans the final simmer should leave some liquid in the sauce but if you want to fill empanadas with your carne mechada, boil until it is nearly dry, stirring regularly to avoid sticking or burning.

Ingredients
For enough carne mechada to serve 4 people you will need:
Half a kilo of beef skirt
1 small onion
Half a red pepper
3 cloves of garlic
Worcestershire sauce (salsa inglesa)
Salt
Black pepper
A pinch of cumin
Two spoons of tomato puree
Olive oil

Preparation

Boil the Beef

1. Place the beef in a large saucepan with enough water to cover it.

2. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 2 hours.

3. Remove from heat and leave to cool.

4. Set aside the water.

5. Shred the beef into strands with a knife or two forks until all the beef is shredded.

Make the Sofrito

6. Chop and dice the onion and bell pepper.

7. Crush garlic in pestle and mortar or in garlic crusher.

8. Heat two spoons of olive oil in a large frying pan.

9. Add onions and when they start to brown add the garlic and the bell peppers, a pinch of salt, some black pepper and a pinch of cumin.

10. Add the shredded beef and stir, allow to brown a little.

11. Add some of the water the beef was boiled in, tomato puree and a dash of Worcestershire sauce.

12. Stir frequently as you bring to the boil and then lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

13. Serve with rice and beans.

Buen provecho! as they say in Venezuela. Enjoy your meal.

By Russell Maddicks

Recipe: Caraotas Negras - Venezuelan Black Beans

Recipe: How to make Cachapas - Venezuelan corn pancakes

Recipe: How to Make Arepas

Pabellon Criollo - Venezuela's National Dish

Glossary: Eating at an Arepera

Arepa and Co: The only Venezuelan food outlet in the UK

Recipe: Perico - Venezuelan Scrambled Eggs

2008-09-29T12:56:00.000-07:00

You don't get plain old scrambled eggs in Venezuela. As befits a vibrant tropical country where eating great-tasting food is an intrinsic part of the culture, you get something far more exciting and colourful: Perico.

The name of the dish comes from the Spanish word for parrot, probably because the red, yellow and green of the ingredients echoes the parrot's colourful plumage. Interestingly, perico is also a slang term for cocaine (perhaps because users of the drug tend to prattle on so much about nothing in particular).

But whatever you get up to on Saturday night, perico is a fast, simple way to brighten up brunch on a grey, drizzly Sunday.

In Venezuela it is generally eaten alone with arepas (see recipe below), or in combination with bacon or ham, black beans and grated cheese.

I usually have some hot sauce handy too. Venezuelans generally shy away from incorporating chillies into their cooking but will have homemade picante sauce on the table to give an extra zing to meals.

The best perico I have ever tasted was at a small roadside stall in the wide-open plains of Venezuela's cowboy country known as Los Llanos. It was only about 10:30 in the morning but already the sun was stirring up heat swirls from the asphalt road.

We ate off battered plastic plates at a rickety table under a zinc roof and our breakfast was accompanied by a few ice-cold Polar beers from the cool box.

But what made it so memorable was that the lady serving the food had crushed chicharron - pork scratchings - into the eggs, which took the whole experience to a different level.

I hope you like my more traditional version.

Ingredients
To make perico for two people you will need:
4 eggs
2 medium-sized tomatoes
1 small onion
2 spring onions
A quarter of a green or red bell pepper
Salt
Ground black pepper
Olive oil

