Venezuelan Arepas Go International on 12 September

Come Join the Venezuelan Arepa Party at Cargo, Shoreditch, on 12 September 

On Saturday 12 September Venezuelans around the world will be flying their national flag, playing Venezuelan music, and gathering together in an act of gastronomic unity to enjoy the country's most emblematic national dish: arepas.

That's because the 12th of September has been christened World Arepa Day (El Dia Mundial de la Arepa), an international event that aims to spread the word about this scrumptious South American street food and turn on local foodies, adventurous eaters, and gastronauts to the joys of the arepa.

These cornflour patties, made from Harina PAN, can be eaten plain, or stuffed with delicious fillings like shredded beef, shredded chicken, black beans, grated cheese, fried plantains and dollops of goopy avocado sauce called guasacaca..

In London, the place to be for this culinary celebration is at the outdoor food area by Cargo, at 89 Rivington Street in Shoreditch, where the folks from the Guasacaca food stall will be cooking up a full spread of fillings to delight all tastes, including vegetarian options, from 12-8 pm (although under 18's can only stay until 4 pm).

One must-try arepa is the Reina Pepiada, a lip-smacking combination of shredded chicken, mashed avocado, mayonnaise and peas. Not surprisingly for Venezuela - famous for the stunning beauty of its lady folk - the Reina Pepiada is named after local lovely Susana Dujim, who won Miss World in 1955.

All the arepas cost £6 and you can mix and match any of the fillings on the menu.

According to David Gutierrez Aznar, who runs Guasacaca, it's a huge honour to create a little corner of Venezuela in London on such an important day.

Harina PAN goodie bags

"We really want to make Venezuelans in London feel like they are at home on 12 September, with traditional games, music and, of course, the traditional flavours of our arepas," says David.

"But we also want British people to come over and try our food because every year we do this the feedback is incredible and when people here try our arepas they really love them."

To set a party mood Chebeto Requena, a Venezuelan musician based in London will be providing traditional tunes throughout the afternoon, and Santa Teresa rum cocktails should warm things up if the weather turns cold.,

Guasacaca have also put together some Harina PAN goodie-bags with a kilo of flour, and a booklet of recipes showing how to make arepas. The bags will be raffled on the day.

For more information follow @guascacalondon on Twitter and the hashtags #WorldArepaDay, #DiaMundialDeLaArepa, and #ArepaLovers

The outdoor space at Cargo will be covered in the yellow, red, and blue of the Venezuelan flag on Saturday, 12 September, to celebrate World Arepa Day. 

Venezuela Guide on Instagram - FITVen2013

INSTAGRAMEANDO ANDO YO...

In October 2013 I was invited to travel around Venezuela on a Press Trip organized by the Tourism Ministry (MinTur) in the run up to the FITVen2013 International Tourism Fair.

As I lost my laptop and camera en route to Venezuela I was forced to improvise. Armed only with an HTC One S mobile phone with an 8 megapixel camera, I decided to document my trip on Instagram.

Through trial and error, I learnt how to get the most out of a single shot and train my eye to find images that would work in a square. The filters I just responded to depending on my mood that day. The feedback on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter has been really encouraging.

I am pleased with the results.

The restrictions of Instagram forced me to be more creative and think carefully before taking each shot, which helped me to see Venezuela in a different way.

I came home with some great new images of Caracas, the islands of Margarita, Coche and Cubagua, rafting in Barinas, paragliding in Mérida and the folk festivals of the Pueblos del Sur, remote villages in the Andean mountains south of Merida.

To see more of my Instagram images follow me at @Venezuelaguide - http://instagram.com/p/gJ0qZdNZZG/



Street Theatre: In the area around Plaza el Venezolano and Plaza Bolivar in the centre of Caracas, actors recreate key scenes from Venezuela's history by bringing to life famous characters from the past who tell the story of their time. Here, the dictator Juan Vicente Gomez takes a stroll with Independence hero Francisco de Miranda.  



Whitewater Rafting: On the Rio Acequias in Barinas, adventure tour company Arassari Trek took us on a bumpy, adrenaline-pumping ride down a Grade 3 stretch of foaming rapids. It helps if everybody rows together.

For more details of rafting in Barinas contact Arassari Trek

Remote Andean Villages: Just outside San Jose de Acequias, one of the so-called Pueblos del Sur, we came across this tiny chapel dedicated to San Isidro Labrador, the patron sain of farmers. 

Vibrant Folk Festivals: The Locainas de Santa Rita are gentlemen who dress like ladies for a day during the festivities in honor of San Isidro, as Santa Rita in popular lore is the wife of the saint. As their name suggests, these ladies can get quite "loco" during the festivities held on 21-22 May, and after dancing with their sticks they try to liven up the festive mood by flirting with the men in the crowd.





Paragliding in Merida: Tierra Negra, close to the Andean city of Merida, is one of the best paragliding spots in Venezuela. Jose Albarran of Fanny Tours is one of the pioneers of paragliding in Venezuela and a great pilot for a tandem flight. Known to his friends as "Piojo" (Flea), due to his uncanny ability to scale sheer rock faces, Jose is one of the founders of the paragliding school in the nearby village of Las Gonzales, close to the landing site, where youngsters are being trained to become the paragliding champions of the future. Watch a video of me paragliding with Piojo here.

For more details of paragliding in Merida contact Jose at Fanny Tours Tierra Negra

Recipe: Guasacaca - Venezuela's Tastiest Sauce

(All text Copyright Russell Maddicks)

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, arepas 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.

How to Order Arepas - A Glossary

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.

Copyright Russell Maddicks

Arepa - Carne mechada con queso blanco

Yellow Pants, Grapes and Triqui Traquis - Venezuelan New Year

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!

The history of the Venezuela arepa (documentary in Spanish)

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 arepas go burgundy for La Vinotinto football team

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?

Recipe: How to make Venezuelan empanadas

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

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.

Guasacaca - Venezuela's tastiest sauce

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.

US chef brings Venezuelan food to Connecticut

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

Venezuelan fiesta in London- 13/03/2010

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.

Willie's Cacao Launches Las Trincheras Bar

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

Ponche Crema - Venezuelan Xmas in a glass

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

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

Rum cocktails - El Ritual

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.

Guayoyo o tetero, flaco? - Venezuelan coffee glossary

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

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.

La Reina Pepiada - The Curvy Queen of Arepas

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

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