For this reason would be great to dedicate a space on our website to connect you with these type of products.

So based on your frequent questions we will be updating this list from time to time. Please note that the links will take you to an external page where you will be able to safely purchase these items at any time, and we will receive a small commission for the purchases you may make online.

For Events

• Have you ordered a Catering from us and you do not know where to put the food to keep it hot?We recommend you to get the Chafing Dish Buffet Kit you also will be able to re use it at any time, and this is very helpful. In fact this is the one we have recommended to other customers when they make parties on their backyards, the river, or outdoors weddings to keep the food warm.

To cook

• Trying to find the dough we use to prepare our delicious Arepas? Order it here, and get it delivered to your home
• We prepare our Empanadas with a different dough of the same Brand P.A.N and if you want to try to make empanadas at home get the right dough here

The post More Products appeared first on La Arepa.

Our dulce de leche is so easy to make that we want you to give it a try and prepare it. There are many ways of to make it but I will use my Auntie Teresa’s recipe.

For one batch of dulce de leche you’ll need:

• 1/2 cup of Milk powder
• 1 cup of water
• Sugar
• Vanilla
• 1 lime
• Prunes
• Cloves

Blend the milk with the water, vanilla and the sugar. Then pour it into a saucepan and cook it on low. Squeeze the lime over the mixture and while it is cooking, do not stir it too much because you have to allow the milk to be separated by the acid from the lime.

Add the cloves, and the prunes when the milk starts boiling. Stir gently just to mix all the ingredients and then wait until the mixture turns solid.

Enjoy the sublime flavor of this dessert…

The post Dulce de Leche recipe appeared first on La Arepa.

Most Venezuelans love the coast; personally

I had experienced the bliss of travelling to lots of them during my childhood and my early twenties; now that I see the pictures of this beautiful part of the Golfo Triste (Sad Gulf) I feel as if I was not aware of the beauty and the amazing clear blue of its waters. It seems a very exotic place to be and I was there several times as if it were an ordinary place.

Among the cays I travelled during all those early years were: Sal, Sombrero, Mero, Paicla, Pelon, Borracho, Las Animas and of course the amazing Juanes which is called The Pool, because this place is not an island really, it’s just an area that suddenly goes from ocean deep to a 5 feet foot pool, in the middle of nowhere. Boats just park there and one can go inside in the water and set food. The water is crystal blue, warm and amazing.

There’s also a cave called Cueva de la Virgen (Virgin’s Cave) only accessible through by boat, this place was dedicated to the Virgin, and lots of  Catholics visit this place every holiday season and bring more religious figures and images into this cave.

Punta Brava is a beach located in the same national park. This is the perfect spot to hang out during weekends if the budget or time is not enough to take a boat and travel to the cays. This gold sand and clear water beach also has a lagoon to enjoy, lots of food services, and chair and umbrella rentals are available.

I remember one road just entering into an area full of huge palms, Boca de Aroa. There in that specific moment you know that you are already in the paradise, after two and a half hours of travelling from my city, Barquisimeto. I used to lower the car window and smell that amazing scent of the sea, my heart pounding. This was my happy place for sure. I have travelled and visited other coastal places but this one, believe me, has the most intense and amazing smell, maybe that’s how a paradise smells.

And of course, about food, there are two important stops to make, one in a small town called Moron. There you can find small food stands selling the most tasty empanadas, I love eating  cazon empanadas. Cazon is dogfish, but prepared when the fish is very young because when it becomes an adult the meat gets tougher and not easy to chew. Add garlic sauce to those empanadas and you’ll see heaven on every bite. I am a cheese lover so I always ordered cheese empanadas as well. 

Secondly, while passing the palm-lined road toward a town called Tucacas, on the beach side are lots of small restaurants selling seafood, nothing fancy but cute coastal style restaurants. They serve or used to serve the most amazing fried fish, either with fresh salad made of avocado, tomato, lettuce, onion and a flavorful vinaigrette, or tostones, a deep fried then smashed green plantain with salad on top, or cheese, etc. Yummy!