Preparation

1. Finely chop the onions, spring onions and bell pepper.

2. Cut the tomatoes up into small squares and remove seeds and excess juice.

3. Heat the olive oil in a medium frying pan.

4. Add the onion and when it starts to brown add spring onions, pepper and tomatoes.

5. Turn down heat and cook for about 6-8 minutes, adding salt and ground black pepper to season.

6. Break eggs into a bowl and whisk until you get bubbles on top.

7. Add eggs to frying pan and stir gently as it cooks and scrambled egg forms.

8. When the scrambled egg is ready, remove from heat and serve.

By Russell Maddicks

Recipe: How to Make Arepas

Recipe: Caraotas Negras - Venezuelan Black Beans

Recipe: Carne Mechada - Venezuelan Shredded Beef

Glossary: Eating at an Arepera

Arepa and Co: The only Venezuelan food outlet in the UK

Pabellon Criollo - Venezuela's National Dish

Recipe: How to Make Arepas

2008-09-27T00:56:00.000-07:00

Arepas are cornmeal patties that are eaten in place of bread in Venezuela. They are quick to make, healthy and can be eaten at any time of the day. At breakfast, they can be served steaming hot from the oven with a slather of butter, or filled with cheese, ham or perico, Venezuelan-style scrambled eggs. During the day, they make the perfect snack and are sold in fast-food outlets called areperas, with fillings like grated cheese, black beans, chicken salad and avocado, or shredded beef.

The secret to cooking arepas is Harina P.A.N., the first and most popular brand of pre-cooked maize flour. It was developed by a Venezuelan engineer called Dr Caballero Mejias in 1954 and revolutionized Venezuelan cooking when it was introduced by the beer company Polar in 1960.

Harina P.A.N. makes the whole process of preparing maize dough quick and easy and is a far cry from the traditional method of laboriously soaking, peeling and then pounding corn kernels in a large wooden mortar called a pilon, which is still practised in many parts of Venezuela today.

The original slogan for Harina P.A.N. was "Se acabo la piladera" ("No more pounding").

The great thing about Harina P.A.N. in our health-conscious world is that maize flour is easily digested, contains no additives or bleaching agents and is 100 per cent gluten-free.

It comes in two varieties, yellow or white, and can be used to make arepas, as well as savoury patties called empanadas, and hallacas - a traditional Christmas dish.

Once the maize dough has been prepared and the arepas made into a distinctive flying saucer shape, they can be baked, fried, cooked on a charcoal grill or boiled.

How to Bake Arepas

To make enough dough for six arepas you will need:

Ingredients
2 cups of Harina P.A.N. flour
2 cups of water
A pinch of salt

Preparation

1. Place two cups of flour in a mixing bowl. Add a pinch of salt and mix through with clean dry hands.

2. Measure two cups of warm water and pour onto flour.

3. Knead together the flour and water with your hands until the mixture is thoroughly blended and there are no grainy lumps.

4. If the is too soggy and sticks to your fingers add more flour. If it is too dry add water. The perfect dough should roll easily into a large ball without cracking.

5. Break off a fistful of the dough and roll it into a ball in your hands. Then pat it and turn it in your hands until its about half an inch thick and about 3-4 inches across. It should have the classic flying saucer shape now.

6. Make the rest of the arepas you want to cook. If any dough is left over wrap it in plastic - to keep in the moisture - and place in fridge. It will keep for three to four days.

7. Heat a little oil in a heavy frying pan or griddle and when hot add the arepas, as many as will comfortably fit in the pan. The idea is to give the arepas a crunchy exterior ("una cara", literally a face, as they say in Venezuela) so don't turn the heat up too high. When the arepas are brown on one side turn them over. The whole process should not take longer than 10 minutes.

8. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

9. When arepas have been browned, reduce oven to 200 degrees, place arepas on a baking tray at the top of the oven for 15-20 minutes. When ready they should sound hollow when tapped with a knife.

10. Serve with butter and grated cheese, scrambled eggs, black beans, ham, hot sauce and anything else you want to fill them with. The trick is to make an incision in the arepa - slicing through the middle but not going all the way - and then open it up like a pocket for the filling.

