They can be thin or thick, and can have a small or large diameter. Also, an arepa (at least those sold here in Boyacá) are heavy and stodgy, not a light spongy dough like an American style pancake, not thin and bendy like a Mexican tortilla or an English style pancake, and certainly nothing like bread or cake. This is what most English people think of when tortilla or cake come to mind:Īlthough the basic ingredients of a Colombian arepa and a Mexican tortilla (corn flour and water) are the same, I find the Collins and WordReference definitions to be very unsatisfactory, particularly because the tortillas sold in English supermarkets and Mexican restaurants in England are actually larger and thinner than the kind of arepas commonly sold in Boyacá, Colombia, so to call an arepa a large tortilla is mistaken. According to an arepa is “arepa, corn cake, corn tortilla” (WordReference, 2014). Collins Spanish Dictionary describes an arepa as a “large tortilla or maize cake” (Collins, 2000, p.58). Let’s begin by looking at some dictionary entries. How do you say arepa in English? Well, the truth is, there is no simple answer. They are often cut open and stuffed with fillings like meat and cheese, and they are also often served as an accompaniment to whole dishes like fried chicken or a bandeja paisa. Arepas in Colombia are sold by themselves, cooked over coal on street corners. I have also travelled throughout a large part of South America and hadn’t come across this tasty snack before. We have many foreign restaurants in England, with Indian, Chinese and Italian being among the most common. They certainly do not exist in English cuisine and I have not been to or seen a Colombian restaurant in England (though there are undoubtedly some in London which serve the large Colombian immigrant population there). I hadn’t heard of an arepa until I came to Colombia.
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