La Arepa‘s menu brings you a piece of this amazing part of Venezuela, through our #12 fish empanada, #17 fish patacon, or the new addition on the menu  of the #24 tostones.

Behind the restaurant, the beach was very close. Eating there with those views and that smell was great. Again I wasn’t aware though, because every time my parents stopped there I was mad at them because I really wanted to get to the beach.

My favorite part of my vacation was always going camping on the cays, staying there 4 or 5 days far from the city, just the water, sand and fresh fish. Of course adults always brought lots of supplies, and we never left any trash behind. I’m happy to be part of the side of the population that has the awareness of how important is to respect and to protect our nature. The sound of the night was the waves sound and the palms moved by the wind, even though it was extremely dark far from the tent, I always felt safe; then in the morning I was so excited to wait for the first sign of the sun to open that tent and run into the warm crystal clear water. The rest of the day was just having the most sublime fun, in the most beautiful place, playing with the fish, diving, jumping, living.

Now that I remember it I’m feeling homesick, but then I remember how my country has been destroyed by the current political regime, and then I’m happy for the fact that at least I enjoyed it and I will always have that memory whenever I go. That place is part of me too. That safety and happiness was also called Venezuela.

The post The Falcon Cays appeared first on La Arepa.

This special dish brings us all together. Hallaca has a long preparation process, so it needs to be prepared by a group of people. In Venezuela the entire family or a group of friends get together, put on some Gaita music, which is a type of music that Venezuelans listen to during Christmas, and start preparing this spectacular mix of flavors and colors.Every single family has their “secret” way of preparing this dish, and every single person will say: “There is no other Hallaca like the one that my mom, grandmother, (and so on) prepares” The Hallaca is a point of family pride, something that identifies every single Venezuelan, like a family coat of arms.

But, what is an Hallaca and where did it come from?

Hallaca is a cake made with corn dough, seasoned with chicken soup, dyed with annatto (an orangish-red condiment and food coloring, derived from the seeds of the achiote, which Venezuelans call onoto). Vegetarian Hallacas dough is not seasoned with chicken soup and is prepared with water and salt.The Hallaca is filled with a delicious stew, made in different ways based on which Venezuelan area this dish is prepared. However, at La Arepa we prepare the stew with beef and pork tenderloin and smoked bacon, cut into small pieces and then mixed and marinated with bell pepper, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, red wine and inspiration. The stew
is marinated and then slow cooked for some hours in order to have the amazing flavor that it gets.

After the stew is ready, we spread the dough on top of the banana leaf (or bijao, depending on  availability) and fill it with olives, capers, raisins, onion, red  pepper, and a variety of pickled. The Hallaca is wrapped in a rectangular shape with cotton string and boiled.

But let’s learn how it is prepared in some areas of Venezuela:      

Some people on the east side of Venezuela add fish to the stew instead of meat. Others put a whole chicken in the stew. Some people in the Andes leave the meat raw but well marinated to be cooked in the cake for an extra hour. For the filling, some people add sweet pepper, almonds, chickpeas, black beans, potato, or even a hardboiled egg.

Again, it depends on the area where the hallaca is prepared and the family traditions, but the most important fact here is that this amazing cake represents a gesture of friendship, gentleness and cordiality among people, because the hallaca is shared with others outside the family as a way of showing kindness and pride. As I said, everybody believes their hallacas are the best, so everybody should try it. In fact, my family’s hallacas were very popular back home and now in Portland (just saying).

How is the Hallaca served?

It is served every Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve nights with chicken salad, ham rolls and ham leg, accompanied with wine, or cream punch. After finishing the main dish, desserts like sweet papaya and panettone, among others, are served.

You may think that’s a lot of food, but Venezuelans love partying, and this feast lets us stay up all night dancing and having fun.

Most people by now are probably wondering about the origin of the name, or about the history of the word hallaca.

