Titania Veda |

Whiff of Whimsy: Finding the Flavors of Venezuela

To enter a new country without anything but your Lonely Planet guidebook is akin to snorkeling: you only skim the surface of the sights, the food and the culture.

To enjoy a new country with a local who knows it well is a more like deep-sea diving into its very soul. You become part of welcoming homes instead of cheap, seedy hostel rooms. You get to eat home-cooked meals and share jokes with your newly adopted families and friends. Most importantly, you become privy to a deeper understanding of a land that isn’t yours, for you’re seeing the country through its locals’ eyes.

The country of my choice: Venezuela, the land of numerous Miss Universe title holders, the infamously outspoken Hugo Chavez and the thoroughly inconvenient one-sided currency exchange (buying dollars is illegal here). My local connection: Maikel, a documentary filmmaker and an old friend. In Maikel, I found a trusted guide, an inside man who knows which back alleys to take during rush hour, the times of night to avoid wandering the streets, and where to find the best rum and cacao chocolates.

Though only in his mid-20s, Maikel’s knowledge of Venezuela’s socio-economics, politics, history and gastronomy was abundant. From the moment I stepped off the plane to the time he brought me back to the airport, I was regaled with the tales and tradition of Venezuela, from the popular business endeavors tackled by the Spanish (restaurants) and Portuguese (bakeries) immigrants residing in the capital of Caracas, to the architect behind the mosaic floor design at the Simon Bolivar International Airport. But what stuck with me the most was the food Maikel introduced me to.

He showed me Venezuela first-hand through my eyes and my stomach. Every activity we undertook included a local meal, a snack, a drink or a dessert.

In Caracas, the high undulations of the country’s verdant mountain ranges greeted me. I soon deduced the reason why Venezuelan women were as curvaceous as they are. It does not involve giving breast enlargements on Sweet 16 birthdays, but it is because of the food.

It didn’t take me long to discover that Venezuelan cuisine, to my dismay, doesn’t stay away from cheese, that all-time fattening ingredient. Every single meal I stuffed myself with freshly made soft, white cheese ( de mano , manchego , guayanes , clineja ) of varying levels of buoyancy and melts, from the ham-and-cheese filled crescent croissant cachitos in the morning and the thumb-thick maize pancake cachapas for lunch, to the gooey finger food of fried tequenos and famous cornmeal cake arepas at night. The Venezuelans, in my opinion, should replace the French as the famed lovers of this dairy product.

Performing my duties as a tourist, we scaled the heights of El Avila’s national park by cable car. On the mountaintop, we found the tourist hot spot immersed in a thick rain fog and teeming with food vendors and hungry families.

Held in hands, half-eaten, were plates of arepas , cachapas , empanadas (fried cornflour patties packed with cheese and meat) and bowls of sopa de mondongo (a thick, flavorful soup brimming with chewy tripe and boiled root vegetables).

As we waited for the rain to dissipate and Caracas to become visible from the mountain, I chose an ice-cold chichas over a hot chocolate for the sole reason that every Venezuelan had one in their hands. Like Indonesians, it seems like they are firm aficionados of all things sweet.

When not consuming food, Maikel entertained me with stories of Venezuela’s gastronomy — from the tradition that lies behind the hallaca (a meal prepared by the family during the Christmas season), to the methods of creating a perico (scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onions).

Maikel’s father Miro, a well-known local food writer in the area, prepared my last meal in Caracas. The dishes may not necessarily be Venezuelan in origin, but were prepared with the love of a Venezuelan man (though Miro is originally a Croat and was born in Chile).

Indeed, it was the most exquisite of subtle flavors that exploded in my mouth in a frenzy of sweet, peppery and sour when I sank my teeth into Miro’s fresh Chilean salmon, coupled with soft-boiled plantain, sprinkled with chopped onions and coriander, glazed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Watching the sun over Caracas with Maikel and his family that evening, my palate recalled the days of feasting on cheese, sweet, fermented drinks, bitter buttery cacao chocolates and rum.

On my journey, I have consumed many delicious meals — alone. But there was a delicate difference in enjoying a country’s banquet of gastronomical delights in the company of friends. It made the flavors all the more indelible.

Titania Veda writes a weekly travel column. She is a former features reporter at the Jakarta Globe.

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