I am Caraquena, born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. Of course I love food- I come from a family of good cooks and a father who owned several restaurants. I grew up knowing that I would enjoy life a little more if I developed "un buen diente" (good tooth). It just means to have the good sense to enjoy food and be curious to try new foods (or the good manners to eat anything placed in front of you in any given scenario, no questions asked!). So, food for me is a social and cultural expression.
That's been my approach to Pica Pica Maize Kitchen. It's given me the opportunity to really understand my roots through the food that I grew up eating. I am in this to explore and understand my background from a culinary stand point. So in this blog you will find out things about what happens at Pica Pica, places we go and things we do. But you will hopefully also gain some insight into what our food is about and where it comes from.
The word for Toupée in Spanish is TUPE. But when people use it in Venezuela, it doesn’t only refer to the headpiece that covers baldness, but also to audacity. During this past hallacas season I found a lot of people with a great amount of Tupe! Many of you watched the videos we made last year on how to make hallacas. I have to say, I am delighted that so many people took the interest and time (and had the curiosity) to do so. But my biggest thrill has been to see how some people were audacious enough to venture out and make their own hallacas. See the original post and videos here
After watching the videos, a teacher (Nicole Kirsten) from The Harker School in San Jose, CA, requested to use some of the finished photos of the hallacas for her school magazine.
A native from Venezuela, Marvin Bjurlin, who grew up in Maracay but left Venezuela 55 years ago, made Hallacas with his wife. Although making hallacas was not his family tradition , he and his wife watched the videos and merged what they learned with their own recipe and made 40 hallacas. He told me they were SABROSAS!
A North American lady, Julie Pirrangon, married to a Venezuelan, made hallacas for her husband this year (I believe they live in Canada). She said she had attempted to make them in the past, but the information out there was not good enough to walk her through each step of this complicated recipe.. She tried once again and this time got something that her husband really liked. This is pure love. Hallacas are so challenging, to understand a difficult dish without ever having done it before is really hard. I am so impressed with Julie’s love for her husband’s love for his country… It makes this whole effort of documenting such a complex thing absolutely worthwhile!
Another North American lady, Lucy Scherger-Schalk, married to a Venezuelan, made vegetarian hallacas this year using eggplant and TVP (textured vegetable protein) in lieu of meat. Her hallacas turned out beautiful. She used our videos and also got her mother-in-law on the phone to make it through. Take a look at how great they came out!
Receiving these emails from people inspires me to do this more often . I never thought that these videos were actually going to be helpful to anyone, yet it turns out they have been very helpful to many. Our recipe and what we show on the videos is the memory of my experience as a child making hallacas with my family (grandma, aunts, dad, siblings, etc). My family’s recipe might not be exactly like someone else’s hallacas; it might miss one ingredient that someone else’s family includes. But to me, my hallacas represent a piece of my heritage that is very dear to my heart.
Thank you to everyone who has watched the videos and had the audacity to make hallacas — and to reconnect your loved ones to a very strong memory that goes far beyond making the perfect dish!
It’s getting close to Valentine’s Day, and I’m perfecting a Pot de Crème recipe made with the amazing “El Rey” chocolate from Venezuela. If you are in San Francisco on this coming Saturday, February 11, 1-3 PM, I will be at Bloomingdales in the Westfield Shopping Center (845 Market St., lower level in Housewares) demonstrating how to make this classic dessert, Venezuelan-style.
We’ll have recipes and a limited number ofPica Pica gift certificates to give away to lucky attendees; this is a free demonstration event, FYI, so come on down to say hello!
For more information, contact Bloomingdales Housewares: 415-856-5312
Thanks for coming out to Bloomingdales to teach us a little bit about making Reina Pepeada. I bought some for my friend the following day and she absolutely loved them.
What I like more than arepas are cachapas. Please consider doing a demonstration or a video on how to make it. It is my absolute favorite at Pica Pica.
DannyFebruary 19, 2012 – 10:48 am
Adriana Lopez-Danny it was great having you at the demo! I promise to make a video of the cachapas, stay tuned!February 22, 2012 – 12:21 am
Pica Pica’s main inspiration is Venezuelan food – from the arepas to the fillings and overall flavors that define the menu. That said, we are also open to adapting to our California customers’ expectations and desires. Our SALSAS are a great example of this: Five years ago, when we started doing tastings in my home with friends and family, everyone loved the food, but there were always the same comments. . . “If only this had some salsas it would be perfect,” or “Where is the salsa?”
