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🌍 Country of the Week · A Spin the Globe Teacher's Guide
Venezuela
VenezuelaSouth America · This week's dish comes from Caracas
About Venezuela
Venezuela runs on the arepa, a griddled corn cake split and stuffed a hundred ways, and the Christmas hallaca. Corn, black beans, plantain, and fresh white cheese anchor a warm, comforting table.
The arepa is claimed by both Venezuela and Colombia and predates both as a border, so the arguing is really about thickness, filling and which corn. What is distinctly Venezuelan is the range of named fillings, and the pabellon criollo plate of shredded beef, black beans, rice and fried sweet plantain that reads as the national dinner.
The hallaca is a Christmas project rather than a dish. Maize dough coloured with annatto is spread on a plantain leaf, filled with a stew of beef, pork and chicken plus olives, capers and raisins, then folded, tied and boiled. Families make them in an assembly line over a day and the recipe belongs to the family rather than the country.
The wider picture: Andes, Amazon, and Atlantic all on one plate.
This week's dish: Arepas con Perico
Griddled corn arepas split and filled with perico, soft scrambled eggs cooked down with tomato, onion, and pepper.
Serves 4 · Prep 10 min · Cook 25 min · Difficulty: easy
See the full recipe: ingredients, steps and dietary swaps →
Grown-up jobs: any step that uses a hot stove, oven, boiling water, or a sharp knife is for a teacher or parent. Children can measure, mix, and assemble.
Discussion prompts
1. Find Venezuela on a world map or globe. It sits in South America. Which oceans or neighboring countries does it touch, and roughly how far is it from where you live?
2. Arepas con Perico comes from Caracas, in Venezuela. Read its ingredient list together. Which of those foods do you think are grown or raised nearby, and how might the country's climate and landscape explain that?
3. Read the short story behind Arepas con Perico. How have the people, trade routes, and history of Venezuela shaped what ends up on the plate there?
4. Compare Arepas con Perico to a dish your own family cooks. What is similar, what is different, and what one question would you ask a family in Venezuela about how they make and share it?
5. After you cook Arepas con Perico, add Venezuela to a classroom map and give it a stamp. Write down one fact about its food or geography that you did not know this morning.
🌍 Spin the Globe · Geography through food · spintheglobeofficial.com/for-teachers