![New: Paola Velasco and Jose Sanchez at their Kumache Kitchen stall where they sell arepas. Pictures: Jonathan Carroll New: Paola Velasco and Jose Sanchez at their Kumache Kitchen stall where they sell arepas. Pictures: Jonathan Carroll](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/324VkdtvqnBSp7aYw6KyqmM/f66527e2-5888-407a-8c7e-00f3ea4697e4.jpg/r99_0_4958_3305_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
José Sanchez and his wife Paola Velasco are excited about their new South American style kitchen, which opened Sunday at the Newcastle City Farmers Market.
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Their menu offers the Venezuelan and Colombian classic arepas (which Sanchez describes as the "chubby cousin of the taco") and several tasty dishes including arepa con pollo (chicken), criollo bowl (rice, beans and filling) and the vegetariana bowl.
There's a catch to it all, though the menu doesn't tell you. It's all plant-based, not just the one vegetariana option.
Sanchez became a chef when he migrated from Venezuela to Australia six years ago. Before that he always enjoyed nice meals cooked by his father. When he and Velasco moved to Australia, they began experimenting with vegetarianism and veganism.
![Classic: South American-style vegetarian arepas are attention getters. Picture: Jonathan Carroll Classic: South American-style vegetarian arepas are attention getters. Picture: Jonathan Carroll](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/324VkdtvqnBSp7aYw6KyqmM/072ee8fe-9b59-43a9-96b5-359c02e3f60e.jpg/r703_351_3264_2493_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"Where we used to live in Venezuela we were heavy meat eaters," Sanchez says. "We started being vegan after a year and a half here in Australia and stayed vegan for four years. Six to eight months ago we started eating eggs and cheese. It's still not very often."
Now they'd say they eat vegan six out of seven days per week; they eat mostly eggs for the protein. They said they gave up meat because they felt better and enjoyed the taste of vegetarian and vegan options.
Sanchez says doesn't know if he'll eat vegetarian for the rest of his life, but he does feel that, regardless, he knows how to eat responsibly now.
While Sanchez been working for other restaurants and cafes, he's been thinking about starting his own vegan/vegetarian South American kitchen. He knows it sounds like an oxymoron as South America is famous for its meat dishes.
"I've been throwing sketches of recipes together for a very long time, at least three years. I always said I was going to sell arepas I just wasn't sure when," he says.
The inspiration came to him during his last trip home.
"In 2018 Paoly and I were in Venezuela, it was the last time we were there. We knew we were not going to go back in a long time. From Caracas, we drove to the Amazons. We did a huge hike, four days walking up Mount Roraima and three days down with the indigenous people.
The indigenous people who catered for them agreed to serve them vegan food. While Sanchez didn't think it was the best food of his life, during every meal the guides offered him a serving from a little bottle of kumache, the most addictive sauce he's ever had.
The indigenous people make it from cassava (a root vegetable), and he says, unless it's properly treated, it's toxic, containing a high amount of cyanide.
"The aboriginals grate the cassava and press it to expel the liquid," he says. "Instead of dropping that, that's what they cook for three or four days and the poison is turned into an edible hot sauce. It's the most amazing thing."
In the Amazon they often marinate it with ants and termites, but Sanchez and Velasco simply enjoyed it on their vegan food. He told her, 'if we ever open a restaurant the food has to be as addictive as that sauce'.
"It was impossible not to eat it. I'm not a big hot sauce fan. Every day I had to eat it," he says.
While there's plenty of South American sauces and seasonings on his current menu, he's holding out on serving his own kumache, leaving the ancient traditional ritual of cooking cyanide to the professionals.
His dishes are mostly Venezuelan cuisine, but "Australian-ised" - stuffed with more traditional Australian foods like cabbage.
The arepas and almost everything else including the almond cheese are made from scratch. The only thing they buy is the seitan for the pollo (chicken) which he marinates.
Nowhere on their menu do they specifically say that everything is vegan, due to preconceived notions.
"Sometimes when people read vegan, they think it's healthy or it's bad. Most restaurants who serve meat or normal menus, when they do vegan options, they don't put in the effort. I've had so many bad experiences," he says.
They put vegetariana on the menu to start the conversation and when vegetarians and vegans realise that everything is vegan they go crazy with excitement.
"I love twisting people's minds," Sanchez says.
To try Jose and Paola's kumache dishes and agua frescas (fruit drinks) visit the Newcastle City Farmers Markets in Broadmeadow on Sundays.