EDIBLE COMMUNITY

A Colombian Love Story

BY ANA PARRA
PHOTOS BY ASHLEY WARLICK

The arepa is much, much more than a corn cake. Yes, it’s made of corn and yes, it’s hand-shaped into a flat pancake form, but it’s nothing like its Mexican cousin, the tortilla, or its sweeter corn counterpart, cornbread. Its consistency, which absorbs butter but never feels greasy, combined with its taste, which resembles a crunchy polenta, makes it simple perfection. The arepa can be eaten as part of a big meal or it can be the meal. Eat it stuffed with shredded beef or fry it with an egg cracked in the middle. Its versatility makes it satisfying during any time of day. Personally I prefer mine for breakfast.

When my family first moved to Greenville in 1994, my mother had to improvise. They didn’t sell the areparina—the fine cornmeal she had used for most of our lives to make arepas—at any Upstate grocery, so she bought a no-name brand cornmeal that had a thicker and grittier consistency. Those were the arepa dark years at the Parra household; although still eaten regularly, this Americanized arepa was not the same.

Areparina finally arrived with an influx of Colombian immigrants to the Upstate in the late 90s. Along with the right cornmeal came the social needs of a large immigrant population—Latino cable channels, Spanish radio stations, Latin grocers and Colombian restaurants.

In 1999, Diana Cortez opened one of the first in Greenville, Cositas Ricas (Delicious Things). Located in a strip mall in Berea, the restaurant started as a bakery or panaderia, with several Colombian favorites on the menu including bandeja tipica: a large plate of chorizo, chicharon (fried pork rinds), rice, platano maduro (ripe plantain), sliced avocado and a fried egg, a sampler of the best Colombian food has to offer that, when mixed together, gets even better. Don’t be afraid to dip a little chicharon in your egg, or mix the sausage and avocado— every bite works.

“As customers asked for other dishes, we started adding more to the menu,” Cositas Ricas manager Beatriz Sol Escobar says. “It’s all about keeping the customer happy.”

Seven years ago, Wilfer Bustamante bought the successful eatery from Cortez and has only made a few changes to the interior’s décor. The menu remains the same, a collection of Colombia’s greatest home cooking hits, including carne a la plancha (ironed steak), arepa con todo (arepa with everything) and mojarra (a whole fried fish).

A similar demand for more menu items led Pereira Bakery in Taylors to expand into a full restaurant. Like many Colombian restaurants, Pereira began as panaderia, a daily stop for Colombians in search of breakfast or a quick snack. Panaderias, part of my early memories of Colombian neighborhoods in Queens, New York and Miami, can offer anything from a sweet and flaky pastry filled with guava paste and cream cheese to buñuelos, a fried dough ball made from white cheese, to lightly sweetened breads meant to dip in coffee. Like other Colombian dishes, Colombian sweets have few ingredients but memorable tastes.

At Pereira, Dora Morales and her husband Miguel, both trained bakers, would make lunch for family and staff. Customers noticed and started asking for a plate. Now Pereira Bakery boasts a bakery, a sit-down restaurant and a retail section full of Colombian products. In its four years it has become much more than a restaurant for its regular customers who no longer have to lug suitcases back from Colombia filled with their favorite kitchen staples.

But the food is what brings the most comfort to Pereira’s Colombian customers. Dora describes Pereira as casero, a Spanish word used to describe something homemade. After having Pereira’s sancocho, a chicken stew with yucca, plantain, potato and cilantro, I felt like I had just dropped in at a family gathering on January 1st— sancocho is known as a hangover cure in Colombia, and a traditional post New Year meal.

Pereira felt instantly familiar, as did Las Brasas in Taylors, Sacha’s in Greenville and Cositas Ricas. None of these restaurants are fancy, but their lack of frill is what makes them so appealing. Most dishes are under $12. At Las Brasas, the silverware comes with napkins one would use at home.

“I know we’re not a five-star restaurant, but we’re a casual restaurant where everything is made with a lot of love,” says Elkin Muñoz, the owner of Sacha’s Café in Greenville. “Sometimes causal is nice.”

Now it’s easy for Sacha’s to feel like home: Elkin and his wife Irma, who opened the restaurant in 2005, are my uncle and aunt. I get loud greetings and hugs and kisses, but this hospitality is not reserved for just relatives. Irma and Elkin treat all their customers this way.

While other Colombian spots have focused on the food, Elkin brought his experience of running nightclubs in Colombia to create an all day and all night hang-out. Along with what he describes as fast and creative Colombian dishes, like the bite-size empanadas Irma makes in her “off” hours stuffed with dollops of meat, potatoes, onions and cilantro and topped with aji (Colombian hot sauce) or the patacones (smashed and fried plantains) served with shredded chicken and beef, you’ll find a full bar that features Colombian liquors and mixed drinks made with tropical fruit juices like maracuya (passion fruit) and lulo (a fleshy fruit with a citrus flavor). For a genuine Colombian experience, customers can order a shot or two of aguardiente, the national Colombian liquor made from sugar cane, which translates into “stinging water.”

The open arms and familiar smells and flavors have created regulars for all the Colombian spots. Beatriz of Cositas Ricas uses a Spanish saying to describe most of her customers: “Entran como Pedro en su casa.” They come in like Peter in his house, she says. While the hospitality makes it easy to go back to Greenville’s Colombian’s restaurants, the food is the real reason why they thrive.

“I’ve always wanted to bring American clients Colombian flavor,” Elkin says. “It’s what most attracts me to this business. Americans know Mexican food, Italian food, but they don’t really know Colombian food.”

The Colombian flavor in Greenville’s restaurants represents mostly Northern Colombian cuisine. Meat, root vegetables and corn are present in most dishes. The flavors are neither spicy-hot nor too exotic. While cow’s tongue and tripe stew are on some menus, most items are made with foods more familiar to the American diet. Those new to Colombian cuisine can be as adventurous as they choose to be. While Spanish conversation permeates the background at most of the restaurants, it is not uncommon to hear English in the mix, and all the restaurants have made sure to put it on the menu as well.

Colombians are proud of their country. “We like to bring in things that reflect the Colombian culture,” Beatriz says. “We want to show people the story of Colombia.”

At Cositas Ricas, this means putting Colombian pesos under table glass. Posters of Colombia’s most famous cities cover the walls. The restaurant, surrounded by Central American restaurants and grocers, looks like a travel brochure for Colombia’s tourism industry.

The Colombian story begins with the food. Like the arepa, most of the food requires few ingredients and simple technique, but the results are delicious. While the story is familiar to me, it’s a story, and a meal, I like to share.

RECIPE

AREPAS