Arepas

When I was still studying in the university, I took a course that was called Flavors Antropology. It was a cool subject to see, pretty hard, 'cause is not about recipes, its about food history, food meaning, food in all aspects, except for the cooking part... Well... We NEEDED to know how people cooked because that can tell you a lot about food... But we didn't cooked at class.

I learned that most people don't write about their food... They just don't like to do it if is not a big elaborated plate... With gourmet ingredients, presentation, etc. But what we eat everyday kind of make us who we are "tell me what you eat, i'll tell you who you are" some people say in here. It doesn't mean that you are a cow or a chicken if you eat their meats... don't get me wrong... but it is about what that meat introduces to your body. If you eat meat, red meat, you probably get more lactic acid than a vegan. More cholesterol too... It means that you have to eat that in lower portions. It means a lot of things.

I don't know who was the first one to eat meat... I don't, because it happened when there were no way to record actions and events. I don't know who thought about getting wheat and process it to make flour... I don't even know how people learned what kind of berry were poisonous and what kind of berry were ok to eat. I still don't know how many cultures learned to eat casaba (yuca), mushrooms, cashews, chilies, potatoes, almonds, cherries, apples, and tomatoes... All those are poisonous, and still we eat it every single day in our lifes and no one dies when they eat them... thanks to some cultures, that learned how to eat them, and passed the information foward in their genes.

Venezuela, like most of the American Continents (yes, 'cause they are three: North America, Central America and South America, we share the name AMERICA) changed when the european came in context.. there were wars, there were blood in the ground... but there were also a new culture: the mixed one. Ok... I have to say, I have read tons of books about that period of time, and of course, there's a lot of myths, legends and stuff... But I do think that Spanish conquerers actually learned how to eat corn, they learned how to live eating what natives ate that time, 'cause, come on!, months in the sea, eating rotting food, drinking alcohol and no fresh water... that gotta hurt your body... And these people had tons of fresh water, tons of rare and exotic food (yes, exotic, because they never ate that kind of food before), they called these people barbaric... I think they were pretty much ok, but that's not my point.

My point is... these natives that lived in my country, even before the spanish queen realized that this continent existed, ate corn in various ways. They boiled the corn, then pressed it together, until they had a soft paste, that is nothing more than the dough that we use to make Arepas. That's a traditional food, that comes from the people that lived here, and that passed from mother to daughters, from generations to generations, and now we have it like our very own bread.

Our bread that is wonderful and great, its soft, crunchy and has very nice nutritional properties. Its even better for you stomach than bread... Cool, isn't it? And less calories too, depending on how you cook it. You can make it fried, or baked, or even in a pan... we have electric things to cook them called Tostyarepa... and we eat it any time, any where, any how.

There's a tons of varieties... and i shall share them in my next post... But today... i'll Let you with its story and its meaning to my people, here in Venezuela.

Thanks for reading!