photograph by Hannia Jara
Alexa Presas serves up arepas to a hungry customer.
makes sure the dish at hand looks as good as possible. Hannia and Pedro left a few minutes ago, and when they did the young couple switched away from the cool jazz station that had piped Miles Davis and such into the truck. The subdued chill of saxes and muted trumpets is replaced with the blue collar swagger of a pop country station.
Food Truck Insider
Midtown writer Corbie Hill wanted to know what it’s like inside a local food truck. He worked a shift at Arepa Culture to find out. On a hot June afternoon, I strolled across the parking lot of Big Boss Brewing in Raleigh toward the Arepa Culture truck just beside the patio. I’d asked to work a shift: I wanted to see what it was like inside a food truck. I wanted to write about it. Sure thing, they said – how’s Friday? So I got my Arepa Culture shirt, slipped it on and went to work. By Corbie Hill 5:18pm: For the next few hours, the Arepa Culture family and I will be in close proximity: right now, though, I’m just meeting my new coworkers. There are four: Hannia Jara and Pedro Rodriguez own the truck, while their son Marcel Jara and his girlfriend Alexa Presas, both 19, work in it. Pedro moved to North Carolina from Venezuela 33 years ago, and that nation’s cuisine inspired the truck. Hannia and Marcel are from Costa Rica, while Alexa grew up in Raleigh. She and Marcel have dated since they were high school freshmen, and she’s basically family by now. They’re all completely at home in the Arepa Culture truck and around each other, and they welcome me easily and instantly. 5:39pm: I’m learning the ingredients: here’s the stewed chicken, here’s the sweet barbecue, and here’s the beef. Under the lid here at the sandwich station are the sliced avocados, tomatoes, pico de gallo, and various kinds of 86 | midtownmag.com
cheese. Below are sauces. Beside the grill are the arepas, an English muffin-sized Venezuelan maize bread that’s inherently gluten-free. Hannia contacted the company that makes the masa flour Arepa Culture uses, and they confirmed it: nothing but corn. 5:45pm: Hannia checks the thermometer up front and notes that it’s 100 degrees in the truck. I chuckle – this is what I came to experience, after all. There are people inside Big Boss and on its patio drinking beer. Later they will be hungry.
6:19pm: I stand at the sandwich station and mirror Marcel. First, I put the arepa flat on the cutting board. I press it gently with my palm and slide a plastic knife into the side – it has to be plastic, as the soft corn dough will stick to metal – and it slides through with little resistance. Now I have two halves. I put it in a large triangle of foil and fold it around the back and I drop in a little white cheese. Onto the grill goes sautéed peppers and onions and fresh greens, which cook down. The peppers, onions, and greens go in the arepa, then more cheese goes on top, and then I throw a few little slices of avocado on the top, just for kicks. Voila: I have made myself a Veggie Lovers. 6:28pm: I take my first bite, and it is good. The white corn flour arepa is a perfect staple: anything would go well on this. I try the cilantro sauce and I like it. I try the hot sauce, and it’s amazing, a smoky, thick, de árbol pepper sauce of Pedro’s creation. I put a little more hot sauce on. Then a little more. Then even more. I can’t get enough. 6:34pm: I try the Fish Lovers. It’s a wildly different flavor, based on the savory punch of smoked salmon and capers, yet the subtle arepa flavor complements it nicely. 6:44pm: Marcel is still handing me food. He wants me to try a cachapa, a yellow photograph by Hannia Jara
5:49pm: “So you haven’t eaten an arepa before?” Marcel asks me, excited to see what I think. 5:54pm: Alexa is hungry, so Marcel makes her a Reina Pepiada – that is, a chicken salad with avocado arepa. He really cares about presentation, so even when he’s making supper for his girlfriend he
Arepa Culture’s Veggie Lovers arepa.