Envisage a golden-coloured patty, shaped somewhat like an English muffin, and you’ve got yourself an Arepa. Now picture this in a chocolate shop in Ipswich. Harder to do I’m sure.
Well I had a difficult time trying to do just that, but Bonbon Chocolate’s Chicken and Aioli Arepa delivered on taste, texture, and to some degree, appearance. This traditional breakfast meal (originating in a region of Pre-Colombia that’s now Colombia, Venezuela and Panama) does indeed have many variations, especially when it comes to its size and shape.
I actually had a hard time picking the correct country’s flag to accompany this dish – as Colombia’s arepas can be very different to Venezuela’s – and whilst I opted for the former here, the latter may have been more suited to what I received. My arepa was stuffed with grilled chicken, creamy avocado and aioli mayonnaise, very similar to Reina Pepiada (a variation that was named after Susana Duijim, who was the first Venezuelan to win the Miss World contest in 1955). Slightly random, I know.
Now you may be wondering what aioli is. Answer: it’s an emulsion of olive oil and garlic, commonly found in the Mediterranean. And if that leaves you with more questions, i.e. “what the heck is an emulsion?”, head over to my Beef Stroganoff review for a quick reminder. The fact that this sauce isn’t South American in origin wasn’t a big deal to me, especially as it acted to bind the arepa fillings together. I’m not a fan of ingredients tumbling from my sandwich mid-bite.
Speaking of ingredients, I was pleased to find the arepa wasn’t simply some wheat-based tortilla tossed on the grill; corn, the primary ingredient in arepa dough, was used instead. Being specific, Masarepa should have been used, which is a pre-cooked ground cornflour, made by soaking, pounding and cooking the corn seeds. I doubt this was used here, but it’s pretty difficult to find in the UK, so I’ll let it slide.
Whilst the filling of Bonbon Chocolate’s arepa might have been more Venezuelan, its shape was definitely one you’d spot in Colombia. No English muffin here, but instead a thin, crepe-like disc was folded around the fillings. Almost as soon as I’d placed the order at the till, I could see the dough being prepared in the back, and it wasn’t long before the arepa was happily toasting on the circular griddle.
Once branded with those all-important smoky bars, stuffed with tender fillings and finished with generous helpings of peppery rocket and coriander, the arepa really shone.
The chips were a great addition too, although thin Colombian arepas are often eaten as side dishes to a main, so another arepa and fewer chips would have been better. Nevertheless, it proved to be a filling meal. And at £9.00, complete with a view of sunny Ipswich… that’s not a bad deal.
I’ll admit that it’s been a complicated review; whilst arepas themselves are comprised of only three ingredients (masarepa, water and salt), their many forms mean they’re difficult to summarise in a concise way. Whatever the case, I look forward to trying out more arepas sometime in the future.
For now let’s focus on Bonbon Chocolate: I think a Tribudishional score of 8.5/10 is more than fair. Swap out the aioli for a Colombian alternative (such as Salsa de Ajo), and we’d be on our way to proper Pre-Colombian cuisine.
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