The pabellon criollo is the traditional Venezuelan dish. Very tasty, the dish has black beans, shredded meat, white rice and fried plantain slices. But today I don't want to eat pabellon criollo, today I want a delicious and nutritious soup. Soup is my favorite dish. In Venezuela soup can also be called sancocho, and if the main ingredient is fish or chicken it is called hervido (boiled). Soup in Venezuela has many versions in its recipe. It can be a sancocho of chicken, beef, mondongo or fish hervido. I enjoy any version, but I want the soup to be served in a big bowl and to be allowed to repeat.
In the eastern part of the country, as it is a coastal area, it is very common that the soup is a fish hervido. But the soup or hervido that they prepare in the east has the characteristic that the vegetables and meats, whether beef, chicken or fish, are cut into large chunks. You can see big chunks of potato, celery, pumpkin, ocumo, yucca, yam and green plantain, sticking out deliciously from the surface of the steaming broth. The broth is not that thick. If the soup is not fish soup, it can be beef soup, with its big pieces of meat, if it is rib or tripe soup, or whole pieces of thigh or other parts of the chicken, everything is big! But that doesn't detract from the flavor, and if it's made in a wood fire it gives it a very special smoky flavor. It is the best if you are with your family or friends at the shore of a river, or at the beach, that soup will taste like glory. It is always accompanied with cassava or arepa made in the same stove, next to the big pot where the soup is made. What more can you ask from life, say if that is not happiness?
From unsplash
In the west of the country, in Barinas, where I currently live, the soup is also popular, thank God for that. Here the typical soup is called "picadillo llanero", guess why? All the vegetables are cut in small square pieces, almost all of the same shape and size. The same is done with the beef, picadillo with all the ingredients. Their broth is thicker. Here the Barinés People add rice to everything, no lie, no exaggeration, seriously, they add rice to everything, so the Barinés people accompany the soup with a bowl of rice so that you can add the rice to your soup yourself. I have never really understood that, because in the end it is not soup what they eat, but a cream of rice. I don't add rice, it's not my habit. I prefer a good arepa or toasted bread next to the bowl.
Another very delicious soup that I love is sopa de mondongo (Tripe soup). It is a thick soup that is prepared with beef belly, pig's feet, and various vegetables, the same as in the beef or chicken soup. It is a soup that requires more preparation time, because you have to clean the beef belly and the pig's feet very very well and do a previous cooking, that is, the beef belly and the pig's feet are prepared a day before making the soup. I remember two years ago, on December 31, I wanted to end the year eating something tasty, and I prepared a tremendous tripe soup. I started to prepare it a day before, that is, on the 30th. For me those two days were special. I ended the year with something that I love and that makes me happy.
From unsplash
The soup in Venezuela is prepared to gather the family, it is usually made on weekends, or on special occasions, in a river, or a beach, or simply at the backyard of a home, in a firewood stove. In every Venezuelan home, there is always a huge pot for a big soup. It is common that the day after a big celebration where a lot of liquor has been drunk, a big soup is prepared to remove "el ratón" or hangover. It restores the soul to the most fallen. If the soup were called happiness, I would fill my bowl with happiness and.... let me repeat.
Reader friend, how is the soup in the area where you live... Is it your favorite food?
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Oh sister, what I like the most is the mondongo soup. But a good mondongo soup made with lots of love so that it is well loaded with nutrients.