Caracas Grill

Two nights ago, I went to Caracas Grill. It was a wonderful experience and I plan to return.

AREPITAS - little corn meal fritters that arrive with what the server described as a "typical Venezuelan sauce, very typical". It appears to have parsley over some kind of cream base. It had a little tang, so I thought it might be yogurt, but the server denied the charge. When I asked what was in it, he replied that it was their secret recipe. Ok. Whatever it was, it was light and quite good. Free.

EMPANADA - ground beef empanada. The lightly spiced ground beef was wrapped in the same white corn meal concoction that the arepitas were made of. Delicious. $1.99

AREPA - shredded beef. I ordered it with chicken, but when it came with beef, I decided to moo happily instead of clucking nervously. This little sandwich was quite substantial in itself. $2.99 (i think)

PABELLON - shredded/stewed beef, black beans, steamed rice, and fried plantains. Unfortunately, the shredded beef in the Pabellon was the same as the shredded beef in the Arepa. Since there were only two bites of the Arepa left, it was too late to remedy the mistake and try more of the menu offerings. The combination of elements on this plate were great. Mixing a little of each onto the fork made a wonderful flavor mixture. The only thing odd abou the pabellon was that it was incredibly hot and remained incredibly hot for longer than I felt was normal. This raises the possibility that it had been reheated in a microwave. Having nothing to compare it against, I can't say whether the flavor suffered or whether this even occurred. It was a lovely entree, but the steam overstayed its welcome. $9.99

PAPELON con LIMON - cane sugar and lemon juice soft drink. Refresco. $1.50

TOTAL: $22 including tip.

Keep eating,
J. Ro

CARACAS GRILL
6340 N. Clark St.
773-743-3593

Here's what I wrote about Caracas Grill in May (in response to Zim). On Chowhound. Chapulin wrote an excellent follow-up (he was there the same evening with RST).


Zim, you discovered the only Venezuelan restaurant in Chicago. Just kidding, sort of, as the place has been open for less than a month. Anyway, I was just there, having missed closing time at the La Unica cafeteria. The owner is a nice guy, and the food is pretty good. I'd say the arepas are exceptional. I had one with shredded beef, much like ropa vieja and one with pernil, aka lechon. The beef was great, the pernil not so much, but the arepas themselves were about as good as arepas get. They appeared to be grilled over an open flame. Also had some croquetas, with ham and chicken, common throughout the Carribean, which were fine. Sancocho looked swell, also. While I waited for my food, the owner gave us some gratis mini cheese arepas, sauteed in butter. They didn't last long.

(Sort of ironically, while we didn't previously have a restaurant serving this cuisine that straddles, say the South American of Colombia and Ecuador and the Carribean of Cuba and Puerto Rico, La Unica down the street has very good Cuban and Colombian, so you could more or less construct a Venezuelan style meal there.)

Other typical dishes, some of which are weekend only, include mondongo (tripe n' hoof stew), hallacas (Venezuelan tamales/pasteles), and the owner's pride, paella.

They have a good version of the refreshing drink, papelon con limon, which , I believe, consists of raw sugar, the papelon (which may or may not be the same as piloncillo in Mexican stores), and lime juice. Really refreshing. More so with some aguardiente.

The national salsa, guasacaca, with a thin avocado base, is pretty tame, but not bad.

Most Venezuelans in the US are in South Florida, so there are few benchmarks around here. My neighbor growing up was from Caracas, and while I remember her glamorous niece more than her cooking, Caracas Grill seems to stand up pretty well. If nothing else, this is the best Venezuelan cafe in Chicago. A couple of visits by Ozzie Guillen, and I'm sure it will take off.

One sad but true note, one of the very few diners on hand requested a burrito, and they obliged.

Oh, and I also stopped by Chorrito. Another old diner cum taco stand; you have to love the 30's vintage Hamburgers/Chili sign. Very intersting menu. Patas (cow feet) w/ salad; cochinita pibil; several bacalao recipes. Yacatecan owners, maybe? Anyway, they have very nice machine made tortillas, and my cochinita pibil taco was excellent. I also tried the tepache (the fermented pinapple and piloncillo beverage). Kool Aid with a hint of burnt Goodyear, but not wholly awful. If I need a cool raw sugar based drink in the neighborhood, I'm headed to Caracas Grill.

