(16 Jul 2019) LEAD IN:
Venezuelans' favorite snack is a stuffed corn flatbread called arepas.
Now, as millions flee their homeland's turmoil, they are taking Venezuela's most ubiquitous dish with them.
STORY-LINE :
Humble street stalls and sit-down restaurants serving arepas are popping up throughout the streets of Colombia's capital and in cities around the world where Venezuelan migrants are arriving in mass.
Traditional fillings are being substituted by new flavors. And hot trays of the white bread offer a taste of home.
Gerson Briceño, the former head of a publicity company in Venezuela, fled to Colombia after his wife and young daughter were briefly kidnapped at gunpoint.
He first started a mobile phone business, but opened an arepas stand outside a mall in December 2017 when he found himself wanting to pay tribute to his cherished homeland.
Today, Arepas Café has nine locations around Bogotá.
"There's nothing better than feeling useful with a product that's yours and that you can share around the world. As we all know, Venezuelans are scattered throughout the globe. And one thing, aside from our happiness, our love, that we have to give to people, is our food" he says.
Here his arepas are infused with a taste of Colombia "We can't help but take into account this country that has received us with so much blessings and support. So we have two arepas that are from here. One is the Antioquian sausage with coastal cheese, and we have the arepas paisa. That's an arepas with red beans, mixed with pork cracklings. It also comes with sausage and avocado" he says.
Migrants throughout the world have long brought their culinary traditions with them in something of an antidote for nostalgia.
More often than not, however, migrants slowly fuse the flavors of the country they left behind with those of their new home.
Today, that means that arepas in Bogotá are served up with Colombian flavors like local chorizo and red beans; stuffed with marinated, stir-fried beef in Peru; garnished with a dash of chimichurri sauce in Argentina; and accompanied by serrano ham in Spain.
"The arepas is a very noble product," says Edgar Rodriguez, a Venezuelan migrant who created a successful chain of arepas restaurants in Madrid called Arepa Olé. "As they say in Venezuela, 'The arepas can withstand anything."
Venezuelan Romel Flores is grateful for a taste of home.
"I arrived from Venezuela three years ago, in reality, searching for a future. And I start to see that the Venezuelan culture is growing a lot. Arepas are everywhere. I think it's something that is very, very Venezuelan. And I've tried to keep eating them."
The arepa's surge on the world stage comes as millions go hungry in the South American country amid a punishing financial crisis worse than the U.S. Great Depression.
Often, it is the ingredients for the arepas itself which are difficult to obtain in Venezuela.
Empresas Polar, which produces what is widely regarded as the gold-standard for white corn flour, said in its most recent financial report that it received just over half of the required amount of raw corn product needed to keep production levels steady.
Zulemar García makes them at home in Caracas for her family.
"At this time, we were forced to buy the yellow flour, more than anything because of the economy. The white – which is the one I prefer, I don't really like the yellow – because of what was available at the Mercal, at this moment in my house we have this one."
Arepa vendor Yuleimy Mendoza who sells the snack on a street corner in Lima, says she is proud that the dish is a global trend.
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