Venezuelan Xmas Food Bazaar - London - 9 December

For Venezuelans living in the UK, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without all the traditional festive foods so it's good news to hear that on Sunday, 9 December, there will be a Venezuelan Christmas Bazaar at the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith (W6 9DT) from 12-6 pm.

There will be stalls selling all the seasonal treats you need for a Venezuelan-style Feliz Navidad, as well as rum,

Keep Calm and Eat Arepas - In Portobello Market

Andres Gonzalez and David Gutierrez, who run the Guasacaca food stall in London's Acklam Village Market, have had so many requests for their distinctive "Keep Calm and Eat Arepas" T-shirts that they have decided to sell them. Now you can visit the stall in London's Portobello Road, enjoy a traditional Venezuelan arepa and pick up a cool T-shirt to impress your friends. Guasacaca is open every

Venezuelan Xmas food at UK bazaar - 11 December

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without all the usual Venezuelan festive foods so the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in London has organized a Christmas Bazaar at Bolivar Hall on Sunday 11 December with stalls selling all the seasonal treats you need for a feliz navidad Venezuelan style, as well as rum, music, and a raffle.

Festive favourites on sale include hallacas (a stew of

The history of the Venezuela arepa (documentary in Spanish)

This excellent documentary by the Universidad Monteávila in Caracas charts the history of the humble Venezuelan arepa - a local maize-flour alternative to the bread roll - from its indigenous origins to today.

Experts in Venezuela's food history and gastronomic traditions discuss the boom in arepa bars, called areperas, that occurred in the 1950s with the arrival of Italian, Spanish and

Venezuelan Food in San Francisco - Pica Pica Maize Kitchen

If you're in San Francisco and you feel like savouring the authentic flavours of Venezuela, check out the Pica Pica Maize Kitchen run by Adriana Lopez and her father Leopoldo Lopez Gil.

The menu focuses on tasty Venezuelan street food, such as empanadas, cachapas and the the maize buns known as arepas, which are stuffed with a variety of fillings, from traditional shredded beef and plantains

Venezuelan food is back in Bournemouth

Sandra Sardan with Bar Zuka owner Majid Razi (photos by Maria Isabel Antonini Fernandez)

Lovers of Venezuelan and Latin American food in the UK will be pleased to know that Venezuelan entrepreneur and cook Sandra Sardan is back in the British seaside resort of Bournemouth at a new venue serving up all the old favourites from her previous place at Munchies: arepas stuffed with shredded beef

Recipe: Perico - Venezuelan Scrambled Eggs

You don't get plain old scrambled eggs in Venezuela. As befits a vibrant tropical country where eating great-tasting food is an intrinsic part of the culture, you get something far more exciting and colourful: Perico.The name of the dish comes from the Spanish word for parrot, probably because the red, yellow and green of the ingredients echoes the parrot's colourful plumage. Interestingly,

Recipe: Caraotas Negras - Venezuelan Black Beans

Tasty, cheap and nutritious, black beans are as emblematic of Venezuela as the colours of the flag - and they're good for you.

And while other Latin American countries might refer to their beans as frijoles, porotos, judias or habichuelas, in Venezuela they are always caraotas.

In England they are often sold as Turtle Beans, a name which comes from the Caribbean and is said to be inspired by

Lunch with Los Amigos Invisibles

Max and Jason of Current TV join Venezuelan band Los Amigos Invisibles for a brunch of arepas and cachapas at Beverly Hills' famous gourmet java-joint Coupa Cafe.

The restaurant is run by Jean Paul Coupal, the French-Canadian owner of Cafe Arabica in Caracas.

The menu combines single-estate coffees from the finest fincas in Venezuela with hefty helpings of popular dishes such as Pabellon

Cornmeal Cravings and the Hunt for Harina Pan

Sometimes you can travel the world looking for something only to get back and find it was just round the corner all along. That's what happened to me when I went looking for Harina Pan, the basic ingredient for Venezuelan arepas. You can say what you like about arepas; I've heard them described as "bland stodge in a bun", which is unfair, and "about the size of an ice-hockey puck and just as easy