For lunch today i made my first batch of arepas. tasty! they were a bit doughier on the inside than i’d expected; i think i need to tweak the recipe a bit, maybe cook them longer at lower heat.
years ago i was interested in macrobiotics, and still find some useful things there. a contradiction i noticed early on: a basic macrobiotic principle was that we should try to eat foods that are native to where we live – but the recipes they pushed were usually based on east asian, especially japanese, eating. it seemed to me then, and now, that if we’re interested in dietary localism in the americas, corn, rather than wheat or rice, would be the basic grain in our diet. arepas are apparently almost unchanged from before the Spanish conquest, so are about as indigenous as they can get.
i may explore stuffing these with cheese and/or egg for breakfast. an indigenous breakfast sandwich!