La Catira
“The blonde”: what Venezuelans call a fair-haired girl.
Shredded chicken with veggies, avocado and cheese.
Venezuelan arepas, stuffed to order.
Warm corn-flour pockets, split open and filled with shredded beef, chicken, black beans or eggs. At The Barn at Hickory Station in Albany.
Perico arepa filled with scrambled eggs, tomato, avocado and pink sauceWhat’s an arepa?
A round corn-flour bread, crisp outside and soft inside, cooked on a griddle and cut open like a pocket. In Venezuela it’s breakfast, lunch and the late-night snack. Here we stuff it to order.
Meet the neighbors
Every arepa in Venezuela has a name. Here are ours.
La Pelúa
“The shaggy one”: shredded beef, like a mop of hair.
Shredded beef with veggies and cheese.
Dominó
Black beans and white cheese, like the tiles.
Black beans with veggies and cheese.
Perico
“Parakeet”: eggs scrambled with tomato and onion, as bright as the bird.
Venezuelan scrambled eggs.
Reina Pepiada arepa stuffed with chicken and avocado saladReina Pepiada
“The curvy queen”, named in 1955 for Venezuela’s first Miss World.
Shredded chicken and avocado salad.
Vegan
The neighbor who always brings the salad.
Arepa stuffed with beet salad.
Plates, empanadas and plantains
When an arepa isn’t enough: Venezuela’s national plate, crisp empanadas made from the same corn dough, and plantains two ways.
Pabellón
$20Venezuela’s national dish.
Rice, beef, black beans, avocado and plantains with garlic sauce, in one filling plate.
Empanadas
$6–$7Pollo Mechado, Carne Mechada, Carne Molida y Papa, Queso, Dominó
Sides
$8Plátano Frito con Crema, Tostones con Queso
Find us inside The Barn
We’re one of the kitchens at The Barn at Hickory Station, 640 NW Hickory St, Albany. Grab a table in the hall, the arepas come off the griddle warm.