Hispanic Heritage Month: Venezuelan restaurant brings taste of South America to Orlando
Nothing defines one's culture quite like cuisine and food in the Hispanic community is a way of showing love and identity.
A local Venezuelan restaurant has been bringing a taste of South America to Orlando.
"We take care of all the presentation," Arturo Guerrero told WESH as he showed us around the restaurant.
He's the first in his family to move to the United States and while life here is wonderful with his wife and kids, Guerrero said.
"I miss, I love my country because all my family's there," Guerrero said.
Something about home in Venezuela was missing.
"We saw that there weren't any arepas here in Orlando, which are our principal food. We eat arepas in the morning, at night, every day. We wanted Americans to know our culture," Guerrero said.
"What do they say about your food?" WESH 2's Stewart Moore asked.
"Everybody loves the arepa. The American, which for the most part doesn't know about them, loves the arepa," Guerrero said.
Wonder Arepa is his restaurant on Orange Blossom Trail, just off Interstate 4. It's small but busy.
Customers are in and out, and delivery food orders are nonstop.
And the draw is his mother's recipe of meat and veggie-packed arepas.
"We have two arepas, the special arepa of the house — the steak one. We have Cachapa and then we have El Tequeno," Guerrero said.
"We use the same ingredients that we use in Venezuela to make the arepa," Guerrero said.
Guerrero said he puts his heart and soul into each order, making sure the person eating the dish feels a connection to where he's from.
"What's it like when you cook? Do you feel like you're putting Venezuela in the arepas?" Moore said.
"Our motif is that you are going to eat like you would at your grandma's house, and we put on the plate the real Venezuelan flavor," Guerrero said.
It's his hope all who leave the business take a special memory with them.
"We bring this flavor and this culture because the arepa is more than food. It's culture and that is what we want to bring here to Orlando," Guerrero said.
"When you make every meal and people go and eat it, what are you hoping they get out of it?" Moore asked.
"Love because of our food. Arepa is love," Guerrero said.