I just love signs like this – emblematic of yesteryear.
What this is advertising is a brand of cornflour, El Jable, which is used in making a dish called Arepas, popular in South America and now here in the Canaries. They are along the lines and size of a toasted sandwich, the bread part being made of a mix of cornflour and water which is flattened and cooked on a griddle or in a frying pan. Then you make them into a pocket and fill it with whatever you choose.
This sign is in Los Llanos and you can get the aprepas in many bars there but also right around the island. The good part is that they are also very cheap, often around a Euro or just over for an arepa – you might want two though!
In fact, our first cookery lesson here in La Palma was on making arepas. Our dear, late neighbour, Pedro happened to mention that he was having them for lunch and I commented that I didn't know how to cook them. He immediately said that we must learn and invited us – for the first time – into his home.
Pedro's home was what used to be a pajero, a single roomed stone construction used for storing straw for the animals. It was simple and beyond. No water, no electricity, just his bed, a few items of clothing hanging from nails on the wall and a two ring camping gas balanced on an old wooden barrel. His few tools for digging the land hung about in the corners as did his old boots. It was in this inauspicious place that we would learn to make arepas.
And Pedro was well qualified to teach us, having gone to Venezuela as a young man to find work in the tobacco plantations (the legacy of which caused him to address David as 'Mr. David') and only returned some forty years later.
Pedro's arepas were the best I have ever tasted. If you are in the capital, you can get them at various places – I suggest you try El Encuentro bar in the Plaza de Almendras which is where the boat is, at the far end from the harbour. Enjoy!
