Pastel de chucho (English: Stingray pie; see "chucho") is a delicacy made of stingrays, common in Eastern Venezuela and Margarita. The creole dish is described as "gourmet". [1] [2]
The dish is traditional food in the South American country of Venezuela, and a very common dish in Eastern coastal areas. Its popularity may be attributed to how it is both sweet and salty, its famous gourmet flavoring. [1] [2] [3] The pie looks, and is constructed, like a lasagna. [4]
The pie is made from stingray/manta ray and plantains. However, in areas where it isn't easy to find rays, Venezuelans will use a different kind of flat fish to create the dish, [3] like dogfish [1] [2] or small sharks [5] (like the Mexican pan de cazón). The dish often also contains various vegetables and spices, cheese, [3] and molasses. [1]
The ray or fish is shredded to make the pie, giving it a distinct texture. [1] The ingredients are fried to make the pie. [1] [3]
Though having a strong local tradition and identity, the dish has only been in existence since the 1980s. [2] Also, whilst common all year round it is typically an Easter [2] or Lent meal. [5]
A chef famous for making the dish is Rubén Santiago. [4] [5]
In 2011 a short animated film was released, called Hoy no se hace pastel de chucho (English: No Stingray Pie for Dinner Tonight). The film focuses on an ecological message encouraging the people of Margarita and Nueva Esparta to stop hunting stingrays for food. [6]
There are usually stingray pies at the Margarita Gastronomy Festival, and in 2013 the festival organised an attempt to cook the largest ever pie; this was denounced by environmentalist groups. [7]
Spanish cuisine consists of the traditions and practices of Spanish cooking. It features considerable regional diversity, with significant differences among the traditions of each of Spain's regional cuisines.
Paella is a rice dish originally from the Valencian Community. Paella is regarded as one of the community's identifying symbols. It is one of the best-known dishes in Spanish cuisine.
Shepherd's pie, cottage pie, or in French cuisine hachis Parmentier, is a savoury dish of cooked minced meat topped with mashed potato and baked, formerly also called Sanders or Saunders. The meat used may be either previously cooked or freshly minced. The usual meats are beef or lamb. The terms shepherd's pie and cottage pie have been used interchangeably since they came into use in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, although some writers insist that a shepherd's pie should contain lamb or mutton, and a cottage pie, beef.
An empanada is a type of baked or fried turnover consisting of pastry and filling, common in Spain, other Southern European countries, North African countries, Latin American countries, and the Philippines. The name comes from the Spanish empanar, and translates as 'breaded', that is, wrapped or coated in bread. They are made by folding dough over a filling, which may consist of meat, cheese, tomato, corn, or other ingredients, and then cooking the resulting turnover, either by baking or frying.
Arepa is a type of flatbread made of ground maize dough stuffed with a filling, eaten in northern parts of South America since pre-Columbian times, and notable primarily in the cuisine of Colombia and Venezuela, but also present in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Central America.
Torta is a culinary term that can, depending on the cuisine, refer to cakes, pies, flatbreads, sandwiches, or omelettes.
Picadillo is a traditional dish in many Latin American countries including Mexico and Cuba, as well as the Philippines. It is made with ground meat, tomatoes, and also raisins, olives, and other ingredients that vary by region. The name comes from the Spanish word picar, meaning "to mince".
Pasteles, also pastelles in the English-speaking Caribbean, are a traditional dish in several Latin American and Caribbean countries. In Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Caribbean coast of Colombia, the dish looks like a tamal. In Hawaii, they are called pateles in a phonetic rendering of the Puerto Rican pronunciation of pasteles, as discussed below.
"El curruchá" is a well-known Venezuelan folk song in the joropo tradition, composed by Juan Bautista Plaza with lyrics by Vicente Emilio Sojo.
Dominican cuisine is made up of Spanish, Indigenous Taíno, Middle Eastern, and African influences. The most recent influences in Dominican cuisine are from the British West Indies and China.
