MAFER BANDOLA's VEGAN AREPAS WITH AVOCADO FILLING - One after another

Arepas // Mafer Bandola

Recipe

Ingredients (serves 20 people):

• Harina PAN — 7 lb

• Water

• Salt

• Vegetable oil — ½ cup

• Avocados - 8

• Lime - 4

• Mayonnaise

• Pepper

• Cilantro

• Onion

Arepas are Venezuela’s everyday food. As Mafer says, they are eaten for breakfast, lunch, dinner—even as a late-night snack. Rich or poor, at home or on the street, everyone eats arepas.For Kaoru and me, they are something like onigiri in Japan.

This week started in a strange and chaotic way. There was a crash at LaGuardia, terror alerts, and ICE agents wandering around airport security instead of TSA. Flights from New York to Knoxville were canceled twice, and by the time Mafer finally arrived for the residency, she was completely exhausted. Five other musicians arrived just as drained—stressed and sleep-deprived.

I was in the kitchen, making arepas. Cooked corn flour mixed with water and salt, kneaded into a soft dough. I shaped it in my hands—about the size and thickness of my palm—and placed it onto a lightly oiled pan. As they cooked, the outside turned golden and fragrant. When you tap them and hear a dry, hollow sound, they’re ready.

At that moment, Mafer came rushing into the kitchen. As if her exhaustion disappeared, her round face lit up into an even brighter smile. “This feels like I’m back at my mom’s house in Venezuela! She always makes arepas and waits for me”. She jumped in and hugged me. Then she grabbed an avocado right away. “We mash this, add lemon, salt, and chopped cilantro—and a little mayonnaise,” she said, already starting to make the filling.

Mafer Bandola playing the bandola llanera in Barquisimeto, Venezuela.

The freshly made arepas—warm and golden, like Mafer’s smile—are cut open in the middle, like a pocket. Everyone fills their own. The outside is crisp and toasty, the inside soft and comforting, like warm cornmeal. Then you add the avocado—bright with citrus, fresh with cilantro.

Dinner was still ahead, so we told ourselves we would just have one. But somehow, it turns into one more… and then another. Arepas have that kind of power. They push away stress and sadness, and before you know it, you’re smiling.

They feel like Mafer herself. That’s what Venezuelan arepas were for us—on the second day, as a simple afternoon snack.

-Yurie Ito

Setting up Mafer’s arepas for the Bloodlines Interwoven artists at Loghaven.

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