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Venezuelan Arepa Foodways

Arepa

Specialised

⚠ THE VENEZUELAN AREPA IS SPLIT AND FILLED, and the fillings are named dishes. REINA PEPIADA — chicken and avocado, created in Caracas in the 1950s and named for a beauty queen, which makes it one of the few traditional foods anywhere with a datable origin. PELÚA — shredded beef and yellow cheese. DOMINÓ — black beans and white cheese. CATIRA — chicken and yellow cheese. SIFRINA — reina pepiada plus yellow cheese. PABELLÓN — the national plate inside a bread. RUMBERA, LLANERA, DE PERNIL. Plus the unfilled forms: arepa asada on a budare, frita, raspada, arepa de chicharrón, arepa andina de trigo, arepa pelada, and the sweet arepa dulce. ⚠ HARINA P.A.N. — precooked maize flour, industrialised from 1960 — is what most people actually use, and its scarcity in the crisis years was a national event. ⚠ THE COLOMBIA-VENEZUELA ARGUMENT is recorded as a shared pre-national Indigenous maize tradition, separately developed.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

Languages: Spanish

What is recorded

  • Venezuelan arepa foodways are recorded as a system of named filled arepas — reina pepiada, pelúa, dominó, catira, sifrina, pabellón and others — alongside unfilled regional forms including the wheat-based arepa andina. Recording a single national arepa would eliminate the documented distinctions. Precooked maize flour, industrialised from 1960, is the predominant modern base. documented
  • The reina pepiada is documented as created in Caracas in the 1950s and named in honour of a Venezuelan beauty queen, making it one of few traditional dishes with a datable origin. The broader Colombian-Venezuelan arepa dispute is recorded as concerning a shared pre-national Indigenous maize tradition with separate national developments; no origin is assigned. documented
  • Precooked maize flour is industrialised, replacing the daily pounding of maize and making the arepa a fifteen-minute food. documented
  • The reina pepiada is created in Caracas and named for a Venezuelan beauty queen — a rare traditional dish with a datable origin. documented

Related foodways

This foodway relates to

  • related to Colombian Arepa Foodways disputed

    ⚠ The arepa argument. A shared pre-national Indigenous maize tradition with real and separate national developments — Venezuela fills and names them, Colombia mostly does not. No origin is assigned.

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.