Uruguayan cuisine is a fusion of cuisines from several European countries, especially of Mediterranean foods from Spain, Italy, Portugal and France. Other influences on the cuisine resulted from immigration from countries such as Germany and Scotland. Uruguayan gastronomy is a result of immigration, rather than local Amerindian cuisine, because of late-19th and early 20th century immigration waves of, mostly, Italians. Spanish influences are abundant: desserts like churros, flan, ensaimadas yoo (Catalan sweet bread), and alfajores were all brought from Spain. There are also various kinds of stews known as guisos or estofados, arroces, and fabada. All of the guisos and traditional pucheros (stews) are also of Spanish origin. Uruguayan preparations of fish, such as dried salt cod (bacalao), calamari, and octopus, originate from the Basque and Galician regions, and also Portugal. Due to its strong Italian tradition, all of the famous Italian pasta dishes are present in Uruguay including ravioli, lasagne, tortellini, fettuccine, and the traditional gnocchi. Although the pasta can be served with many sauces, there is one special sauce that was created by Uruguayans. Caruso sauce is a pasta sauce made from double cream, meat, onions, ham and mushrooms. It is very popular with sorrentinos and agnolotti. Additionally, there is Germanic influence in Uruguayan cuisine as well, particularly in sweet dishes. The pastries known as bizcochos are Germanic in origin: croissants, known as medialunas, are the most popular of these, and can be found in two varieties: butter- and lard-based. Also German in origin are the Berlinese known as bolas de fraile, and the rolls called piononos. The Biscochos were re-christened with local names given the difficult German phonology, and usually Uruguayanized by the addition of a dulce de leche filling. Even dishes like chucrut (sauerkraut) have also made it into mainstream Uruguayan dishes.
Pastel is the Spanish and Portuguese word for pastry, a sugary food, and is the name given to different typical dishes of various countries where those languages are spoken. In Mexico, pastel typically means cake, as with Pastel de tres leches. However, in different Latin American countries pastel can refer to very different sugary dishes, and even to non-sugary ones as well. In some places, like Brazil, a pastel can refer to both a sugary and non-sugary food, depending on the filling used.
Chilean cuisine stems mainly from the combination of traditional Spanish cuisine, Chilean Mapuche culture and local ingredients, with later important influences from other European cuisines, particularly from Germany, the United Kingdom and France. The food tradition and recipes in Chile are notable for the variety of flavours and ingredients, with the country's diverse geography and climate hosting a wide range of agricultural produce, fruits and vegetables. The long coastline and the peoples' relationship with the Pacific Ocean add an immense array of seafood to Chilean cuisine, with the country's waters home to unique species of fish, molluscs, crustaceans and algae, thanks to the oxygen-rich water carried in by the Humboldt Current. Chile is also one of the world's largest producers of wine and many Chilean recipes are enhanced and accompanied by local wines. The confection dulce de leche was invented in Chile and is one of the country's most notable contributions to world cuisine.
Pastel de choclo is a South American dish made from sweetcorn or choclo. It is similar to the pastel de elote found in Mexican cuisine and to the English corn pudding. The filling usually contains ground beef, chicken, raisins, black olives, onions, or slices of hard boiled egg. It is traditional in the gastronomies of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay.
Gachas is an ancestral basic dish of central and southern Spain. It is a gruel whose main ingredients are flour, water, olive oil, garlic, paprika and salt.
The seco is a stew typical of Ecuadorian and Peruvian cuisine. It can be made with any type of meat. According to an Ecuadorian popular etymology, the name of seco comes from the Península de Santa Elena in Ecuador, where at the beginning of the 20th century a camp English did oil work in Ancón, when referring to the second course of food, in English "second", the Ecuadorians repeated deforming the word until they reached the current "seco", which has been widely disseminated, despite being a myth, since records of this dish have been found since 1820, almost a century before the English presence in the Santa Elena Peninsula. At that time, deer and Creole goats abounded. According to the Dictionary of Peruvianisms of the Peruvian Wings University, seco is a «stew of beef, kid or another animal, macerated in vinegar, which is served accompanied by rice and a sauce of ají, huacatay and cilantro". Thus, its main characteristic is to marinate and cook the chosen meat with some type of sauce acid, such as chicha, beer, naranjilla or vinegar.
The Hacienda El Tanque is an hacienda and historical alembic for the distillation of aguardiente and rum in the valley of Pedro González, Margarita Island, Venezuela. It was founded in 1880, and still conserves the covered alembic and the original architecture of the period. It's listed by the historian Luis Marcano Boada, chronicler of La Asuncion, as one of the 25 original distilleries of aguardiente in Margarita, which included the Distillery Altagracia, La Estancia, Cruz Grande, among others.
No Stingray Pie for Dinner Tonight, also known by its Spanish title Hoy no se hace pastel de chucho, is a 2011 Venezuelan short animated comedy film, that also tackles the environment and ocean pollution. The film is set around Margarita Island.