Global
I love bread. A base of flour, water and (sometimes) yeast can yield seemingly endless possibilities. How many shapes and flavours of bread are you familiar with? With the recent rise of ancient grains and artisan bakeries, lemi take you on a journey across the world to discover one of the its most staple foods.
๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ is a cornmeal bread hailing from pre-Columbian Latin America. The base is ๐ฎ๐ข๐ด๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ข (cornflour cooked in water, much like Italian ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ข) mixed with water and oil, and formed into a round patty that cooks to a cake-like consistency: golden and crispy on the outside, fluffy and spongy on the inside. Bonus points? Itโs gluten-free. The stuffing varies from simply melted cheese and beans to steak and avocado. A Colombian classic is shredded chicken and avocado, while in Venezuela you can find deep-fried arepas filled with eggs. Theyโre a staple food in Colombia, Venezuela and Tenerife. In recent years arepas have gained world-popularity, with arepas cafรฉs, restaurants and food trucks popping up all around the globe.
33-07 36th Ave, Queens, NY 11106, USA
My first time trying areas! I recommend the ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ณ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐, with extra sauce and a generous amount of jalapenos to go along with it. As for the shredded chicken version, the texture was a little too close to tuna flakes for my liking.
No. 137-1่, Shida Road, Daโan District, Taipei City, Taiwan 106
Venezuelans Gus and Kathe Salguero opened ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฎ & ๐๐ผ in 2014 (followed by a second branch in 2019) with the mission to introduce London to the flavours of the Venezuelan cuisine. You can get all the classics like shredded beef with black beans or chicken avocado. https://www.facebook.com/Arepaandco/
58A De Beauvoir Cres, Haggerston, London N1 5SB, UK
When it comes to bread, there is nothing as good as a crispy, fluffy, fragrant, freshly baked ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ด๐๐ฒ๐๐๐ฒ. Not all baguettes are created equal, though, and in South East Asia getting your hands on a good one without breaking the bank, can be a real challenge. ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ ๐รฉ๐น๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฒ, though a fast-food chain, imports all its bread directly from France, with people assuring you it has the best baguettes in Manila.
Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines
๐๐ฎ๐ด๐๐ฒ๐๐๐ฒ๐ have a lot going on for them. Not only the source of the flour and the water, but even the way the dough is worked, can all radically change its taste. And Parisian baker ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ ๐ ๐ผ๐ป๐๐ถ knew it well, when in 2019 he snatched the first prize of the annual ๐๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ณ๐ช๐น ๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ข ๐๐ข๐จ๐ถ๐ฆ๐ต๐ต๐ฆ. If that is not enough to make you want to try out his bread, I donโt know what is.
203 Avenue Daumesnil, 75012 Paris, France
๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ฎ๐ is a thin and crisp flatbread with a 3000-year-old history. Sardinian shepherds often left their homes for months at a time, so they invented a bread they could carry with them and could be stored for up to a year (much like elven ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฃ๐ข๐ด). It also makes one mighty souvenir. In Italian, pane carasau is also called ๐ค๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ข ๐ฅ๐ช ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ด๐ช๐ค๐ข, referring to how thin the dough is, a music sheet can be read through it.
12 Dartmouth Park Hill, Tufnell Park, London NW5 1HL, UK