These days, South American cuisine seems to be winning over gourmets. After Brazilian, Mexican and Argentinian cuisine, it's now the turn of Venezuelan gastronomy to invite itself to the capital.
Totuma, a Venezuelan restaurant that opened last June in Paris's 11th arrondissement, is one of a number of new addresses aiming to introduce Parisians to the intriguing cuisine of Venezuela .
Behind Totuma is Venezuelan-born Valentina Palacios. In her restaurant, she honors Venezuelan traditions, offering arepas and other tequeños at low prices.
Arepa is an emblematic Venezuelan street-food recipe: a cornflour patty (gluten-free, in other words) that can be made in a variety of ways. Traditionally, it contains beef and black beans. Totuma' s French version is also filled with pork sausage. And Valentina Palacios offers all her arepas for under €10.
On the tasting side, we fell for theNorma arepa (9€) with smoked pork belly, avocado, mango salad and mint, which we found very fresh but a little short on pork belly; and theRomeo arepa (9€), generously topped with pulled pork, mango sauce and pico de gallo. Lovers of freshness and slightly sweet flavors, you'll love it.
In addition to these arepas, Totuma also offers guacamole (6€) accompanied by crispy homemade chips made from plantain, manioc and sweet potato ; but also the famous tequeños, fried cheese rolls to dip in a salsa verde, which we really enjoyed.
As for drinks, the rum used in the cocktails is obviously Venezuelan, but for our part we fell for a Venezuela Mule (9€), perfectly proportioned and as sparkling as you could wish, which I think we really enjoyed. For lunchtime softs, the fruit juices are homemade by the Totuma team.
How about a trip to Venezuela without leaving Paris?
Official website
www.totuma.fr
