Bakery Stall · Wheat Flatbread
Pan Andino (Arepa de Trigo)
Photo: Muago / Wikimedia Commons · CC0
Almost everywhere else in Venezuela an 'arepa' means corn, but in Mérida's wheat-growing highlands bakers make a wheat-flour version instead, a swap that would confuse anyone ordering one outside the Andes.
Wheat flour dough is kneaded, shaped into a round, and cooked on a flat griddle until lightly browned and dense. Mérida's bakery stalls sell it split and filled with cheese or ham, still warm from the griddle.
Why it's made this way: Mérida's cooler climate is one of the few places in Venezuela suited to growing wheat, and its bakers built a wheat-based bread culture that stands apart from the corn arepas found across the rest of the country.
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Part of World of Street Food — 690 dishes from 118 countries.
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