What would happen if one crossed the rich sweetness of northern-style corn bread with the fun shape of a pancake? We're not sure, but it would probably look a lot like an arepa. Simple and hearty, the rich Venezuelan cornmeal patties -- often sliced open and stuffed for a cool-looking sandwich -- are here topped to make an open-faced snack.

Sara of Sara's Kitchen whipped up this intriguing combo of fresh arepa, black beans, a savory avocado salsa and just a touch of queso blanco. A mix of bright flavors and fun textures, it has us intrigued -- and mulling over a few salsa notions of our own!

Pampero Aniversario is 40% abv. / 80 proof and is a dark aged rum from Venezuela. It's sold in a squat, rounded bottle enclosed in a tan leather sack. It is deep brown in color with a hint of amber gold to it. I've had several rums from Venezuela, going back to when I spent some time there on the beautiful, off-coast islands of Los Roches, one of the most incredible scuba spots in the world. While there I spent my time skin diving, sea kayaking, fishing, learning how to cook fresh fish in over thirty ways from my new chef friends eager to meet an American chef, and most enjoyably learning to appreciate the fine rums. I may not like the countries politics, (my friends and I had our lives threatened in an vicious attack on our taxi, when we got caught in the overflowing pandemonium of a riot where the police responded with automatic weapons blazing) but they make some damn fine rum.

Pampero Aniversario is one of my favorite of the rums with a touch of sweetness, although it is more in the dryer than sweeter part of the spectrum. The aroma is rich and warm with caramel, vanilla, toasted nuts and spice. The flavor is rich and very smooth, warming to the soul, full of vanilla, spices, hints of chocolate, and the holiday taste of fresh baked gingerbread, with just a hint of sweetness to round it out.

Santa Teresa Orange Rhum Liqueur is 40% abv. / 80 proof and is made in Venezuela. Santa Teresa makes some of the finest rum in the world. Their Santa Teresa 1796, a fifteen year aged rum, is one of the best rums I have ever tasted. I first tried it a few years ago when I was spending some time in Los Rouqes. A group of islands off the coast of Venezuela that is known as one of the best scuds diving spots in the world. The sea there is an intense turquoise color that has to be experienced to be believed and after a day there spent out on the water I would have a sundowner of Santa Teresa 1896 on the rocks to unwind.

So it was with great pleasure to see a bottle of their orange liqueur on one of my favorite liquor stores shelves. Santa Teresa rum AND Oranges in a liqueur? I couldn't wait to try it. A little research showed that the liqueur is made with two year old rum that then has orange peel added to the casks and macerated for an additional length of time to infuse the flavors.

The color is a deep amber with almost a burnt orange tinge. The aroma starts off with the unmistakable smell of Santa Teresa rum. A rich, bold, sweet and smooth rum scent, overlain with complex orange notes. Then hints of sweet, ripe fruit and spices; with a salty tang that reminds me of a fresh ocean breeze. An absolutely wonderful aroma.

The taste I rich and smooth as well. A big hit of that delicious aged rum mixed with orange zest rolls across your tongue. You can taste hints of the oaken casks it was aged in as well as vanilla notes and complex spices abound. There are some nice pepper tones and a touch of bitter orange pith in the long finish that leave a pleasant, delicate, warm burn at the back of your throat that slowly fades away until you have just a memory of the taste lingering on the tip of your tongue.

If you think about it, there are a lot of things that when described with different words or to anyone who isn't familiar with them, are kind of unappetizing. Raw fish? Fish eggs? Near-raw bird livers? What about Bambi? Bugs Bunny? Sushi, caviar, foie gras, venison, and rabbit. They don't sound all that unappetizing to me, except the caviar and foie gras, of course.

What about "rodents?" Apparently, in a region of Venezuela, rodents are a true delicacy. In other South American countries, capybara, the world's largest rodent (does this make anyone else think of The Princess Bride?) is hunted for its hide. In Venezuela, the meat of the capybara can get prices that are almost double that of beef. Part of that price is how difficult it is to hunt the capybara, and part of it is the flavor, which is "more like rabbit than chicken, though when dried with sea salt in Venezuela it acquires a fishy flavor."

Hey, as long as we don't start making sewer rats a delicacy here in the US, fine by me.

More on, uh, rodents:
Peruvian Cuy to debut in a store near you
Nutria, the other white swamp rat
Cooking with groundhogs

Many people love beans and they are a staple in the diet of hundreds of thousands of people all across the globe. The problem with beans is that they can have unwanted social side effects, like farting. Scientists in Venezuela have been working furiously, trying to eliminate or reduce this problem and have finally come up with a solution.

Farting is the end result of a process that begins when the soluble fiber in beans, not already broken down in the small intestine, is broken down by the large intestine. They found that adding two strains of bacteria, Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus plantarum, to the beans, reduced soluble fiber by 60% and lowered the level of another gas-causing compound known as raffinose by 88%. This means that there were fewer farts. It also increased the insoluble fiber in the beans by almost 10%, adding more nutritional value of the beans, in addition to uncovering the root of a social problem.

One of my current obsessions is single origin chocolate. Like wine, chocolate can have terroir. Cocoa beans from various areas have strikingly divergent tastes. It's not necessarily something you would notice on a casual basis but taste two different single origin chocolates together and the difference becomes apparent. I'm currently tasting the Ocumare which uses criollo cocoa from Venezuela and the Guaranda which usues forastero arriba cocoa from Ecuador. The Guaranda has a more standard rich dark cocoa flavor while the Ocumare tastes sweeter with rounded spice notes and a slightly perfumey taste that was startling at first but is increasingly seductive. For novelty and eating on its own I prefer the Ocumare but because the Guranda is more traditional it would work better if it was used in a recipe or being eaten with wine.  Both use a minimum of 71% cocoa so they are definitely intense and full of  all those healthy flavoniods that make eating dark chocolate the new nutritional must. I found my Chocovic at Trader Joe's.