(Caracas) From the streets of Caracas to the New York jet-set, from Paris to Tokyo or Hong Kong, the arepa, the Venezuelan pancake made from corn, is surfing on the gluten-free trend and “conquering the world », driven by the wave of emigration from a country in crisis.
Ready in minutes by mixing pre-cooked corn flour and water, the arepa can be filled with the ingredients of your choice: from leftovers in the fridge to more elaborate preparations. Venezuelans’ favorite is the “reina pepiada”: chicken, mayonnaise and cheese.
“Where there is a Venezuelan, there is an arepa. The arepa is conquering the world”, assures the Venezuelan food critic Ricardo Estrada Cuevas, author of the book Arepologo.
“It is the daily bread of the Venezuelan. He eats it every day, every evening,” says Patrick Ribas, who translated the French version. “You can put whatever you want in it. It’s a dish that you can also eat without anything in it when you don’t have a lot of money. This is unfortunately the case for a lot of Venezuelans”.
The crisis, which saw GDP contract by 80% between 2013 and 2022 in the country, caused the exodus of more than seven million Venezuelans (out of 30 million) who spread all over the world, spreading the arepa.
” It changes ”
Marlyn Quiroga, 47, was a lawyer in Venezuela, which she left five years ago to settle in New York. “At first I did a bit of everything like all the immigrants who arrive,” she says, but in 2021 she started an arepas catering service when she “did not know how to make an egg” before.
“I was door-to-door in Queens: beauty salons, offices, clinics. I gave samples,” she says.
The success was dazzling and the boss of “Arepa LaNewyorquina” assures us that in New York parties we now prefer gluten-free arepas to bread.
“It’s a change from the burgers you find everywhere,” confirms Jean-François Lamaison, 63-year-old digital designer in the restaurant “Ajidulce-The taste of Venezuela”, in Paris, whose slate advocates “Arepa Power”.
“It has the merit of being a corn pancake with some pretty good stuff, plantain style or something else. I like the diversity of tastes,” he says.
The boss Luis Fernando Machado, an engineer in the oil industry before his departure from Venezuela in 2011, started with a Venezuelan gastronomy “food-truck” in 2014. With success, he now has a storefront with a restaurant in 9e district which employs 10 people and whose kitchen is open so that “customers can see the preparation”.
“Parisians like to discover exotic food and this is like taking a little trip to the Caribbean,” explains the man from Punto Fijo, in northwestern Venezuela.
“Homemade things with fresh products, it pleases”, he adds, emphasizing to stock up in exotic groceries (Colombian, African, West Indian) of the French capital.
“An arepa is my mother”
Luis Fernando Machado also claims to benefit from the growing demand for gluten-free “complete meals”. There are many tourists who come […]because we are well referenced in gluten-free restaurants,” he rejoices.
“Healthy, gluten-free street food”: this is how Raul Marquez, 42-year-old Venezuelan, and his Japanese wife Miho, present their food-truck of Venezuelan patties in Tokyo.
“Venezuela has gone through a difficult period […] there is a strong emigration. We bring with us part of what belongs to us. Arepas are one of them. For me, an arepa is my mother. It’s eating in the morning before going to school […] this is what I put on today when I sell arepas: this passion, this love that comes from my home”, says Raul Marquez.
In Caracas, Lisbeth Marquez has been selling arepas in “Hunger Street” for 15 years, from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Her favourite? The “pabellon” with melted butter, black beans, an egg and grated cheese.
And if she sells some 1,200 a day, she makes it at home before going to work: “I never get tired of eating it. The best arepa is the one at home”.