There are different versions about the origin of the word Hallaca. Some say this word comes from the word ayacá, of the indigenous group Tupí-Guaraní, which means lump.
Other says that the word came from the Spanish word there (allá), from the stew prepared with ingredients that came from abroad, and here (acá), from the corn dough and the banana leaf found in our country; the word was combined and refined becoming Hallaca.

The hallaca comes back from the colonization era, around the 15th and 16th century. The slaves and indigenous servants filled their corn dough cake with leftovers that their oppressors didn´t eat.

Also, it is said that the Spaniards tried to improve the Aztec tamal, adding their ingredients to the cake filling.

When the road called “El camino de los españoles”, from the coastal town of La Guaira Port to the Capital Caracas was under construction, the workers were generally natives, and they used to eat buns made of pure corn. Now it’s known that eating only pure corn can lead to avitaminosis, an illness called “pellagra”. The population was asked to donate the rest of their everyday food to those natives so they could fill their buns with leftovers.

The story goes that one Christmas the Caracas bishop asked the population to change their over-the-top way of celebrating, and instead of wasting huge amounts of food and drinks during the season, he asked them to eat like the natives, who were working on the road, by filling their buns with leftovers. The Criollos, who were the descendants of the Spanish but born in the American continent, were fearful of God and accepted the demand of the bishop and started to make their own versions of what we now know as the Hallaca, with each one tastier than the other.

There’s an expression of one of the greatest intellectuals Arturo Uslar Pietri in Venezuela during the 20th Century, who said the following: “Hallaca is an exemplary way of understanding the mix of cultures, because inside that cake there are raisins and olives from the Romans and Greeks, the caper and almond from the Arabs, the beef cattle from the colonizer captains from Castilla, and the corn and the banana leaves from the natives.”

Independently of the origin of this amazing dish, it is clear that the explosion of flavors can be found in every bite, expressing the deepest root of the Venezuelan who made it, because once again the Hallaca is an expression of every Venezuelan´s home, pride, and themselves.

For that reason, La Arepa is proud of bringing to you this dish, which is a part of the multicultural Venezuela and a part of what we are in every bite: A lot of sabor.

We guarantee…. You’ll want more than one.

The post Hallaca: A Venezuelan’s Pride. appeared first on La Arepa.

We are pleased to be among the 7 great Latinx-owned eateries in Portland. Thanks to Travel Portland for this great mention about La Arepa. We appreciate our customers and always looking forward to guarantee satisfaction on every bite.

http://www.travelportland.com/article/latinx-eateries/

The post We are among the 7 great Latinx-owned eateries in Portland! appeared first on La Arepa.

In Venezuela, like any other part in the world, there’s a big belief in paranormal stories that have become part of our folklore, mostly among people living in country areas whose roots are very strong. One of those stories, which is called The Whistle Man, caught my attention because it is one of the most popular in my country. I have researched it and found out that this legend comes from the southern central west plains, where our folkloric music comes from, appearing around the Barinas, Portuguesa and Cojedes states; magic lands full of myths, legends, and beliefs. Some say that The Whistle man, whose name in Venezuelan Spanish is “El Silbón”, comes from a small town called Guanarito, while others say that he was born in another town called “El Vijao”, both of which are located in Portuguesa, and that he appeared around the mid 19th century. There’s an uncertainty about his real origin.

Venezuelan plains:

After watching videos and reading some information online I have found three different versions of the story. The versions differ at the beginning but the rest of the story is the same. I will paraphrase the versions below:

The first one says that The Whistle Man was a boy who killed and gutted his father after he (his father) raped and killed his girlfriend because the father thought she was promiscuous. After this his grandfather tied him up to a tree, destroyed his back with lashes and cleaned up his wounds with boiling water and chili pepper as a punishment for killing his father, then untied the boy, throwing a hungry dog called “Tureco” at him who bit his ankles. The legend says that the grandfather cursed him to carry a bag with the bones of his father with the dog following and biting him for all eternity.

