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| Arepa Maker in Cartagena, Colombia |
When Caracas Arepa Bar first opened it would be safe to
assume that 95% of the hipsters lining up outside the doors of their diminutive
East Village shop had never tasted an arepa
before. Now, nearly ten years after the first store opened on East 7th
Street, the love of New Yorkers for Caracas Arepa Bar’s signature item has
allowed the trailblazer to open outposts in Williamsburg and Rockaway Beach
(fate TBD post-Sandy) as well as double the size of the original by expanding
to a sit-down restaurant next door.
New Yorkers, it would seem, have discovered arepas are not just a passing food fad
bound to go the way of the cupcake shop, but a real, honest meal that is
completely crave-worthy on a daily basis.
Like many, my first taste of an arepa was at Caracas- the restaurant, not the Venezuelan capital
for which it is named. I instantly fell
for the pita pocket-like cornbread stuffed with various grilled meats, cheese,
and vegetables. Having been weaned on
tacos in Southern California, the concept of a corn-based wrapper enveloping
meat was not new. But these were a different beast altogether.
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| John with a grilled arepa |
Unlike a taco, an arepa
is a thick patty of cornmeal. The dough
is then cooked- grilled, steamed, baked, or fried. A slit is then made to form
a pocket in which any manner of filling can be stuffed.
It is to Caracas Arepa Bar I owe thanks for my excitement
around a recent trip to Cartagena, Colombia.
In Colombia, like Venezuela, arepas
are a common street food consumed by rich and poor, from the narrow,
impeccably preserved lanes of the Old City to the shantytowns and working class
suburbs.
It did not take more than a hundred feet of walking on our
first evening in the walled city of this UNESCO World Heritage site before we
ran into our first vendor. The disks of
partially cooked dough were piled high the man’s cart like a mound of white
hockey pucks. The vendor fanned a small mound of charcoal beneath the grill attached
to the side of the cart where he would throw on the arepas to reheat as customers called out orders.
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| Eating arepas in Old City Cartagena |
It wasn’t until the next day, however, when we went out
searching specifically for this national dish to fill our hungry mid-day
bellies. We found what we were looking
for in front of the line for the Hay Festival- a posh literary gathering- the
vendor doling out food to well-dressed intellectual types waiting in line for an
author event. It appeared even the
bookish get hungry for arepas from
time to time.
At our signal two arepas
were thrown on the grill. Once
charred, the vendor cut a deep pocket and into which he spread a bit of
butter. He opened two cubbies holding
grated cheese and cooked ground beef. He stuffed the filling into the pocket to
the point of nearly bursting. Topped
with a bit of hot sauce and washed down with a limonata, it was an ideal lunch.
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| Deep Fried Breakfast Arepa |
Out at a beach resort a day later, it was a pleasure to find
the local specialty on the menu as a breakfast item. Here the pocket was stuffed with deliciously
seasoned minced beef and raw egg before being sealed and dropped into a deep
fryer. Crackling crisp on the outside,
the shell broke open to reveal a deeply meaty, moist interior.
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| Egg filling |
As it stands, it may take a flight to South America to find
myself in a place where arepas are as
common as tacos or a slice of pizza. But
if Caracas Arepa Bar keeps spreading the gospel of their signature food, maybe
more people will discover what a bunch of intrepid eaters in NYC did a few
years ago: arepas are damn delicioso.
Amy Powell is a food and travel writer based in New York City. She is a graduate of Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration and the French Culinary Institute. Follow her on Twitter @amymariepowell