By Russell Maddicks

Buying Harina Pan in the UK

Recipe: How to make Cachapas - Venezuelan corn pancakes

Arepa and Co: Venezuelan arepera in London

Glossary: Eating at an Arepera

La Reina Pepiada: The Curvy Queen of Arepas

Arepa de Maiz Pelao: Making Arepas the Hard Way

Recipe: Caraotas Negras - Venezuelan Black Beans

Recipe: Carne Mechada - Venezuelan Shredded Beef

Pabellon Criollo - Venezuela's National Dish

Recipe: Caraotas Negras - Venezuelan Black Beans

2008-09-20T08:51:00.000-07:00

Tasty, cheap and nutritious, black beans are as emblematic of Venezuela as the colours of the flag - and they're good for you.

And while other Latin American countries might refer to their beans as frijoles, porotos, judias or habichuelas, in Venezuela they are always caraotas.

In England they are often sold as Turtle Beans, a name which comes from the Caribbean and is said to be inspired by their hard shiny shells.

They can be served as a soup, as a side order with a main meal, or refried and used as filling for empanadas and arepas.

They are also the only ingredient in the national dish Pabellon Criollo that is truly indigenous to the Americas, because rice is originally from India, plantains were brought to Venezuela from Africa and the beef comes from European cows.

But you don't need to stick to Venezuelan recipes. Once cooked, black beans can be used instead of kidney beans to give a creamier flavour to Chili con Carne or thrown cold into salads for colour, texture and added protein.

Black beans are incredibly healthy, with a high fibre and protein content.

Recent scientific research has proved that black beans are a Super Food - loaded with high levels of antioxidants, special molecules that help the body to fight heart disease, cancer and ageing.

Because of the dark pigments in their skins, black beans have 10 times more antioxidants than oranges, for example, and significantly more than grapes, apples and cranberries.

However, like all other members of the common bean family (Phaseolus vulgaris) black beans contain a compound called lectin that must be neutralized by soaking the beans overnight, changing the water and then boiling them vigorously for 10-15 minutes before simmering. Never cook dry beans in a slow cooker or you'll have a nasty bellyache.

And don't worry about that other effect from eating beans; flatulence. Nobody need blame the dog if you add a pinch of bicabonate to your beans while soaking.

The good news is: black beans are delicious, cooking them is simple, the ingredients are available at all good supermarkets and you can adapt the dish for vegetarians by leaving out the pork.

This recipe is for a basic black bean soup. To make the soup creamier simply put half of it in the blender and liquidize before reheating. To garnish, add a dollop of creme fraiche or natural yoghurt, with a few chopped coriander leaves on top for decoration.

For an authentic Venezuelan touch sprinkle with grated cheese. Some Venezuelans like to sprinkle two or three teaspoons of sugar over their beans but I never got used to eating them sweet.

If you want to serve the beans with rice or as a side dish to accompany fried yuca (cassava) you can simmer the beans to reduce the liquid. Don't boil the beans when reheating as you will spoil the flavour.

Black bean soup will keep in the fridge for four days or can be kept frozen for a month.

Ingredients:
To serve 5-6 people you will need:
200 grams dried black beans
Pinch of bicarbonate of soda
Pancetta or bacon rashers
1 onion
1 green pepper
2 cloves of garlic
Fresh coriander
Olive oil
Salt
Black pepper
Oregano
Cumin
Worcestershire sauce (Salsa Inglesa)

1. Place the beans in a large saucepan or bowl. Cover with tap water leaving at least an inch of water above the beans as they will swell. Add a pinch of bicarbonate of soda. Leave overnight.

2. Before cooking, drain and rinse beans under the tap. Place in saucepan or pressure cooker and cover with fresh water. Bring to boil and boil vigorously for 10-15 minutes. Add no salt.

3. Reduce heat and simmer until soft - 60 minutes (minimum) in saucepan, 45 minutes in pressure cooker.

4. To make the sofrito used to flavour the beans finely chop onions and peppers.

5. Dice pork into small cubes.

6. Crush garlic cloves in mortar or garlic crusher.

7. Heat olive oil in a frying pan. Add onions and when they start to brown add pork and peppers and garlic.

6. Season with salt, pepper, oregano, a small pinch of cumin and Worcestershire sauce and when all ingredients are cooked remove from heat.

