Venezuela is a country well known for being rich about gastronomic culture. It’s mix of different culinary traditions from all around the world, where it’s very common to acquire new trends from everywhere and creating Venezuelan’s very own. We are going to see the current trends that are exploding and developing in Venezuela at the moment.
Vegetarian Food
When we talk about vegetarian food, we speak about a tendency that is developing all around the world for a while now. Speaking about Venezuelan vegetarian trendy, It’s growing every single day because of several factors as: people avoiding eating meat to minimize the hunting of animals (cow meat, chicken, pork, etc.), as a country in crisis, people are looking for ways of substituting eating meat that can be expensive for some vegetarian homemade dishes that cost way less, among others. Even so, people who enjoy eating meat are trying and enjoying this vegetarian trend, as can make you feel like you don’t need to eat meat no more.
Source:Pixabay
The Boom of Coffeehouses
Coffees appeared in less than 5 years ago all around Venezuela in a very explosive way. We can see this trend specially in Maracaibo, Zulia where every two or three blocks you have a coffeehouse waiting for you. This boom is really inexplicable, as every coffeehouse offers you the same products, but in their specific ways and that gets them full. Also, their menus are expanded, selling from cookies and ordinary coffee, from hamburgers, salads, and specific dishes. Coffeehouses are the favorite destination for a business reunion, a family celebration, even birthdays, and if you don’t have any reason to go, you’ll end up there just for the sensation of drinking coffee or eating desserts in a very comfortable way, making you feel at home.
Teas
Teas really exploded as a tendency in restaurants all around Venezuela. This was for two mainly reasons: the first one, soda shortage. Since last century, sodas are the main friend of dishes in every restaurant and every house of Venezuelans. People drinking every kind of soda, every flavor and always at lunch and dinner, even for breakfast too. This changed in the last ten years. As results of the crisis, soda companions stopped working and it was very hard for restaurants and people in general to acquire sodas, so they have to find a way to substitute the preferred partner for eating.
The second reason was the fitness trend. Everyone knew that sodas contain a lot of sugar and they can represent danger in your body if you drink one can every day, so teas appeared for these people who doesn’t want to feel bad drinking soda every time they eat and who doesn’t want water for every food.
From black team, green tea, hibiscus tea, and even a combination of these have appeared and almost every menu of every restaurant. People enjoy drinking teas for lunch and dinner, displacing soda and water as company of peoples’ dishes.
Source:Pixabay
Bonus track: If we don’t have it, let’s change it
As I said before, economically and humanly speaking, Venezuela is in crisis. This affects everyone and everything, even culinary aspects and how restaurants are developing and trying to survive. It’s not weird going out to eat in a restaurant and hearing the waiter saying ‘We don’t have that, but instead we can offer you this’.
It’s a weird way of developing, as people making food are looking for a way of offering the costumer something that is not what they want, but they can leave with joy after eating it. As you can see, It’s not easy to grow as a restaurant, but owners and chefs keep fighting and developing.
It’s very hard in this moment as Venezuelans to develop gastronomically speaking, but It’s very common to substitute some products, creating some new ones that satisfy people. French fries where substituted by rustic potatoes, contours like rice have changed for some kind of salads mixed with several vegetables, and so on. No crisis can stop gastronomic to grow.
