La Comida

This picture has nothing to do with food but it is proof of my rig habitation.

So ends week two of my Venezuelan adventure. I have spent my time here living on rigs and sharing meals with guys who come from all over the country. There is a system set up where the night hands make breakfast, the day hands make lunch and for dinner it is fend for yourselves. Most meals are family style meals where we sit around a plastic table in our small cabin. I much prefer this aspect of our small cabins compared to the US where most of the time you don’t even have a table to sit at.  Getting cooked meals 2 or 3 times a day is new for me and quite lovely even if odd at times. For example I was offered a sandwich which contained mayo, ketchup, mustard, cheese wiz, ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, peppers and hotdogs. Fairly sure this isn't a nationwide thing and it was just a creation of one of the guys I work with, but hey why not? I have also had the pleasure of trying and making some authentic Venezuelan food such as arepas and cachapas. Both of which are yummy in my tummy.

This is our living quarters with our dinning room table/ lounge area/ kitchen/laundry room.

Arepas are made from a special precooked corn flour and water. They are eaten the same way a slice of bread might be eaten. You can eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner with anything your heart desires. Use it to mop up spaghetti sauce, as an outer bread of a sandwich, as a jelly holder, or whatever you can come up with. They even have arepa makers, which are similar to waffle makers, on every rig kitchen.

Basket full of nice looking areapas.

The cachapa confused me when I first saw it. It looked like a huge pancake with something on white on the center that I thought was possibly sweet. It turns out it was Queso de Meno which wasn’t sweet, but was a very delicious cheese. The cachapa itself was a more of a thin bread made of corn dough that was a little sweet. I believe the sweetness depends on where you get it from, but the slightly sweet flavor of the bread mixed with the mozzarella like cheese was a very delicious treat.  

Cachapa con Queso de Meno.

While I have not tempted my fate with street side food, both of these treats are commonly found being sold by street vendors. And let me be clear here street vendors are literally in the street. Set up in their little carts or stands in between two opposing lanes of traffic. Usually set up near speed bumps or stop lights. With how crazy the driving seems to be here those are brave souls who do this.

Speaking of food, I not much of a cook but I need to come up with American foods to share with my new Venezuelan friends. If you have any ideas I would love to hear them!