Love Venezuela!

Please enjoy!

carito8 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:35:18 -0700

This is a video with two amazing kids dancing our folklore music called Joropo.....you can just ignored those three clowns on the back...

Another Video...

carito8 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:23:23 -0700

A Preview

carito8 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:19:39 -0700

Nice website...

carito8 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:14:47 -0700

I think this website has a lot of great info of Venezuela, especially if you want to visit!

http://www.think-venezuela.net/

Arepas

carito8 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 13:45:20 -0700

ArepaAREPA (corn cakes)

The *arepa* (ah-ray-pah; with the accent on the middle syllable) is the local equivalent of a hamburger and is sold in shops called an *arepera* (ah-ray-pay-rah; with the accent on the third syllable). The arepas are cooked fresh. The buyer looks in a cafeteria type hot table to choose the filling s/he desires.

Fillings include shredded cheese, stringy meat cooked in spices, chicken salad with avacado, egg scrambled with onion and green peppers, diced sausage, and a variety of other things. Perhaps the most popular filling is grated American cheese (the one that has a cheddar flavor and is somewhat soft).

The arepa is split open like a hamburger bun (by the person behind the counter), some of the steaming moist corn meal is scooped out and discarded, and the filling is added. The arepa is wrapped in a square of slick paper, like butcher paper, and handed to the purchaser to eat standing up.

Arepas are also made smaller and served in the bread basket at restaurants.

An arepa may be cooked three different ways. Boiled in water, baked in the oven, or fried in hot oil. In the country they are often cooked on a charcoal grill. Most often they are browned on the outside by cooking briefly on a hot griddle, and then placed in the oven (400 degrees) for 15 minutes.
(Remember: the corn meal that is used is pre-cooked, so the *cooking* process is only to give the arepa some color and to make it hot.) The arepa is *done* when it sounds hollow when tapped.

HOW TO MAKE AN AREPA

Take a cup of finely ground, pre-cooked, corn meal (white is preferable, but yellow is also used), add an equal amount of water, a dash of salt and a teaspoon of cooking oil.

Kneed the mixture with your hands until it is thoroughly blended into a dough.

Take a small amount of the dough and pat it into a flat, round cake, about the size of the palm of your hand, or slightly smaller. It should be about a quarter of an inch thick. Shape and press it around the edges to make it even and smooth.
Continue making more cakes until the dough is used up.

Grease a heavy skillet or griddle and place it over a low flame. It should not be too hot. When the surface is hot place the cakes, one or two at a time, on the griddle to brown on both sides. Put them in the oven to bake for about 15 minutes.
(You may also fry them, turning once, in about a quarter inch of hot oil.)

TO SERVE: Slice the arepa like a hamburger bun, discard some of the steaming meal that is still soft in the middle, fill with choice of filling, close the arepa and serve immediately.

Alternate method: make small arepas about the size of a silver dollar and fry in oil until golden brown on both sides.
Serve as bread with a meal. Have butter and cheese available.

Credits:
http://www.internationalrecipes.net/recipes/view.pl?2474

Something to start with...

carito8 — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 12:00:53 -0800

From Wikipedia:

Venezuela is a country on the northern coast of South America. Comprising a continental mainland and numerous islands in the Caribbean Sea, Venezuela borders Guyana to the east, Brazil to the south, and Colombia to the west. Trinidad and Tobago, Curaçao, Bonaire, Aruba, and the Leeward Antilles lie just north of the Venezuelan coast.

Venezuela is among the most urbanized countries in Latin America; the vast majority of Venezuelans live in the cities of the north, especially in the largest metropolis, Caracas. Other major cities include Maracaibo, Barquisimeto, Valencia, Maracay, and Ciudad Guayana.

The national and official language is Spanish; 31 indigenous languages are also spoken, including Wayuu, Pemon, Warao, Kariña, Yanomami, and Guajibo. Immigrant communities and their descendents commonly use their own native languages. Nominally, 96% of the population belong to the Roman Catholic Church. Around 4% practice other faiths.

Baseball is Venezuela's most popular sport, though football, spearheaded by the increasingly successful Venezuela national football team, is gaining influence. Famous Venezuelan baseball players include Luis Aparicio (inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame), David Concepción, Oswaldo Guillén (current White Sox manager, World Series champion in 2005), Andrés Galarraga, Omar Vizquel (a ten-time Gold Glove winner), Luis Sojo, Miguel Cabrera, Bobby Abreu, Magglio Ordonez and Johan Santana (a two-time Cy Young Award winner).

Though Venezuela is entirely situated in the tropics, its climate varies substantially, ranging from humid low-elevation plains with average annual temperatures as high as 28°C to glaciers and highlands (the páramos) with an average temperature of 8°C. Annual rainfall varies between 430 mm in the semiarid portions of the northwest to 1,000 mm in the Orinoco Delta of the far east