Here's my sample restaurant review for that job, by the way.

Caracas Arepa Bar

Barrett Brown

The Experience

It can be difficult to recognize the absence of something until that particular something is no longer absent; thus it was that I had no idea that I'd never eaten Venezuelan cuisine until I suddenly found myself eating it.

Even New York, that blender-set-on-puree of international gastronomy, has very little to offer in the way of Venezuelan fare, which seems like an oversight in a city where one can even have Ukrainian delivered to one's home if one has a morbid sense of humor. And so it's a fine thing that Caracas Arepa Bar has stepped in to rectify the situation.

Filled to the brim with hipsters on a Monday night, the budding chain's Williamsburg location managed to give the impression of a restaurant that will still be around in two years, which is certainly a fine impression for a restaurant to give. Inevitably for this neck of the woods, esoteric touches abound, with half of the wall space made up of some pleasantly indescribable wood projections. The effect is interesting and urban-cutesy, but not to such an extent that it would irritate anyone with a cynical sense of aesthetics.

Caracas specializes in the humble arepa, a corn-flour hybrid which itself is best compared to a pita pocket - and the fact that it's not best compared to a tortilla or some other such ubiquitous south-of-the-border staple thing should tell you that we're dealing with something of greater significance than a one-off variant on Mexican food, which is more than can be said for the average Guatemalan joint.

Asked which of the resident arepas would be most representative of a genuine Venezuelan snacking session, the waiter suggested the De Pabellon, a compilation of shredded beef, black beans, white salty cheese and sweet plantains. I was dubious (there's something to be said for one-off variants of Mexican food, after all), but it turned out to be a very fine dish, and not just something one orders out of some misguided urge to impress a date, which is to say that I would happily eat it again even if no one were looking.

We moved on to the "100% Queso platter," which consisted of four arepas filled with various sorts of flaky, uncooked cheeses and nothing else. It was an unfortunate choice, and felt less like something for which one ought to pay 18 dollars and more like something that a drunken young male concocts in his kitchen at four in the morning because he lacks any other options. Even my date - a generally sober young lady who keeps her kitchen well-stocked - made this connection independently of me.

Still, the queso debacle shouldn't turn one off of Caracas; the De Pabellon is far more representative of Venezuelan fare in general and the restaurant's offerings in particular, and the majority of the dishes are such that one can't help but describe them as "intriguing" even if one feels silly using that term to describe food.

On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 4:57 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:

They sure did, thanks. We were all very impressed with your selections.

Love,

Barrett

On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 4:51 PM, Karen Lancaster <lancaster.karen@gmail.com> wrote: