Remembering Pancakes Past: Colombian Food Nostalgia on the Barre-Montpelier Road
Claudia, left, and Jhuly Alvarez at their restuarant, Arandas. Photo by John Lazenby.
It’s amazing, isn’t it, how smell and taste become memory generators? For me, popcorn and the movies, vinegar and Easter eggs, burned pretzels and walking in Manhattan in winter, sawdust and my father in his shop, Aqua Velva and my first date… from the first whiff I am immediately taken back in time. (On the flip side, the cloying sweetness of Southern Comfort evokes an unfortunate experience in youth.)
A new restaurant on the Barre-Montpelier road offered me a chance to taste and smell an item that was my daily treat 50 years ago when I was an exchange student in Bogota, Colombia: the humble arepa. It’s a cornmeal pancake, crisp on the outside, fluffy on the inside, often served with a filling but delicious all on its own, or with butter. For the first time since I tearfully left Bogota and my adopted fa
Monica Cozar was the nurse treating Sagrario.
“It makes you see reality, life, how it is. Black and white,” Cozar said when asked about her experience treating COVID-19 patients.
Dr. Claudia Alvarez told NBC 6 the daily battle inside the unit can wear down medical professionals.
“One of the hardest parts of doing this job is knowing you can do everything you could but you can’t fight against this virus,” Dr. Alvarez said. “You can’t stop something that’s taken over the world.”
She said scrutiny and conspiracy theories outside the hospital make it worse.
“There’s been times when many of us have wanted to quit,” Dr. Alvarez said. “But what keeps us going, and at least me, I know that there is still a need and there are still people out there that will survive because of the care that we provide them.”