At this Venezuelan restaurant, unexpected pleasures are found all over the menu, says Merrill Shindler.
Well, of course we have coffee for breakfast. I mean, doesn’t everyone?
What’s unexpected is that the casual NoHo café called Coffee for Breakfast serves that cup o’ java with arepas and cachapas — two of the starches that define the cooking of Venezuela, a South American cuisine that’s not as unknown locally as you might think. It’s offered at The Arepa Stand in Venice, at the food truck called Sus Arepas, at Chamo Cuisine in Pasadena, at Café Caracas in Downtown LA, at Arepas El Chamo in North Hills, and at Cariaco in Glendale. So…if you don’t know what arepas and cachapas are, this is probably a good time to find out.
Arepas are a pre-Columbian cornmeal patty, often filled with cheese, beef, chicken or avocado; it’s a cousin of the Mexican gordita, and the Salvadoran pupusa. Cachapas are a near relative of arepas, more pancake than a patty, also made from ground corn, but sometimes with corn kernels present in the batter, and usually just with cheese, though occasionally with jam as well.
Though at Coffee for Breakfast, that “usually” for the cheese is a forgotten notion.
At this cheery place, the cachapas come stuffed with not just shredded mozzarella, but ham and cheese, mozzarella with chicken or beef on the side. Whatever — they sure are tasty. And they make for a wonderful breakfast. They should be on the menu at IHOP, which needs arepas and cachapas to truly be the International House of Pancakes.
Despite the name, Coffee for Breakfast offers a good, but not outlandish assortment of coffee drinks. The regular coffee comes with unlimited refills (and thank you for that!). There’s a house coffee drink called “Bombon,” which has roots in Italy, and is made with whipped cream, cinnamon and condensed milk. The Con Leche is with steamed milk and cinnamon. The Con Leche Almendras is with steamed almond milk and cinnamon.
Add on the hot (or iced) chocolate drinks, made with whipped cream, chocolate chips and/or marshmallows, and we’ve got an assortment of ingredients that include the Venezuelan lemonade called a Papelón, made with melted unrefined sugar and lemon; and Chica, made with milk, rice, cinnamon, vanilla and whipped cream. There’s iced coffee and iced tea as well, for those who want to keep their lives simple.
There’s a small handful of tables inside Coffee for Breakfast. But most locals opt to sit on the far more spacious outdoor patio, down a narrow hallway to the area behind the café — an easy area to miss on a first visit.
Show up for brunch on a nice warm Sunday, and it’s easy to linger on that outdoor patio for a long time, digging into the pancakish world of arepas and cachapas, along with the fried Venezuelan cheese sticks called tequeños, the platter of plantains with beef or chicken, and the empanadas packed with beef, chicken, cheese, black beans and ham, in sundry permutations.
Or, you can simply pass on the Venezuelan side of the menu, and go with classic American breakfast dishes — lots of them. The basic American dish is the Classic Breakfast of two eggs (any style), bacon or sausage, toast, and a side of hash browns or fruit. There’s a bacon sandwich on white toast with mayonnaise — though I do appreciate the eggs with dish described as “overhard.” (And no, I have no idea what that means!)
There’s a ham & cheese sandwich on white. And a burrito filled with beef, chicken, bacon, ham or sausage — along with Venezuelan-style black beans, and a cheese spread called “nata,” which is new to me. There are pancakes served with eggs. There’s French toast served with eggs. There are omelettes. All of which is fine and dandy.
But since this is a Venezuelan restaurant, I want dishes from…Venezuela. To split the difference between there and here, there are huevos pericos — “parrot eggs” — made of scrambled eggs with butter, sautéed onions, bell peppers and tomatoes. Wikipedia describes it as “a tropical version of scrambled eggs” — though it sure sounds classic to me. The name comes from colors of the scallions, tomatoes, peppers and eggs — “pericos” are a type of parrot, and I guess the dish has parrot colors. I guess.
Whatever. I was happy to sit on the patio, enjoying my arepas and cachapas. And lots of coffee for breakfast.
Though if I wanted to run wild, beverage-wise, I could have gotten the Papelón, which is Venezuelan lemonade made with melted unrefined sugar. Or the Chicha, which is a beverage made of rice, milk, cinnamon, condensed milk and vanilla, topped with whipped cream. And yup, they sure do like their drinks sweet at Coffee for Breakfast.
There’s a section of smoothies that would send me to the couch for a nap — which come Sunday afternoons, is pretty much standard operating procedure.
Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Email mreats@aol.com.
Coffee for Breakfast
