What is an arepa?

The arepa is old. Older than the country it now calls home. More than two thousand eight hundred years ago, the Cumanagoto, an indigenous people on Venezuela's eastern Caribbean coast, were already making them. Their word for it was erepa, roughly translated as “that which sustains life” or “corn bread”.

The traces of this tradition reach into what is today Bolívar state, on the banks of the Orinoco. Whoever grows up there learns early how to shape an arepa.

The recipe is as simple as it gets: mix corn flour with water and salt, knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. Form small discs, about the size of a palm, and lay them on a hot griddle. In Venezuela this griddle is traditionally a budare, a flat cast-iron pan that has outlived generations in many homes.

At our place on Mohsgasse, the arepas are made fresh every day. No frozen stock, no overnight production. The dough comes together in the kitchen just before it's needed.

An arepa is sliced open in the middle, like a roll, and filled with whatever suits the time of day and the mood. Cheese for breakfast. Shredded beef with black beans and plantain for lunch. Chicken with avocado, when the classic Reina Pepiada is on the table. Beans and rice if the meal is vegetarian.

It is breakfast, lunch, dinner, a snack in between. In Venezuela it is called the queen of the Venezuelan table, and that is not a poetic exaggeration. It is simply what it is.