At first I was confused; in Venezuela we don’t have dipping sauces or salsas on the side. These expectations for salsa come from the Bay Area’s familiarity with Mexican food, which has amazing fresh salsas, as well as the purely North American habit of having a variety of dipping sauces to go with fries and other finger foods.
We took these requests to heart and got to work in the kitchen. We developed a range of salsas that go from sweet to very spicy, thin to thick and present a glorious array of colors and flavors.
Pica’Pun, our signature hot sauce, is a take on my father’s own secret hot sauce. But we make it slightly more spicy than his original, as we found some people want firey intensity in a spicy sauce. So we amped up the habaneros!
We then thought of Pica’chup- who can have fries without ketchup to dip in? Ours is a smokey version of regular ketchup, just enough punch to make you dip more than once!
Morena (a word used to describe Latinas of dark or tanned complexion) is black bean sauce with some acidity and a salty edge. It is not spicy, and pairs well with our cheese empanadas or tostones.
Guasacaca is Venezuela’s version of guacamole sauce. This is not our invention; Guasacaca is typically eaten with barbecued meats, or added to the Reina Pepeada filling. It is primarily chunky avocado, with a tad of spice but not too much. We think it is perfect with our Venezuelan empanadas, or any of the arepas, as a fresh side complement.
Mela’o is syrupy and sweet, as its main ingredient is pure sugar cane, our key sweetner at Pica Pica. It has an acidic edge to it that comes from tamarind. This one is not spicy at all; I think it goes great with our yuca fries.
Aioli is used only with the pernil (pulled pork) filling; its combination of spices give the pork a perfect finishing touch.
Ajicero is a sort of spicy pickled vinegar which is used throughout Venezuela. The presentations vary, as in the Andes it is made with a dairy base (ajicero de leche) and it is white. But the most common version is what we serve in the little glass vessels on each table at Pica Pica. It is very thin and not overly spicy. It is great to add to soups or on the meat fillings if you are looking for a bit more brightness in the taste.
Traditionally, Venezuelan food is not hot or spicy. In my childhood home in Caracas, my father always loved to add some spice to meats, stews and soups. That is a personal touch that shows up in our kitchen at Pica Pica! I have found that it is too spicy for the native Venezuelans that visit us but not spicy enough for our San Franciscan crowd! That is why these sauces are a perfect way to balance your choice of added spice or flavors to our dishes without compromising the integrity of the food.
My resolution for 2012 is to push my boundaries and explore new things, which include experimenting with new foods and flavors. My hope is to go deeper into what I know about Venezuelan food and find a way of introducing more of that heritage into our kitchen. But the bigger challenge remains in discovering how to translate and share this in a way that our customers will enjoy and appreciate.
So the year began in the kitchen, exploring, cooking and tasting. I am excited for what 2012 will bring; more on these explorations later. For now, I encourage you to push your taste buds to new frontiers and to experiment and explore with our SALSAS!
United by music, the love of great food, family, friends and new acquaintances, we celebrated 2011 dancing and singing into the evening. Thank you to everyone who joined Pica Pica for our annual Holiday Parranda! If brings us great joy and pleasure for Pica Pica to bring so many of us together. Happy Holidays! Photos may be downloaded here. (Access: PicaPica)
Sharing our holiday tradition with new friends and meeting the real faces behind Facebook, it was a night to remember. It means so much to me and my family to express and share this tradition with everyone. My grandmother would be so proud of me. Thank you, Williams-Sonoma Union Square for hosting us. Special thanks to Williams-Sonoma’s Culinary Specialist, Aaron Clarke and everyone who helped and attended our 2011 Hallacada. Attendees can download high-res images from Quentin’s website here. . (Access: PicapPica) If you missed the event and wish to learn more about Hallacas, see our blog post here. If wish to try a Hallaca, Pica Pica will be serving them through December. Online sales here. Happy Holidays!
Plantain leaves are first smoked to make them easy to manipulate. They need to be cleaned to remove any trace of the smoking process. For the ‘hallacas’ one needs three different cuts of leaves. The first is the base, the second one should be the same size or larger than the base and the third one is the ‘faja’ (belt), which is thin and helps to tie the leaves together. When folding the ‘hallaca’ make sure to follow the vein of the leaf in order to avoid it from cracking open.