The second version of the legend says that the Whistle Man was a capricious boy who had everything he wanted. One day he wanted to eat animal entrails and his father came back from hunting with empty hands, so the boy got mad, killing and gutting his father, bringing the entrails of his father to his mother to be cooked. When she found out that this was not an animal, she and the boy’s grandfather tied him to a tree and the rest of the story remains the same.

A third version of The Whistle Man is one that, in my opinion, has quite an extraordinary addition of idioms to the story. In Venezuela we used to say “A twisted tree never straightens”, which means that a bad person never changes, and in the end will always be the same. I disagree with this expression because everybody has the chance to evolve into something better, of course there will always be exceptions.

So the boy, before becoming the The Whistle Man, was a temperamental young boy, who had everything he wanted, and one day he went hunting in the plains with his father. While they were walking, a twisted tree stepped in their way. The boy asked his father to straighten it out, but the father said: “No, a twisted tree, never straightens, you know that”. After that the boy told his father: “If you always knew it, why did you let me grown the way I am, like a twisted tree? Now I will never be able to change the way I am, and it’s your fault”; then the boy killed his father, brought back home just his father’s visceras and gave them to his mother to be cooked.

The whistler’s mother found out that those entrails were not from an animal because of how they looked, so she informed her father-in-law, and the rest of the story is the same as the other versions.

The legend says that he became a 3-meter-tall boy with long legs who is seen during dry season at the top of the trees playing with dust, and during raining season around the month of May, at any time, anywhere, roaming with a thirst for vengeance, hunting drunk men, hitting them with a stick until it kills them, sucking their belly button to extract the alcohol from their bodies, and eating their visceras. The main sign of him being around is hearing the whistle that makes the seven musical notes A, B, C, D, E, F, G, with the following scale A, B, C, D ascending and E, F, G, A descending. If you hear the whistle far away, it means that he is just next to you, and if you hear the whistle close by, it means that he is far away, and that the only way to escape alive from him is to say out loud the name of the dog Tureco, make the sound of a dog barking, snap a whip or show him a chili pepper.

During heavy rainy nights, The Whistle Man sometimes walks away from the roads and visits the houses of the people to wait under the roof of the front yard of a house for the rain shower to stop, tossing his bag, and with lots of concentration starts counting one by one the bones of his victims, including his father’s. If any member of the house hears to the sound of the bones clacking while the man is counting them, nothing happens, but if no one in the house hears to the clacking sound, the next morning one member of the family will never wake up.

Dámaso Delgado, a Venezuelan poet and writer from the state of Portuguesa, was the first one who wrote the story of The Whistle Man in 1966, recorded it in 1967 and broadcasted it all over the country by radio, which is how this legend became famous in Venezuela. Dámaso ensures that he have seen and heard the specter once, but he could escape from harm, thanks to his faith in God and the barking of all dogs that were in that place with him.*

This is the picture of the first sketch made by Dámaso about The Whistle Man:

As you can see, this story is very popular around Venezuela and parts of Colombia, and is one part of our folklore and will continue. In fact there are different versions of this story, like the one from a cartoon program on HBO called “Fantasmagoria”, telling the first version of The Whistle.

And it says:

“One fateful night, in the Venezuelan plains,

an enraged father unleashed a true tragedy,

Father: “I’ve told you not to bring that whore into the family”

Like father, like son, the young man couldn’t contain his rage,

and so he hit his father, a bit of his own medicine,

When the boy’s grandfather found out what’d happened,

he punished him, like people used to punish;

He cursed him to wander without rest for all eternity,

and handed him over to the dogs, so they could finish him off.

The story doesn’t end there, the boy revived,

and he continues to wander the Sabana carrying his father’s remains in a bag,

murdering womanizing men, always whistling his infernal melody.

When you hear it closed by, he’s far away, and when you hear it far away….

It’s close,

To this day, it continues to happen in the Venezuelan plains.

