A little slice of Venezuela

We have recently added a new Spanish Instructor to our repertoire of stellar teachers here in the Language and Culture Department.  Her name is Maigualida (Mag-wa-lita) and she’s from Venezuela.  Not only is she an instant hit w/our language students, but I found out a couple weeks ago that she is also teaching a Venezuelan cooking class here in town.

Living in this town its sometimes a struggle to find fun and different things to do. So upon learning this, I immediately registered for the class.  Although it wasn’t my favorite cooking class I’ve ever taken, (the one in Thailand by far takes the cake… sticky-rice cake, ha!) it was definitely a fun way to spend and afternoon.

There were 10 other participants in the group, two of which had also lived in Venezuela.  As we were all slicing and dicing and munching away, we learned about Venezuelan culture… the food, music, customs and beliefs.  And talks about their recently departed ruler, Chavez, and how his death will impact the future of Venezuela, was definitely a hot topic.  And what a shame, such a beautiful country, with beautiful waters and amazing diving :(

In the end we all sat down for a zesty meal of rice and beans (no surprise there) accompanied by beef so tender that we literally tore it apart with our fingers.  The meal was then topped off w/one of my faves, plátanos fritos (fried plantan) … YUM! 

I know for a fact I didnt eat nearly enough food  to cover the cost of the class, but it was about much more than paying for a meal.   It was a chance to learn, meet new people and try something different.  There’s nothing like food to bring folks together, and although I'll probably never share meal with these people again, we will always share the experience.  Thanks Maigualida :)

Maple Sugaring

Fact:  I grew up in VT, one of the top producers of maple syrup, and never once visited a sugar shack, or was taught the process of sap to syrup.  But that is officially NOT the case anymore.

Some friends of mine have their own sugaring business and were gracious enough to give me the 411 on the syrup making process.  I was even allowed to contribute by taking care of the finishing touches… putting labels on the jugs!

The actual process is pretty simple.  Tap the trees; collect the sap, filter, boil, evaporate and viola!  But Tammy and John are no small timers.  They mass produce the stuff so the system they have set up, and the machinery they use is pretty technical and very impressive. (FYI it takes about 40 gallons of sap to yield one gallon of maple sugar.  No wonder it’s so darn expensive).

Sap inside trees can loosely be compared to blood types inside humans.  Not every tree produces the same type of sap.  The quality and the grade of the sap depend on temperature fluxes… warm days and freezing nights are best for sap flow.  And it’s not until you pour your first batch on a particular day that you’ll know what Grade of syrup you are making.  On that particular day we were making Grade A Dark Amber… a little denser and with a stronger maple flavor.

Lucky for me I don’t particularly care for maple syrup, which means more money in my wallet and less excess around the middle.  But I can understand why people are drawn to it.  In fact, while we were there, we had 3 different sets of visitors come in for a tour and got their free samples fresh from the tap.    Two of the groups were just walk-ins off the street, and one group called ahead to forewarn they were coming.  It was a group of about 30 people; a family from Mass and CT, who come and visit every year and scoop up about $800 worth of syrup.  They were great fun and even stuck around to party w/us a little.

So there you have it, the very basics of “sugaring”.  If any of my non-New England friends are in the market for some real VT maple syrup, I can definitely point you in the right direction.  And if you happen to get a bottle w/a crooked label… it was probably my doing, sorry.