I was also pretty happy with caracas grill, as both posters noted the arepas, especially the beef arepas were very good (the cheese not so much). I also liked the seafood soup I tried quite a bit.

one possibly interesting note - as I was having my meal another couple came in and asked the waiter what would be a typically venezualan appetizer - he suggested garlic bread, as i was sitting with a friend who had spent a few years in venezuala I asked him if that was fairly typical and yes it was.

anyway, I wondered if anyone had tried the pargo (red snapper) - I'm not sure i've ever had fish stuffed with ham (though my buddy who had been in venezuala mentioned its not all that unusual to find anything stuffed with ham there)

Jeff- if you didn't like the tepache at Chorritos, you definitely have to avoid the mavi (apparently made similarly) at borinquen - all the goodyear notes, none of the pineapple - may have been the worst thing I've drank in this hemisphere, my buddy, trying to finad an appropriate taste analogy could only come up with those drinks made by some amazonian peoples where members of the tribe chew sugar cane and then spit out the masticated remnants to ferment

Zim, I know that tepache can be pretty good. I've never tried mabi/mavi, but I think I'll steer clear.

mavi

zim wrote:I was also pretty happy with caracas grill, as both posters noted the arepas, especially the beef arepas were very good (the cheese not so much). I also liked the seafood soup I tried quite a bit.

one possibly interesting note - as I was having my meal another couple came in and asked the waiter what would be a typically venezualan appetizer - he suggested garlic bread, as i was sitting with a friend who had spent a few years in venezuala I asked him if that was fairly typical and yes it was.

anyway, I wondered if anyone had tried the pargo (red snapper) - I'm not sure i've ever had fish stuffed with ham (though my buddy who had been in venezuala mentioned its not all that unusual to find anything stuffed with ham there)

Jeff- if you didn't like the tepache at Chorritos, you definitely have to avoid the mavi (apparently made similarly) at borinquen - all the goodyear notes, none of the pineapple - may have been the worst thing I've drank in this hemisphere, my buddy, trying to finad an appropriate taste analogy could only come up with those drinks made by some amazonian peoples where members of the tribe chew sugar cane and then spit out the masticated remnants to ferment

Garlic bread a typical Venezuelan pasapalo? Ehh, I don't think so. Really there's no Venezuelan appetizer more typical than tequeños (cheese sticks) and arepitas, though bread in general is available in most restaurants.

And as far as stuffing things with ham, well, it's not the national stuffing or anything. But there are some things Venezuelan that come ham-filled, the most notable of which is the cachito (a ham pastry, basically). Of couse, arepas can also come stuffed with ham, though in this case they are usually accompanied by queso amarillo (which is actually not too diffrent from yellow dutch cheeses such as edam or gouda).

Now, as far as Venezuelan cuisine straddling the lines between "South American" and "Caribbean", it's hard to say either way (by extension, what exactly is SA food?). I can vouch that Venezuelan food is quite similar to Colombian food, though there are some things it has in common with Caribbean cuisine. Food in the country also varies per region (occidente, oriente, los llanos, etc.). In Caracas and surrounds, as well as cities in general, you'll find lots of international influences in the cuisine, even in home-made food. In fact, my grandma', who was a Llanos-born woman raised in Caracas, used to make dishes ranging from liver pates, to a criollo ("Venezuelan" for non-Venezuelans) version of kibe, to arroz con pollo and the usual arepa, home-made humus and even pasticho, which is basically the Venezuelan lasagna (Italians have pasticho, though I think it varies per region). In fact, pick up a copy of "Mi Cocina" --perhaps the best-selling Venezuelan cook-book-- and you'll find entries such as "Risotto con azafran", "Vol Au Vent Rellenos" and even "Paté de Pollo". Ok, I made the last one up, but they do feature pate recipes! In fact, you can find many "Mi Cocina" recipes online at elplacerdecomer.com. But I digress!