7. When beans are cooked place some of the water and beans in a blender, add the cooked sofrito and blend until creamy. Pour back into beans and simmer to reduce and allow flavours to combine.

8. Finely chop coriandor and add to beans just before serving, stir through.

9. Serve.

By Russell Maddicks

Recipe: Carne Mechada - Shredded Beef

Recipe: How to make Cachapas - Venezuelan corn pancakes

Pabellon Criollo - Venezuela's National Dish

Recipe: How to Make Arepas

Glossary: Eating at an Arepera

Arepa and Co: The only Venezuelan food outlet in the UK

Buying Harina Pan in the UK

La Reina Pepiada: The Curvy Queen of Arepas

Arepa de Maiz Pelao: Making Arepas the Hard Way

El Levanton - Man enough for a Merengada?

2008-08-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

Some milkshakes you can't prepare for. I remember waking up one Sunday morning in Merida feeling like death warmed up after a fun-filled night of beer and rum that probably went on too long.

Luckily, one of my "panas" (mates) from the Andean capital had the perfect solution and took me to a juice bar in the Mercado Principal where he insisted on ordering a pick-me-up called El Levanton.

"Don't worry panita," he said, encouragingly, "this is guaranteed to kill that kangaroo in your head."

After what seemed ages, the creamy milkshake finally arrived. It looked innocent enough but tasted too salty to be just fruit and milk.

It had a whiff of alcohol about it and a definite aftertaste of cod liver oil, but I soldiered on thinking I couldn't feel any worse.

In fact, I was already feeling better.

The milkshake went down smoothly and it was only after my laughing buddies told me that it contained milk, papaya, melon, carrot juice, ice, sugar, a wine called Vino Sanson, some homemeade spirit called Chuchuguasa, a raw chicken egg, two raw quail eggs, fish roe and a bull's eye that I came over queasy.

"All the vitamins you'll ever need," the grinning juice guy said, "and it's a powerful aphrodisiac, so be careful with the chicas."

Honestly, I told him, the way I feel the chicas have nothing to worry about.

Undeterred, he told me that I should try "El Super Levanton", with extra shots of brandy and more bulls' eyes, if I was still in need of hangover help.

But that was enough for me. I had consumed all the hangover cure I could take that day - magical aphrodisiac or not - and after a few cheese empanadas and a couple of strong black coffees I was well enough to go back to bed.

By Russell Maddicks

Recipe: Carne Mechada - Shredded Beef

Recipe: Caraotas Negras - Venezuelan Black Beans

Recipe: Carne Mechada - Venezuelan Shredded Beef

Recipe: How to Make Arepas

Arepa and Co: The only Venezuelan food outlet in the UK

Glossary: Eating at an Arepera

Batidos and Merengadas - Juice Bar Glossary

2008-08-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

One of the great pleasures of visiting Venezuela is the chance to try so many delicious fruit juices. From exotic soursops to run-of-the-mill raspberries, juices seem to taste better in the tropics.

And there's no trouble finding them. You can enjoy juices at fruterias, areperas, luncherias and five star restaurants - anywhere there's a blender and a plug socket, basically.

Just don't ask for a "zumo", the Spanish word for fruit juice - especially if you say it with a lisp - because all you'll get in reply is a confused "Que?"

In Venezuela, freshly-squeezed juices, such as orange and mandarin, are called "jugos", other fruits that are mixed with water and ice are called "batidos", and milkshakes are known as "merengadas".

One word of warning, people like their juices sweet over here, the sweeter the better, so order your juice "sin azucar" ("without sugar"), or "con poco azucar" ("with little sugar"), unless you're ordering a super-sharp passion fruit juice, which needs a little sweetness to tone down the tang.