‘Onoto’ or the annatto seed is originally from South America and a derivative of the Achiote tree. Traditionally used by indigenous people as a dye for textiles or body paint, it is also used as a natural food coloring agent (yellow to orange) that has a slight peppery flavor. To obtain the dye it is boiled in water or oil. The dough is made with white corn flour (Harina PAN), the broth from the hens used for the three meat stew (hen, beef, pork), and ‘onoto’ (annatto) seeds heated up in vegetable lard to release the red/orange color. The dough will be ready when it has an intense orange color and it is shinny (palms of hands should be shinny orange).Once dough has rested, proceed to make 6-7 oz balls. We suggest making a large quantity of balls and setting aside. Cover with a humid cloth to prevent the dough from drying.On the left in small bowls, the ‘adornos’ (decorations)- onions, red bell peppers, capers, olives, salt pork, almonds and raisins. Place one of each over the spoonful of the stew on the dough, as a representation of the main ingredients used to make the three meat stew. To the right, little cones of ‘papelon’ (or piloncillo as it is know in Mexican markets). It is unprocessed sugar cane, a key ingredient in venezuelan cuisine, both for sweet and savory dishes.
Take a ball of dough, and place over a previously oiled plantain leaf and flatten with a wood block or plate. Do not make it too thin that it will break, but do not make it too thick, as it will not be delicate or pleasant to eat.Place a generous spoonfull of three meat stew over the flattened dough. Decorations will be arranged over the stew.The ‘hallaca’ shall be folded over to close like a pocket. It should be wrapped with three leaves: the base, the second one that protects the ‘hallaca’ from getting water in while it boils and the ‘faja’ (belt), which holds the leaves together. The final step in the assembly process is to tie the ‘hallaca’ with twine. Before starting the assembly process, cut a good amount of twine, about 1.5 meters long.The ‘hallaca’ should be tied as you wold a gift!Once the ‘hallacas’ are all done, they need to be steamed or boiled for about 45 minutes. After that time, take them out, drain them and set aside to cool entirely before refrigerating. For serving, the ‘hallaca’ should be warmed up by boiling (again) for 45 minutes. Take out carefully, drain and cut the string. Discard the first two leaves. Place the ‘hallaca’ (still wrapped) on a plate and carefully open, folding or cutting the excess of leaf over the plate. Do not eat the leaf! ’Hallacas’ can be refrigerated for up to two months.
Julie Pingarron -Hello Adriana,
My husband is from Venezuela and of course wants Hallacas every Christmas. Unfortunately the recipe and videos that I had used were never as good as this one, so they never really came out right. I am so excited to try yours so he can get a taste of home. He is also very happy about your Pan de Jamon recipe. This Christmas should really make him feel at home thanks to you!!! I don’t know if you have one already or plans for one, but I think you should make a book of Venezuelan recipes.
Thanks Again!
-Julie PingarronNovember 29, 2011 – 4:46 pm
Adriana Lopez-Julie, I am so happy this information is useful! Please email me if you have any questions or get stuck while making them- adriana@picapicakitchen.com
Also, I will be posting detailed recipes for the hallac and the pan de jamon this week, so check in to get themDecember 12, 2011 – 3:33 pm
Lucy Anne -Thanks for posting the recipe Adriana!December 23, 2011 – 1:40 pm
Adriana Lopez-You are welcome! If you make the hallacas, can you send me photos? I would love to see the outcome. Of course, any questions along the way, let me know!December 30, 2011 – 10:49 am
Marvin Bjurlin-Hello Adriana,
I grew up in Venezuela. While my mom never made Hallacas, our family always had them in December since all of our friends brought samples as gifts. Now living in Western New York, I have on a few occasions attempted to make them. I invented the recipe. In the last couple of days I have viewed all of your videos on hallacas and other Pica Pica delights. It all takes me back to my childhood in Maracay, 55 years ago! Last night I had friends over and even though it is not December, we made 25 hallacas, today my wife got more leaves at the store and I just finished boiling another 15. We will assemble and boil again this evening. To fill out our dinner last night we had platanos and yucca. SABROSO!
My adult sons and their families love it when I make arepas and black bean soup.