I never found out what his real name was, but what I do know is that if you hear a whistle….

RUN!!..

*Delgado, Damaso. “Don Dámaso Delgado.” Don Dámaso Delgado, 1 Jan. 1970, damasodelgado.blogspot.com/.

Sound of the whistle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2AWtkWDvb4

The post The Whistle Man story. appeared first on La Arepa.

Quesillo is one of the most popular desserts that you can find in Venezuelan homes, especially during birthday parties when the birthday cake is served with jello and quesillo as a side of the birthday cake.

As a Venezuelan the name flan is not very common, for that reason the curiosity about how to differentiate both desserts the best way possible came to my mind after lots of customers of our food truck ask: Is the quesillo like a flan or it is a flan? I always answer no to that question, because quesillo is not a flan, but I know that this information could be difficult to understand especially if one is not from Venezuela. Even though for me as a Venezuelan it has been difficult to explain, for that reason I decided to investigate about it in order to make it clear for our customers, so let’s talk about it.

Flan is a dessert known by most people around the world and it came to our Latin American culture thanks to the influence of the Spanish. In Europe flan is well known and it can be sweet or not sweet. There are other types of dessert very like the flan like crema catalana, crème brulée, fried milk and so on.

Venezuelans created the quesillo which is a version of a flan but they have important differences such as:

• To prepare a flan you need to add only the yolk.
• To prepare quesillo we use the entire egg, the egg white and yolk.
• Flan’s texture is creamy.
• Quesillo texture is spongy.

Both of them use milk and caramel for preparation.Venezuelans call it quesillo because when it’s ready it has small holes, produced by the use of yolk and egg white that makes it look like cheese, but this dessert doesn’t have cheese at all. Interesting, right?

Also we have different ways of making it, like adding flavors such as chocolate, coffee, lime, passion fruit, coconut, liquor and so on.

Those are the main differences between a quesillo and a flan. We LOVE our quesillo and I know that you love it too.

I hope this information had been useful, and next time you go to any of our food trucks remember that you are eating an authentic dessert that you can also have at home during:

Birthdays
Thanksgiving: Why not impress your family members and friends with this special treat? They’ll love it.
Christmas.
Meetings or get togethers.

You just have to contact any of our locations with 24 hours in advance minimum, and place an order.

The best of all is that you already have the knowledge to answer the question that your guests will make: Is this like a flan or is this a flan?

The post Is Quesillo like a Flan or it is a Flan? appeared first on La Arepa.

As a result of this dictatorship the hospitals are full of patients and lacking proper medicine and supplies to treat the most basic of issues, for this reason we are collecting the following medicines or asking for cash donations to send the hospitals in Venezuela. Any help you can give is greatly appreciated.

In urgent need of: (Over the counter medicines)
Aspirin
Ibuprofen
Ointments
Acetaminophen
Antihistamine
Vitamins
Band aids, gauze, cotton
Diapers for seniors/babies
Dry soups
Diabetic sweeteners
Pills containers
Small packages of non-perishable food
Other basic medicines

Thank you so much for your support!.

The post Helping Venezuela appeared first on La Arepa.

Come “Discover Laughlin Loop”, a seven-mile food & wine loop, August 6 + 7. Experience exclusive tastings from 8 Yamhill-Carlton AVA wineries, many of Portland’s best food trucks, and an educational scavenger hunt for a chance to win a spectacular Wine Country gift basket valued at $500!

Tickets are $45 advance or $50 at the door
$40 for our friends with promocode!
Use Promocode: Food2016

Ticket includes: Tastings at each of the participating wineries, a trail guide, food vouchers
and complimentary shuttle service between wineries

                       http://www.eventbrite.com/e/discover-laughlin-loop-tickets-24471500918

The post La Arepa at Lenne Estate Winery for Discover Laughlin Loop appeared first on La Arepa.

View full post: Venmundo

The post La Arepa @ Ven Mundo appeared first on La Arepa.