Jugos - Juices

Cambur - Banana
Durazno - Peach
Fresa - Strawberry
Guanabana - Soursop
Guayaba - Guava
Lechosa - Papaya
Mandarina - Mandarin
Mango - Mango
Melon - Honeydew melon
Mora - Blackcurrant
Naranja - Orange
Nispero - Sapodilla
Papelon con Limon - Raw cane sugar mixed with water and lemon or lime
Parchita - Passion Fruit
Patilla - Watermelon
Piña - Pineapple
Remolacha - Beetroot
Tamarindo - Tamarind
Toronja - Grapefruit (although its just as likely to appear in the Spanglish form as Greifu, Graifru or Grefu)
Tres en Uno - Beetroot, Carrot and Orange
Zanahoria - Carrot

By Russell Maddicks

Recipe: Carne Mechada - Shredded Beef

Recipe: Caraotas Negras - Venezuelan Black Beans

Recipe: Carne Mechada - Venezuelan Shredded Beef

Recipe: How to Make Arepas

Arepa and Co: The only Venezuelan food outlet in the UK

Glossary: Eating at an Arepera

Lunch with Los Amigos Invisibles

2008-08-21T11:32:00.000-07:00

Max and Jason of Current TV join Venezuelan band Los Amigos Invisibles for a brunch of arepas and cachapas at Beverly Hills' famous gourmet java-joint Coupa Cafe.

The restaurant is run by Jean Paul Coupal, the French-Canadian owner of Cafe Arabica in Caracas.

The menu combines single-estate coffees from the finest fincas in Venezuela with hefty helpings of popular dishes such as Pabellon Criollo, a perico platter and parchita (passion fruit) bon bons made from Venezuelan cocoa.

The song "Yo No Se", which plays in the background, comes from Amigos Invisible's album "Superpop".

To download Los Amigos Invisibles MP3 tracks click here:

To buy the CD "The Venezuelan Zinga Son, Vol. 1" click here:

To buy the new CD "Commercial" click here:

Arepa and Co: The only Venezuelan food outlet in the UK

Recipe: How to Make Arepas

Recipe: Caraotas Negras - Venezuelan Black Beans

Recipe: Carne Mechada - Venezuelan Shredded Beef

Pabellon Criollo - Venezuela's National Dish

Glossary: Eating at an Arepera

Eating out - Arepera Glossary

2008-08-19T03:15:00.000-07:00

Arepas are Venezuela's homegrown alternative to bread or rolls, cornmeal "cakes" about the size of a hockey puck that are crunchy on the outside but soft and fluffy on the inside.

Infinitely versatile, they can be eaten solo with butter or opened up and stuffed with a variety of fillings to make a delicious snack.

While most Venezuelans will eat arepas at home, if you want something more exotic - to quell your lunchtime hunger pangs or soak up the alcohol after a night on the tiles - then head to an arepera, Venezuela's very own fast-food joints.

First-timers will probably go for a simple option like ham or cheese, but if you want to try something more ambitious here is a brief glossary to help you negotiate the more head-scratching menu items at a typical arepera.

Arepa - Cooked cornmeal pocket stuffed with various ingredients.
Arepitas - Small fried arepas served as a starter to eat with nata (sour cream), or with soups and stews.
Arepa de Trigo - Large arepa from the Andes region made from wheat.

Fillings:
Aguacate - Avocado
Aguita 'e Sapo - Literally "Frog Water", but don't let the name put you off. This is just pernil (roast pork) in its juice, served with fried cheese. Found almost exclusively in Maracaibo.
Atun - Tuna salad with onions and a squeeze of lemon
Caraotas negras - Black beans
Carne mechada - Shredded beef
Chicharron - Pork crackling, also known in UK as pork scratchings
Chorizo - Spicy sausage
Diablitos - Devilled ham
Domino - Black beans and grated white cheese
Ensalada de Gallina - Chicken salad
Jamon - Ham
Montaña Rusa - Quail's eggs in mayonnaise (literally Russian Mountain, the term for a rollercoaster ride in Venezuela)
Morcilla - Black pudding
Orejas de Cochino - Snippets of pigs' ears in sauce
Pata-pata - Black beans, yellow cheese and avocado
Pelua - Shredded beef and grated yellow cheese
Perico - Scrambled eggs cooked with chopped tomato and onion
Pernil - Roast pork
Pollo guisado - Chicken cooked in a sauce
Popurri Criolla - Shredded beef, black beans and white cheese
Queso - Cheese
Queso de mano - Literally "hand cheese", a traditionally-made soft white country cheese
Queso Guayanes - Another soft white cheese
Reina Pepiada - Chicken, avocado, mayonnaise and peas