Thanks for all of your on line help. Now I want to have a city vacation in San Francisco and enjoy my meals at Pica Pica.
By the way, the last video I watched it looked like you were about to become a mom! My best wishes to you in that regard. It is quite a trip. My oldest son is 42 now and he and his wife were along for the hallacas last night.
MarvJanuary 22, 2012 – 10:24 am
Adriana Lopez-Marv, I am really moved by your email. I am so happy that the videos were helpful! It is a challenging dish to make, but it is amazing how it brings family together and it can recall the best of memories. I hope that this year you started a new tradition in your family. The fun thing is that each year the hallacas have their own personality and it is a great thing to share among friends and family. Send me photos please if you have some left!
Feliz 2012!January 26, 2012 – 6:04 pm
HALLACAS UNBOUND!-[...] The word for Toupée in Spanish is TUPE. But when people use it in Venezuela, it doesn’t only refer to the headpiece that covers baldness, but also to audacity. During this past hallacas season I found a lot of people with a great amount of Tupe! Many of you watched the videos we made last year on how to make hallacas. I have to say, I am delighted that so many people took the interest and time (and had the curiosity) to do so. But my biggest thrill has been to see how some people were audacious enough to venture out and make their own hallacas. See the original post and videos here [...]February 22, 2012 – 2:34 pm
YOUR HALLACAS-[...] The word for Toupée in Spanish is TUPE. But when people use it in Venezuela, it doesn’t only refer to the headpiece that covers baldness, but also to audacity. During this past hallacas season I found a lot of people with a great amount of Tupe! Many of you watched the videos we made last year on how to make hallacas. I have to say, I am delighted that so many people took the interest and time (and had the curiosity) to do so. But my biggest thrill has been to see how some people were audacious enough to venture out and make their own hallacas. See the original post and videos here [...]February 22, 2012 – 2:36 pm
Pan de Jamon is special dish is eaten in Venezuela only during the holiday season in December. It originated back in 1905, in Caracas, by the Ramella Bakery; it is a 100 percent original and exclusive Venezuelan recipe. It was created as a way of using bits and pieces of leftover holiday ham (imported from Spain at the time) sold to customers. These pieces were marinated in spices (wine, cinnamon, pineapples, cloves, sugar cane), rolled in a soft dough, and baked. Later on olives and raisins were added. Nowadays people add bacon instead of ham, or use other fillings such as salmon or turkey. But the traditional recipe is ham (the higher the quality, the better the result), raisins and olives, with a sugar cane glaze to give it a shiny finish and sweet touch.
Pica Pica decided to introduce the Pan de Jamon to our holiday offering because we found a gluten free flour that yields very similar results to the original recipe, both in texture and taste. We are using Thomas Keller’s C4C gluten free flour. Although the name of the product implies that it is the same, cup for cup, to wheat flour, I strongly recommend you test your recipe and adjust as needed. In the case of the dough for this bread, I found that the wheat flour absorbs much more liquid (water/milk) than the C4C flour (corn, rice and yucca based). You can get the C4C flour at Williams-Sonoma, online and in most or their stores.
A word about recipes. I have found that it is always hard to replicate a recipe when making it outside of its origins. Has it ever happened to you – you take your great-aunt’s delicious chocolate chip cookies recipe to find that although very similar, your results are not exactly the same? You must take into consideration that ingredient products change over time, that temperatures and altitude can create differences in results (especially with baking) and that measurements some times don’t always translate.
Since recently when I was told I could not consume gluten, Ive been wondering what on earth am I gonna do when Christmas comes around. Pan de Jamon is my favorite holiday food and I’ve been wondering if I could make it gluten free! Thanks for the recipe!!! I’m so stuffing myself now haha!November 28, 2011 – 10:56 am
Adriana Lopez-Fantastic! I am glad your Christmas will not be ruined! We will be posting the recipe soon, not too hard to make. I hope you enjoy it. If you make it please send me photos! Let me know what flour you use, etc. I would like to know. Thanks!November 29, 2011 – 3:34 pm
Janice -Just made 70 Hallacas 50 with a chicken and pork guiso and 20 vegetarian using seitan/tofu. Your YouTube videos were excellent. I haven’t made them in years and now (at your suggestion) my husband has become the banana leaf expert. He is the Venezuelano in the family but our son was the third in the assembly line so he knows how to make them as well.
