Venezuelan in Dallas

Hiding out at the intersection of Trinity Mills and Midway is El Arepazo VZLA, a hole-in-the-wall joint offering up authentic Venezuelan fare.

Start with an order of empanadas; whatever is fresh and available, but go early because they do sell out.

Try the tostones, fried plantains topped with shredded queso blanco and two different salsas, one green and one red. These were crunchy and flavorful, and the shredded cheese added a touch of creaminess.

The tequeños are sort of their take on fried mozzarella sticks, consisting of four deep-fried pastry-wrapped fingerlings that had a smooth and creamy cheese center and were served with a fresh and lively aioli-style dipping sauce.

Mains consiste of cachapas, which is a corn pancake that has many fillings from which to choose. Try the queso blanco y carne mechada, which, for the uninitiated, was a corn pancake filled with white hand cheese and shredded beef.

The Arepas Venesuela are decadent. It consists of shredded chicken, shredded meat, pork, avocado and cheese in the white corn cake. It filled both hands and was a challenge to eat since it was so large and messy, but that’s a feature, not a bug.

Modest Rogers Kitchen & Bar features a great combination of Venezuelan, Spanish and Mexican cuisine with a Texas flair. The chef behind this concept is Modesto (Mo) Rodriguez, an El Centro alum, who has worked at other well-known Dallas restaurants, Nonna and Carbone’s, as a sous chef. The menu is small, but there are plans to expand it to include other dishes that have inspired Rodriguez throughout his life. For a main entrée, you’ll be hard-pressed to choose. The most unique dish on the menu is certainly the Nantucket scallops in butter with fried corn ribs. Another popular dish is the Rosewood Ranch wagyu carne asada served with chimichurri, marbled potatoes and arugula salad. The scallop tartare and baked tortilla comes with five chunks of baked authentic quiche-like Spanish tortilla topped with sea scallop tartare, tomatoes, garlic and paprika; a truly unique presentation.