Anyhow, be sure to check out the Cachapas at Caracas Grill, which is a dish that has the honor of being uniquely Venezuelan. It's basically corn blended with some sugar and water and then fried to a crisp, cooked with cheese on top and folded-over before serving. This dish is not to be confused with the maker of the dish, who is traditionally called the cachapera, and which is also the term used to refer to a lesbian! Anyhow, Pabellón is another most typical of typical Venezuelan dishes--it is considered to be the national Venezuelan breakfast dish! The only things Caracas Grill is missing from this dish is queso 'e mano (which is the cheese that usually tops cachapas) and a few slices of avocado, if I recall correctly from the last time I visited the restaurant. Finally, be sure to try anything with carne mechada as it's not so bad at Caracas Grill and Venezuelans take to eating it quite often. Oh and don't forget that the hallaca (or, alternately, hayaca) is a typical Venezuelan Christmas dish that is only eaten during the Holidays, and into the next year (yes, excess hallacas are frozen and thawed out as needed for eating in the new year).

BTW, per one of the owners, the current owners of the restaurant may plan to move back to Venezuela in the next year or two, so get your grub in while it lasts. I forget the name of the lady I spoke to (she's the effusively friendly, slightly heavy-set woman in glasses), but she promised they would do their best to keep the place going in their absence.

zim wrote:those drinks made by some amazonian peoples where members of the tribe chew sugar cane and then spit out the masticated remnants to ferment

do you mean chicha? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicha) fyi, it's usually made from maize, not sugarcane (although like any regional dish, you'll find variations on the recipe); it's andean, not amazonian; and it's actually not nearly as bad as it sounds (i kinda liked it...it was oddly sweet and not very boozy). i had some in the market in cuzco a few years back.

i'm not sure i'd recommend getting hammered on it, though...that might make for an unusually bad hangover.

If Klaus Kinski won't drink it, I'm not drinkin' it.

Be careful, chicha means different things to different people. In Cuba and Guatemala, I know, chicha de pina is about the same thing as tepache.

As far as some of the old comments about Venezolano food go, my point about straddling Caribbean and what many think of as South American (indigenous might have been better), I think the foods of Colombia and Venezuela both fit the bill. There is relatively little pre-Colombian influence in Cuban, Dominican and PR food, for example, with a pedominant African and "criollo" influence that roughly parallels the foods of Lousiana in the US. But many of the same foods and techniques share the menu with more distinctly indigenous things in the Northern South American countries.

Kibbeh/quipe is actually fairly common in other parts of Latin America, such as the DR and Brazil, as you say, due to the significant number of folks from the Levant. Same for Italian, though I never encountered pastichio in my Italian family. I thought it was invented in Greektown.

Be careful, chicha means different things to different people. In Cuba and Guatemala, I know, chicha de pina is about the same thing as tepache.

Hanse, thanks for the great info and welcome. As far as some of the old comments about Venezolano food go, my point about straddling Caribbean and what many think of as South American (indigenous might have been better), I think the foods of Colombia and Venezuela both fit the bill. There is relatively little pre-Colombian influence in Cuban, Dominican and PR food, for example, with a pedominant African and "criollo" influence that roughly parallels the foods of Lousiana in the US. But many of the same foods and techniques share the menu with more distinctly indigenous things in the Northern South American countries.

Kibbeh/quipe is actually fairly common in other parts of Latin America, such as the DR and Brazil, as you say, due to the significant number of folks from the Levant. Same for Italian, though I never encountered pastichio in my Italian family. I thought it was invented in Greektown.

i have nothing to add, but i do love the klaus kinski reference! have you read herzog on herzog? its an amazing book!

JeffB wrote:Be careful, chicha means different things to different people. In Cuba and Guatemala, I know, chicha de pina is about the same thing as tepache.

Hanse, thanks for the great info and welcome. As far as some of the old comments about Venezolano food go, my point about straddling Caribbean and what many think of as South American (indigenous might have been better), I think the foods of Colombia and Venezuela both fit the bill. There is relatively little pre-Colombian influence in Cuban, Dominican and PR food, for example, with a pedominant African and "criollo" influence that roughly parallels the foods of Lousiana in the US. But many of the same foods and techniques share the menu with more distinctly indigenous things in the Northern South American countries.

Kibbeh/quipe is actually fairly common in other parts of Latin America, such as the DR and Brazil, as you say, due to the significant number of folks from the Levant. Same for Italian, though I never encountered pastichio in my Italian family. I thought it was invented in Greektown.

