Comments on: The arepa guy

By: Leonardo, he from the arepa land

Leonardo, he from the arepa land — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 23:53:43 +0000

Indeed, “Doña Arepota” translates to “Mrs. Big Arepa”.

By: Ross

Ross — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 20:47:26 +0000

One of my few memories from high school Spanish class is the commercials from the Spanish soap opera we watched a few episodes of. One of them was for "Doña Arepa", which I gather was a brand of corn flour. Its commercial proclaimed it "El major harina para arepas en casa". Clearly, they did not know about Doña Arepota.

(The other commercial I recall strongly was for some sit com called "El Chavo". That commercial has for a long time influenced my mental image of the spanish language as one oriented toward extreme straightforwardness. Whereas an American commercial would be all clever about how zany the show was, this commercial said, simply, in Spanish, "Watch it. It's very funny.")

By: mamster

mamster — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 04:21:47 +0000

Chris, today I was at Broadway QFC and they not only had masarepa, they had your choice of white or yellow. For $3.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 04:16:36 +0000

Thanks for reminding me about these! JuanJo and Alicia made them once and I loved them. Bittman’s The Best Recipes in the World also has a recipe, which I’m now inspired to try. It’s a little different, without baking powder and with corn kernels. Also, he starts by putting regular cornmeal in the blender, I guess assuming not everyone can get masarepa.

By: mamster

mamster — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 03:31:26 +0000

Yes, Mexican chorizo, which is what would go on a sope, is generally pretty spicy. You can make it at home, but it’s best to buy it at a Mexican carniceria that makes it fresh. I’ve been pretty disappointed with supermarket brands.

By: ctate

ctate — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 22:55:05 +0000

(“chorizi” there was just a typo for “chorizo”, by the way, not an intentional different spelling! If you Google around I’m sure you can find lots of sope recipes, too.)

By: ctate

ctate — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 22:54:02 +0000

Chorizo can range from not-particularly-hot to very-hot. Spanish-style chorizi is generally milder than Mexican, if I recall correctly -- mamster, am I right on this?

I'd say ask your butcher, maybe try various sources or brands until you find one that is not too spicy for you. Of course, you also just use the amount of it appropriate to your tastes -- a little chorizo and a lot more beans and potato won't be so very spicy overall.

By: great

great — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 19:54:09 +0000

How hot is the “chorizo” sausage? Would you recommend it for Grandpa Marvin to cook? If so, do you have a recipe we can use?

By: pomegranate.

pomegranate. — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 18:01:50 +0000

Yum. I’ll take what Iris had.

By: ctate

ctate — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 07:26:57 +0000

Hey, neat! These sound similar to a key ingredient in something I had at Tacubaya recently, a (scrumptious) dish called "sope de chorizo & papas." It looks like traditional sope are not as substantial as you make the arepas sound, but hey, fried corn cakes.

Description from the Tacubaya menu: "crispy masa cake topped with black beans, Mexican sausage and potatoes, garnished with crema, queso cotija and pickled vegetables"