An auto parts store might not be your first thought when making lunch plans, but after trying Pa’que Ronald food truck, which has a standing residence in the O’Reilly Auto Parts parking lot on Highway 31 in Hoover, you might decide to think again.

The new Venezuelan food truck serves authentic arepas, cachapas, and empanadas, among other delicacies from the owners’ home country.

Pa’que Ronald, provides a peek into Venezuelan cooking with corn-based vessels (pancakes, pita pockets) and sandwiches stuffed or served with an array of savory meats, beans, cheese, and other fillings.

Arepas, palm-sized griddlecakes made from cornmeal dough, are the standard bread in Venezuela. The name also is used for the variety of fillings served in them.

The La Llanera Arepa with shredded beef, tomato, avocado, and handmade cheese.

Owner Ronald Montilla offers a dozen options for his arepas ($5-$8), mostly built around shredded beef, shredded chicken, pork, cheese, black beans, or avocado. The brunchy Revotillo Arepa features scrambled eggs and cheese.

Montilla also uses arepas as top and bottom buns for the heartier Arepon sandwiches ($10-$14). In addition to the meat filling of choice, the set-up includes ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and tartar sauce.

Venezuelan cuisine also gives familiar foods a new twist. At Pa’que Ronald, Hamburguesas ($8-$10) are your typical bun and beef patty (or two; it’s an option), with cheese, lettuce and tomato. But fried potato sticks, ham, and fried egg also are stacked on.

“In Venezuela, people put even more things on, like bacon or corn,” says Montilla, who owns the truck with his wife Angelica Barboza. Both were born in the northwest Venezuelan city, Maracaibo.

Burgers also can be made with chicken, smoked pork chop (chuleta ahumada), or a “mixta” combination.

Other items on the menu include stuffed and deep-fried turnovers called empanadas ($3-$4) and cachapas ($8-$14), which resemble big pancakes, but are made from egg-enriched sweetened batter that includes corn flour and cream.

Montilla halves cooked cachapa pancakes, sandwiching its filling of shredded beef, chicken, pork, or cheese between the half-moon slices. The Supercachapa is a combo that includes ham in the mix. The cheese filling in the cachapas is a slab of the mozzarella-like Venezuelan signature called queso de mano.

The pork and handmade cheese cachapa.

Another version of a Venezuelan sandwich is the Patacon ($10-$13), young plantain pounded flat and fried before served with an elaborate filling. The Pernil Patacon, for example, has shredded beef, ham, cheese, cabbage, and tomato.

Pabellon is your best introduction to Venezuelan food. In many Venezuelan restaurants, the dish starts with shredded beef stewed with onion, garlic, bell pepper, tomatoes, and other seasonings. Served with white rice and black beans, Pabellon encapsulates the indigenous, European, and African culinary influences on the former colony.

The truck offers its take on the classic Pabellon by using its primary elements as fillings for empanadas, patacon, and arepas. The Pabellon empanadas, patacon, and arepas include shredded beef, cumin-scented black beans, and sweet plantain; white cheese replaces the rice. Also look for Pabellon Criollo (with rice this time) when it’s among the truck’s daily lunch specials ($8).

The food truck’s menu is bilingual— the English translations clearly describe each menu item, and the dishes are numbered to simplify ordering.

The menu at Pa'que Ronald.

Montilla says he is gratified by the growing diversity of customers since Pa’que Ronald opened in May 2019.

“When we started, a lot of people didn’t know Venezuelan food,” he says. “People are getting to know us. We’re getting people from Mexico, El Salvador – not just Venezuelans. And, thank God, Americans are coming and getting a taste of Venezuela.”

Details

Pa’que Ronald food truck | 1559 Montgomery Highway (U.S. 31) in Hoover (O’Reilly Auto Parts parking lot) |205.573.5305 | Hours: Tues.-Sat., 11 a.m.-8 p.m.

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