Lumberjack platter, Venezuelan style: The llanero, or "cowboy," breakfast features the colorful eggy scramble called perico; arepitas, or miniature baked corn patties; shredded beef; black beans with grated white cheese; and nata, a sort of saltier sour cream.
Lighter appetites might look to arepas, Venezuela's familiar baked white-corn patties, prepared in 30 varieties; "la morillo" (first photo below) is fat with stewed goat. At your discretion, each arepa filling can instead be sandwiched between twice-fried green plantain, as a patacón. (The full name, patacón Maracucho, marks them as a specialty of the city of Maracaibo.) The fillings shown here — carne mechada, or stewed shredded flank steak, and asada negro, pot roast in a sweet onion-and-red-wine sauce — can be messy, particularly since the fried plantain is stiff and won't soak up juices. Wisely, the kitchen swaddles its patacones in a light protective wrap. Peel it as you go, or you may find that an overenthusiastic bite will squeeze out the fillings who-knows-where.
Also shown: an hallaca (aye-Yok-ah), a corn tamal stuffed with a chicken-beef-pork stew; and a cachapa asado negro, which marries the pot-roast filling to sweet-corn pancakes.
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