on delicious food.

One of my favorite things about NYC, is the abundance of yummy, cheap food circling the town and daring you to find it. Usually it's in plain site, but with so many decent looking yet serving mediocre-at-best-food storefronts around, it's a wonder how any place gets discovered. So when a fellow foodie suggests something, I usually jump on it right away. About a year ago, someone introduced me to this place in the EV called 'Caracas Arepas Bar". I've gone back monthly since, and it's a fabulous place to bring people who don't know anything about these tasty Venezuelan treats. When I'm in the mood for eating, like really really eating, I usually start off with a bowl of their bean salad. It's a bowl of beans people, so it will fill you up. I suggest sharing it with your table of two and up to four people. Then I get an empinada.... How can one not love a deep fried corn pocket filled with things like sweet and smoky beef to avocados and cheese to beans to that crazy little Venezuelan shark? I follow that up always (and though everything is so tasty, I'm sure, but...) with the La Del Gato arepa. Caramel-ly, sticky roasted plantain with perfectly ripe avocados and delicious fresh salty cheese. Smother that with their secret spicy sauce, and I swear you will be in a state of bliss. And all that for one person (and let's add on the insanely delicious sugar cane drink- quite possibly the most refreshing drink in the world) will run about $16. $16 for the some of the most satisfying food I have ever tasted. How can that be beat I say? How can that be beat? I'll tell you how- make sure you get there really early or really late so you don't have to wait outside to sit at the cramped tables that they will most likely rush you out of. But man, is it worth it.