I have to say that I only partly concur with your re-assessment of what "South American" food might mean. Yes, indigenous/pre-Colombian is definitely a better way to describe it, though in truth Venezuela and Colombia cannot be said to fall under this category, at least not notably so. I mean, it is true that arepas were the daily bread of amerindians residing in the region that generally corresponded with present-day Venezuela, as well as parts of Colombia. And there are other foods that closely resemble their predecessors from the pre-Colombian past. However, for the most part, food in Colombia and Venezuela, like in the Caribbean, is more post-contact than it is pre-. That is, it's a product of the confluence of the three major cultures that inhabitted the region (ie, indian, African and Iberian), with Iberian culture having considerable influence over the cuisine, and African and indian less so, respectively. This is decidely the case with the hayaca and pabellon, for example, with the former dish even including ingredients that were brought to Iberia via Moorish trade with more distant parts of Asia.

That said, Latin American cuisines that show the closest links to pre-Colombian food are generally found in regions where indigenous culture is still prevalent. Such places include Bolivia, Peru, Mexico, Guatemala and, to a certain extent, Paraguay. Countries like Colombia and Venezuela claim dwindling populations of indian groups, and these groups represent perhaps 1-2 percent of the total national population.

On the "kibe" note, you're right that it was brought by people from the Levant--particularly from the region that is present-day Lebanon. I would only add that there are communities in Venezuela that continue to claim Lebanese citizenship (my cousin is one of them). Many of these dual-citizens were evacuated to Venezuela during the recent Israeli incursion into the country.

Finally, you're right about chicha. It is Andean in origin, and was originally made of fermented corn. However, the drink has become more wide-spread since pre-Colombian times, so much so that in Venezuela the drink is mostly rice-based and widely-available (in fact, there's two major, mass-produced brands that sell the drink: El Chichero and Los Andes)! Chicha andina, an Andean-Venezuelan variety of the drink, is made with fermented pineapple.

So, I hope you find the info useful. I'll leave you with a link to a wikipedia entry on "pasticho," as we Venezuelans call it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasticcio

Different people see the same facts and come to different conclusions, I guess. The hallaca seems to be a good example of what I meant, from the begining: an essentially indigenous food filled with a Spanish/creole mix.

Anyway, below is a Venezolano entry about pastichio, which claims the dish originated in Greece and Southern Italy. As someone of southern Italian extraction, I can't say it was ever in heavy rotation. That said, a lasagne like thing with bechamel certainly falls within the vocabulary of foods there.

http://www.suigeneris.org/kb/display/ju ... Napolitano

PS, I assumed that Venezuelan pastichio is the same as what I think most American's know as the Greek dish. But it appears that it's not. The word itself might not be any more specific than tortilla, for example. The term has a more general meaning in Italy, it seems. Here's a good-looking recipe for a pasticcio witrh zucchini and tagliatelle:

http://www.bortonevivai.it/ricettario/p ... agliatelle

Thanks for the informative pasticho link! You're right about the comparison to the lasagna--it's the same thing, basically, just add bechamel. The only other remark I'd like to make is that the ingredients vary per cook and occassion. I like mine sweet, with raisins and a sweet bechamel sauce. But even though it's more on the fishy-side of things, Juanca's recipe for the "true" pasticcio looks to be a delight.

BTW, I didn't mean to overturn your opinion of Venezuelan food with some overwhelming tirade on the true nature of that cuisine. I just thought it was necessary to emphasize that, in comparison to many Latin American cuisines, Venezuelan and Colombian food is about as "indigenous" as is, say, southern-cone food (yes, this is a slight exaggeration, but still...).

Also, the hallaca is actually more a product of Iberian co-optation and re-elaboration. The legend that claims indians took leftovers from plump conquistador tables is just that. In fact, the most likely predecessor to the hallaca, the Yucatecan tamal, is likely a product of this process of co-optation and re-elaboration under the whims of the Iberian palate.

Anyhow, if you're interested, here's some more on the hallaca from a trust-worthy source:

http://www.analitica.com/bitblio/rosenblat/hallaca.asp

jedibrand,

I didn't take any offense at all. I'm happy to have someone here so informed about a very good but underrepresented cuisine.

The history of tamales seems to be as convoluted and important to understanding American history as the filled dumplings supposedly are to understanding connections among Central Asians, Europeans, and East Asians. Interesting stuff.