Colombian arepas

If French have baguettes and Mexicans tortillas, Colombians their own daily provision: arepas.

In essence, this native “bread” is pretty simple. It takes just ground corn, water and salt. When you put these ingredients together you get a flat, unleavened patty that can be grilled, baked, or fried. What's more, it can be topped or stuffed with a large inventory of ingredients. It all depends in one’s personal taste and creativity. Yet, even when they are naked, arepas have that particular flavor that many love.

Within the original minimalism of this classic of the Colombian cuisine there are several versions that highlight the best of each region. Most of them are consumed as breakfast; some others are used to accompany different meals. Although they may vary in size, color, thickness, and taste their main ingredient is, in most cases, the same: corn. This includes white, yellow, and sweet varieties; although rice, yucca, and achira’s flour, among others, can also be used to manufacture the solicited patties.

The traditional (and long) way to make arepas requires soaking the corn grains, peeling them and then grounding them in a mill or a mortar. The resulting mixture is known as maíz pilado . Nowadays people usually skip that intensive process and make arepas out of pre-cooked cornmeal. You just add some water and butter, (just as with pancakes mix) knead it with your hands, mold it into discs that should look like full moons, put it in the oven or over the grill and you are ready to go. 

The arepa’e huevo  is a typical preparation from the Caribbean coast of Colombia, so rich that despite its modest size it has enough content to serve a whole meal.

This  is how It works: first you have to mold the arepa into a circle, being careful not to make it too thick or too thin. You pre cook it and then, while still warm, you make a transversal cut on one of the edges in order to open it like kind of like an envelope. Then you slip a raw egg inside (and cheese, ground beef, jam or chorizo if you are hungry enough to have a three-phase breakfast) and let it cook inside boiling oil. You know if you have succeeded if the egg cooks properly and remains inside the pocket and if the crust is so golden and crisp that you can’t resist biting into it.

Salt and butter are usually the arepa’s loyal escorts, yet sometimes cheese sneaks into the mix to make things even better. That’s what happens in cities like Bogota where arepas typically carry some kind of white cheese, whether it’s used as one of the ingredients in the dough or stuffed just before the cooking process.

Something similar occurs with the choclo arepas. In some eateries the preparation of this particular type of arepas resemble that of a crepe, with a hint of quesadilla (quite a combination!) the cook “draws” a big circle with liquid, sweet corn dough over a hot surface. He turns it after a couple of minutes when it has acquired some consistency and color, puts some white cheese on one side of the dough and folds over the other side.

The city of Medellin has a signature local ‘bread’ known as arepa Antioqueña (named after the region) or tela , which translates tissue… can you imagine how thin and crispy it is? This variety can be found in the freezers of retail groceries in several cities. Generally it’s served without salt, to accompany soups, or as a basic dish for breakfast. For people from this region these treats are as essential as water. My father-in-law says a breakfast without arepa is incomplete, and I’ve witnessed how difficult it is for him to start a new day without his dose of white corn.

Wherever you go in Colombia you’ll most likely find a street car that sells arepas close to a bus stop or near the stadium, a low profile eatery that makes its own corn dough, a fancy restaurant menu that features arepas as one of its side dishes, and plenty of homes where people keep a stack of their favorite type.