Sauces:
Guasacaca - Avocado sauce similiar to Mexican Guacamole but not as thick. Great for drizzling over arepas or empanadas. Every arepera has their own recipe.
Salsa picante - Hot sauce. Again, every place has its own recipe, so test to see if you can deal with the heat before drenching your food.

By Russell Maddicks

Recipe: How to Make Arepas

Buying Harina Pan in the UK

La Reina Pepiada: The Curvy Queen of Arepas

Arepa de Maiz Pelao: Making Arepas the Hard Way

Recipe: Caraotas Negras - Venezuelan Black Beans

Recipe: Carne Mechada - Venezuelan Shredded Beef

Pabellon Criollo - Venezuela's National Dish

Cornmeal Cravings and the Hunt for Harina Pan

2008-08-13T05:44:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you can travel the world looking for something only to get back and find it was just round the corner all along. That's what happened to me when I went looking for Harina Pan, the basic ingredient for Venezuelan arepas.

You can say what you like about arepas; I've heard them described as "bland stodge in a bun", which is unfair, and "about the size of an ice-hockey puck and just as easy to digest", which is only partly true (the bit about the size).

But for millions of Venezuelans, the arepa is their daily bread, a versatile savoury snack that can be baked, fried or grilled, but is always guaranteed to fill you up.

For millions of families in Venezuela a steaming arepa smothered with butter and stuffed with cheese or ham makes a delicious start to the day.

For clubbers, fast food joints called areperas offer arepas stuffed with black pudding and spicy chorizo sausage as a pick-me-up after a night of sweaty salsa dancing and Cuba Libre cocktails.

The thing is, once you've got the taste for arepas nothing else will give you the same satisfaction. It's such a blank canvas. The taste of the cornmeal is so soft and subtle that it brings out the flavour of anything you stuff inside it; meat, black beans, scrambled eggs, avocado, anything.

After I moved from Caracas to the small town of Caversham in the UK, it wasn't long before Summer turned to Autumn, sunny days turned to drizzly grey, and I started to hanker for a few tropical treats to brighten the gloom.

I didn't know it then but I was suffering from cornmeal withdrawal. I needed maize, ground pre-cooked maize flour made into a dough and gently patted into a flying saucer shape, lightly toasted on both sides in a frying pan to give it a "cara" and then popped into the oven for twenty minutes or so.

I needed arepas.

My cornmeal cravings got so bad that I started to hunt down stores in the UK that sold Harina Pan.

After a quick search on the Internet and a few dead ends I found that the best place to get my maize-flour fix was in London, in the shops run by Colombians and Ecuadorians next to Elephant and Castle tube station. Cool.

The big shopping centre and the small shops in the railway arches behind it are a also a great place to pick up other stuff, like hot picante sauce and Latin music.

Looking further afield I also tracked down a small cafe/store in Brixton selling Colombian food that was another source for the coveted ground-maize mix.

But it was an effort schlepping all the way into London for a few ingredients and I started to go less and less, limiting my arepa blowouts to the odd times when I was lucky enough to be able to visit Venezuela.

But things are looking up. I've just found this new place in Reading, just across the river from Caversham.

Al-Medina in Oxford Road looks like any other Asian food store from the outside. It sells okra, sweet potatoes, every curry sauce under the sun and those massive bags of rice. But inside, wedged between the herbs and spices they have a shelf stacked full of Harina Pan, the white one, la buena.