Just going to use your recipe for pan de jamon (one regular flour and one for my son’s girlfriend who is Celiac. Do you also have an ensalada de gallina recipe??? Someday, I hope to make it to Pique Pique but it is a long way from Toronto!
GraciasDecember 23, 2011 – 3:20 pm
Adriana Lopez-I am delighted that you ventured into making hallacas this year! How was it finding the key ingredients? Each year we will be adding a new dish to add to the traditional venezuelan dinner- hen salad and green papaya dessert included! Feliz Navidad y Ano Nuevo, AdrianaDecember 30, 2011 – 10:45 am
I have been scratching my head about how to bring traditional fall harvest ingredients into our menu this fall season. The reason it is difficult is that corn breads, particularly the arepa, are starchy by nature. The idea of filling corn flour bread with yams or other root vegetables is not that exciting – or even that appetizing!
In Venezuela we eat lot of root vegetables: yuca, apio (groundnut), calabaza (pumpkin), ñame, ocumo (taro root) and malanga, among others. But usually these ingredients are not eaten inside the arepa. Rather, these root vegetables are either steamed by themselves; or used in soups, like the traditional hervido or sancocho, a meat- or fish-based broth, served with a combination of these root vegetables and pieces of selected meats. These soups are eaten throughout Venezuela, with regional variations.
At Pica Pica what we do best is serve a great corn bread with a delicious filling; incorporating root vegetables as a filling seems challenging to me. But it shouldn’t have been a surprise that “The Family Chef” Amy Fothergill’s “Sweet Potatoes and Black Beans” recipe worked really well as a filling! This “vegetarian chili” was rich, flavorful and not overly starchy (and of course gluten-free!). Take a look at my post here and check out the recipe she demonstrated during one of her visits to Pica Pica last spring
What fall harvest ingredients do you think would make an interesting filling?
‘Onoto’ or the annatto seed is originally from South America and a derivative of the Achiote tree. Traditionally used by indigenous people as a dye for textiles or body paint, it is also used as a natural food coloring agent (yellow to orange) that has a slight peppery flavor. To obtain the dye it is boiled in water or oil. 
The dough is made with white corn flour (Harina PAN), the broth from the hens used for the three meat stew (hen, beef, pork), and ‘onoto’ (annatto) seeds heated up in vegetable lard to release the red/orange color. The dough will be ready when it has an intense orange color and it is shinny (palms of hands should be shinny orange).
Once dough has rested, proceed to make 6-7 oz balls. We suggest making a large quantity of balls and setting aside. Cover with a humid cloth to prevent the dough from drying.
On the left in small bowls, the ‘adornos’ (decorations)- onions, red bell peppers, capers, olives, salt pork, almonds and raisins. Place one of each over the spoonful of the stew on the dough, as a representation of the main ingredients used to make the three meat stew. To the right, little cones of ‘papelon’ (or piloncillo as it is know in Mexican markets). It is unprocessed sugar cane, a key ingredient in venezuelan cuisine, both for sweet and savory dishes.
Take a ball of dough, and place over a previously oiled plantain leaf and flatten with a wood block or plate. Do not make it too thin that it will break, but do not make it too thick, as it will not be delicate or pleasant to eat.
Place a generous spoonfull of three meat stew over the flattened dough. Decorations will be arranged over the stew.
The ‘hallaca’ shall be folded over to close like a pocket. It should be wrapped with three leaves: the base, the second one that protects the ‘hallaca’ from getting water in while it boils and the ‘faja’ (belt), which holds the leaves together.
The final step in the assembly process is to tie the ‘hallaca’ with twine. Before starting the assembly process, cut a good amount of twine, about 1.5 meters long.
The ‘hallaca’ should be tied as you wold a gift!
Once the ‘hallacas’ are all done, they need to be steamed or boiled for about 45 minutes. After that time, take them out, drain them and set aside to cool entirely before refrigerating. For serving, the ‘hallaca’ should be warmed up by boiling (again) for 45 minutes. Take out carefully, drain and cut the string. Discard the first two leaves. Place the ‘hallaca’ (still wrapped) on a plate and carefully open, folding or cutting the excess of leaf over the plate. Do not eat the leaf! ’Hallacas’ can be refrigerated for up to two months.
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