Friday’s Featured Food: Nachos in Caracas, Venezuela🇻🇪
Oh heck! I did once say I would never write about Venezuela again as I hate it, but believe it or not, the Nachos I had as my first proper meal in Caracas were totally outstanding. Cheesey, meaty, spicy and crispy and just the way I like them. However, this was an experience I will never forget. Nothing to do with Venezuelan nachos, but an ugly Venezuelan mugger who tried to attack and mug me in Caracas a couple of years back…
A church looks up into the magical hills behind Altamira in Caracas. Within minutes of taking this photo I was mugged in broad daylight.
So the story begins I had left my hotel in Caracas with the intention of getting my Suriname Visa from the Suriname Embassy in Altamira. I headed to the Embassy therefore with ALL my valuable things – money, passport, 1 credit card and camera. I needed them for the Visa application (well, in hindsight I didn’t need the 1 credit card, and I carry my camera as I’m an avid photo taker on my travels). I got to the embassy, got all the information I needed for getting a Suriname Visa and on the way back to the hotel got snap happy at the mist leaving Altamira and heading up into the mountains. It was quiet but the streets didn’t look too dodgy. I was wrong. Within seconds a mugger runs at me and I suss it straight away. It was a quick struggle, exchange of words, during which time I saw a pen knife but ran for my life…
Never mind eating nachos, I was almost mugged on this street in Caracas in Venezuela in 2011!
…I was lucky. I got away with it and still had my stuff. But unbelieveably this ugly mugger (who was smelly, fat and very ugly) followed me all the way to a restaurant I found on the street to get away from him. A major row then followed which was more comical now looking back but I got a seat in this excellent restaurant, sat myself down and ordered a beer. My mugger had disappeared but I assumed he was outside waiting for me. All that for a British passport, a dodgy camera (my camera had a dirty lens) and a few hundred Bolivares! But he got nothing and I beat him. I was now thirsty and hungry!
The Little Rock Cafe – where I tried my Venezuelan Nachos in Caracas
So the restaurant was the Little Rock Cafe and it was superb. Decent decor, somehow an exquisite menu and lavish foods with cold beer. This was in fact a treat of a place rather than a dingy restaurant near a corner where I escaped a mugging. Some contrast! I hadn’t had nachos in a long time so I ordered them!
Cold Zulia Beer in the Little Rock Cafe in Caracas, Venezuela
As I sipped my top notch cold Zulia beer and breathed a sigh of relief, my nachos came. This provided me with probably my best moment in my entire time in Venezuela so I was happy with them. I cannot fault Caracas for its nachos, or its beer. But its people and its culture leave a lot to be desired. I faced more issues in Venezuela which I have written about before, but this is supposed to be about food!
The interior of the Little Rock Cafe in Caracas, Venezuela – venue for today’s Friday’s Featured Food of nachos
I won’t ever recommend anyone to visit Venezuela – it’s a shithole. But the nachos were good, as were the staff in my hotel La Floresta and the Little Rock Cafe.
Friday’s Featured Food is an ongoing regular feature on Don’t Stop Living – a lifestyle of travel. If you have a meal, bar, pub, restaurant, brand or idea that you would like reviewed or featured on Friday’s Featured Food, please get in touch via my contacts page or my advertising page. I’d love to hear from you! I’d also love a free pint and a meal. Cheers! PS – be careful in Venezuela, it ain’t all that you know…