Steem Food Contest 6 | Promote a traditional food | La Cachapa

Hello! Greetings from South America. Specifically from Venezuela. Over here there's a lot of great national meals, but in this opportunity I wanna present you the most famous and cheap one to prepare and eat even in popular restaurants, so this is the ~Cachapa~ The pancake made out of corn's doug and generally accompanied with cheese and pork. 🥞

Historically, much before the age from spanish conquer in the american continent, the corn was present in practically all preparations of aboriginal people's diet and that's why europeans adopted it quickly, it's very easy to grow a lot of corn's plants because the tropical climate. This is the main reason of an arepa, hallaca, bollo, empanada, etc... they're having a one common ingredient: the yellow corn. Without it, what dishes can we prepare here in Venezuela? The most of them are made out of corn in some way. A big importance for sure. 🌽

The preparation of a Cachapa follows a whole process if it's started from the corn itself, in nature way but it's easy in fact:

🔹Take several corns and peel them to take off the yellow grains with a knife and then put them into the miller to obtain the doug, which it could be mixed with some of milk if you wish to.🥛

🔹Grab a pan with few drops of oil so doug will not stick during cooking and then cook the other side, just like if you're making a pancake. And: Ta da! A delicious Cachapa with enough cheese and a dab of butter in this case. 🧀

At popular markets you can find any person with corns and a miller that offers corn doug, ready to make Cachapas. Based on the conversation with the seller, you'll have 10 Cachapas from 1 kilogram of doug that costs 650.000 bs ($0,95/10= $0,095 per unit). Also, as an alternative and faster way to prepare them (it's just needed to mix with water or milk and that's it), you can also get a P.A.N. flour for Cachapas made by Polar Companies (a huge national factory that sells packed food in Venezuela). Its price is 920.000 bs and produces 8 portions according to the packet ($1,34/8= $0,167 per unit). 💸

What is the best Venezuelan restaurant that prepares this traditional dish? This is very difficult to answer. It's like to pick the most famous Taco's Restaurant in Mexico. So, in this case I could ask what is the very popular one where you can get a huge variety with accessible prices I guess (despite of the current economic crisis, almost everything is expensive). In IG I've found a local company located in the capital of course (La Candelaria in Caracas) and after a brief review, I should say this is spectacular to eat a great Cachapa over there, in CachapasAgapita. There must be a good reason, they're offering a tremendous menu and also releasing with often a special/cheap combos. In their slogan you can read "25 years of tradition", that explains the big number of more than a 30k followers! I hope to reach it one day at the end of this long lockdown and taste a pair of cachapas.😁

According to the list published in one of their stories, already expressed in dollars, the menu of different fills is like this:

The Palmito is a local and known brand of tasty cheese and the special one is Hand's Cheese (Queso de Mano), a very juicy and soft cheese that just melts in your mouth. One of the most delicious and unique at the whole country (and world I could say).🤤

These prices are more or less similar to the ones from KchapasGourmet, a local food store that I've found in my city and sells Cachapas too, but as I commented before, they're looking a bit expensive considering it's supposed that corn mustn't be inaccesible for anyone to get a splendid cachapa. 😋