At only £1.89 it's also the cheapest Harina Pan I've found in the UK.

So if you're getting cornmeal cravings and you're hunting for Harina Pan in the Caversham, Reading or Berkshire area, look no further than Al-Medina on Oxford Rd.

Now, if only I can find some cachapa mix, Toddy, a little tin of diablitos, some Venezuelan peppers, you know, aji dulce, the small sweet ones, Pampero Rum, Torontos, an ice-cold Solera Verde, the new CD by Los Amigos Invisibles... and... and... and...

By Russell Maddicks

Recipe: How to Make Arepas

Arepa and Co: The only Venezuelan food outlet in the UK

Arepa de Maiz Pelao: Making Arepas the Hard Way

Glossary: Eating at an Arepera

La Reina Pepiada: The Curvy Queen of Arepas

Recipe: Caraotas Negras - Venezuelan Black Beans

Recipe: Carne Mechada - Venezuelan Shredded Beef

Pabellon Criollo - Venezuela's national Dish

Al-Medina Stores is at 168 Oxford Rd, Reading, RG1 7PL.

Pabellon Criollo - Venezuela's National Dish

2008-08-08T11:07:00.000-07:00

Pabellon Criollo is not only Venezuela's national dish, it's also emblematic of the country; a hearty plate of simple food that mirrors the national flag and highlights the special mix of races that has made Venezuela a country of beauty queens.

A delicious combination of carne mechada (shredded beef), arroz blanco (white rice), caraotas negras (black beans) and tajadas (fried plantains), there are few places in Venezuela that you won't be able to find pabellon on the menu.

Look for the menu del dia or the menu ejecutivo, the cheap lunch options offered at many places, which generally include a soup as a starter, a fruit juice and sometimes a dessert.

Even in the humblest of luncherias pabellon should be accompanied with arepas, the cornmeal staples that Venezuelans eat in place of bread or rolls.

If you're really lucky your pabellon will arrive with a generous helping of salty white cheese grated over the black beans, or a slice of avocado on the side.

For a fried egg on top of the beef ask the waiter for your pabellon "a caballo" ("on horseback").

If you want to be really Venezuelan about it, you might want to follow local custom and stir a couple of teaspoons of sugar into the beans.

But the secret of any great pabellon is in the sofrito, the combination of onions, sweet peppers, bell peppers and adobo (seasoning) that the beef is cooked in, especially the amount of cumin used.

Along the coast, in Choroni, or in Margarita, the shredded beef is often replaced with cazon, or baby shark.

The most exotic version of the pabellon is served during the Catholic fasting period of Lent when you may find chiguire meat in place of the beef.

The chiguire is a large guinea-pig like rodent, better known outside Venezuela as a capybara. These giant rats may not look very appetizing, but they hold a special place in the cuisine of the Llanos, the seasonally-flooded plains populated by horse-riding cowboys.

Somewhat bizarrely, in the 17th century the local creoles were able to get the capybara classified as a fish by the Catholic Church, although it probably helped that nobody in Rome had ever seen one before.

It's certainly the oddest fish I've ever seen.

The closest translation of the name Pabellon Criollo is "Creole Flag," a clue to the patriotic significance that it holds for some Venezuelans, who see the yellow, red, blue and white of the national flag in the colours of the ingredients.

Other commentators see in it a reflection of Venezuela's racial mix: the indigenous Amerindians, Spanish conquistadors and African slaves who went into the country's melting pot.

More importantly for the traveller, pabellon is a healthy, filling lunch option that won't stretch the budget, although it might stretch the seams of your jeans if you overdo it.

By Russell Maddicks

Recipe: Carne Mechada - Shredded Beef

Recipe: Caraotas Negras - Venezuelan Black Beans

Recipe: Carne Mechada - Venezuelan Shredded Beef

Recipe: How to Make Arepas

Arepa and Co: The only Venezuelan food outlet in the UK

Glossary: Eating at an Arepera