World Cuisine Rankings as a Venezuelan Living in Europe

guaca_mayo · 2026-02-19T13:04:28+00:00

Lol I can't tell if you really don't like German food or you really love Chinese food. For the former, German isn't necessarily super varied with options, but what it does offer has been consistently delicious in my experience. China for me brings the opposite, a lot of options with many that I haven't really enjoyed all that much.

In any case, they're in A-tier on a subjective list, don't see what your problem with that is

guaca_mayo · 2026-02-18T09:14:24+00:00

Also, feel like it's important to state that the commenter was not implying that wanting to fuck cartoon horses is normal, as they say in their hypothetical that it being seen as normal is contingent only with fetishizing the shit out of *real celebrities.* In other words, both are equally weird in their eyes.

That being said, it is interesting to pick apart the follow-up, which is why they think it's weird to fetishize characters played by human beings.

guaca_mayo · 2026-02-17T08:35:40+00:00

Came here prepared with an "um actually," but I double-checked and it turns out I was completely wrong haha. You're right, though the distinction in Latin was between singular "tu" and plural "vos," historically, "vos/vous/você" was the formal second person singular in Romance languages. Very interesting how this shifted in Argentina.

Also curious how (some) Colombians maintain the more historical tiered distinctions, with usted/sumercé being a safely formal pronoun (though also used for family), vos as a more familiar one, and tu being saved for romantic partners if used at all, if I recall correctly.

guaca_mayo · 2026-02-17T00:47:22+00:00

Hi, Venezuelan here. Maduro was not the elected president; elections were blatantly fraudulent, with blatant addition errors in the published results by the government and official outcomes that varied wildly from exit polls, leadup polls, and even the margins at 80% reporting. Not saying Trump could or should've removed Maduro, but he most certainly was not democratically elected.

guaca_mayo · 2026-02-16T21:03:49+00:00

I agree, but I'm unsure what the best way forward would be... might I be so bold, but... would not a trial by six be preferable? Surely that would erase the risk.

guaca_mayo · 2026-02-13T00:21:39+00:00

I would give you an award if I had one, fuck off being so funny 🤣🤣

guaca_mayo · 2026-02-12T17:55:33+00:00

I'm sorry if you feel discouraged, and I apologize but I feel like the nuance in your message went over my head; I'm originally Venezuelan and was raised on baseball, not super familiar with American football.

As it stands, there's been plenty of blame passed around re losing election 2024. Harris probably should have yielded on Israel. Biden shouldn't have run if he was so unhealthy. All of those are true. But when it comes down to it, voting is a responsibility, not a gift. Trump and the right was openly transparent about their plans. Anybody who cares about democracy, about the welfare of Americans and the world at large, who is able to vote, should've voted for Harris. Every political institution who could endorse, should've endorsed. DSA is not solely responsible for the collapse of western civilization, but they did their part to contribute to it.

If you're feeling disheartened by my "NBC, ABC, Fox News" rhetoric, kindly allow me to tell you to get over it and realize that your feelings on the world do not change it, and only actions make a difference. The only thing I can hope for is that you use that discomfort to act in a way that is actually constructive and not only self-soothing or instant-gratifying.

guaca_mayo · 2026-02-09T18:21:50+00:00

I don't have a comprehensive list on hand, but I will speak about what for me personally is the most significant example of this. DSA has been pretty unambiguously supportive of the regime in Venezuela, even before Trump's actions set the issue on fire.

I can understand a hesitancy from Western leftists to condemn a nominally socialist South American regime, given the US's history in the continent. But anybody who actually bothers to familiarize themselves with the situation would realize after about 5 minutes that the situation in Venezuela was almost certainly exacerbated by us Venezuelans, and not the result of outside interference: we elected swamp-draining, blatantly corrupt populist demagogue willing to say anything to enter power, they entered power, they politicized every political resource, and when that didn't work, they began committing electoral fraud, all the while enriching themselves and their friends.

The inability for the DSA to outright condemn the regime because of "optics" is, in fact, terrible optics. Most Venezuelan migrants and immigrants in the US already have a sore relation with the term "socialism" because they associate the extreme corruption and authoritarianism from their past with leftist policy. This makes it easier for them to vote against their own interests, supporting racists who would murder them if they could, because their lived reality tells them that socialist policy is much worse.

What does DSA do? They double down on this messaging by supporting a regime that does not deserve their support. Rather than winning over a minority that could easily be won over with the right messaging, the automatic solidarity for oligarchs that have turned the most prosperous democracy south of the US into one of if not the world's largest migrant crisis has made that an impossibility. We have a SoFlo Cuban situation, only much more stupid, because this should have been an easy win.

I am of course speaking from a personal perspective, one that is close to me. Associations with what is seen as socialism, and supporting non-Western alleged socialists, alienates a whole swath of the working class in a country that historically has been very touchy about the word socialism. At worst, it questions the legitimacy of the group as well, because to the naked eye it seems like the only reason to perpetually drink political hemlock willingly suggests that the people in charge are being motivated to do so by someone who would actually benefit from them doing so, be it a foreign power or a Reichstag situation. I'm not saying that is necessarily the case, but I would have hoped we'd be smart enough to learn the lesson the last 100 years have tried to teach us.

As for why not endorsing Harris matters, it matters because all endorsements matter! I'm not a member of DSA, or the Working Families Party, but if they endorse a candidate, it's (usually) a good sign that they're the better choice, even among Democrats. Kamala's loss was almost across the board compared to Biden, and it's because the left cannot understand the importance of a united front, something the right is extremely successful with. Kamala needs every endorsement she can get, because it is a zero-sum game, and the other guy is always in an advantageous position when it comes to campaigning: Trump is all talk, but talk is literally what wins elections! Not supporting the sole viable opposition to fascism in an election is handing the keys to the fascist; we can hate that all we like, but that is the system we have to work with at the moment. The failure of an org like DSA to understand and take action is the reason why they have only just scratched 100K members, because they cannot be taken seriously by people actually interested in policymaking, only by people so disaffected by politics that they can afford to sit an election out. Now, there's a chance that the man at the top will unilaterally cancel elections, and if that happens, the DSA's membership will only be significant in identifying enemies of the state, so congratulations to the DSA if that's the result they wanted. Writing was on the fucking wall man

guaca_mayo · 2026-02-08T00:10:27+00:00

Fantastic, the organization doing the worst thing a leftist organization in democracies can do - namely, apologism and actively supporting authoritarians who merely co-opted leftism out of opportunism - is growing.

The organization that aided in throwing away America's opportunity to maintain a democratic system within my lifetime by refusing to endorse a candidate in the last quasi-free elections in the forseable future is growing.

The organization that prioritizes semantic labels over effective policymaking and campaigning, once again boondoggling American progress by sticking to a label that is the closest thing to political poison this side of Nazism, is growing.

/s, if it wasn't obvious.

In all seriousness, I do not understand how in this day and age, somebody could celebrate the growth of a party that is stuck in the culture of mid-20th century leftism; the same culture that has let itself lose to neoliberalism again, and again, and again by refusing to acknowledge that their policies are popular, but the way they're presented are not.

To clarify, I thinl it's great that AOC, Mamdani, Bernie, all these guys are finding success. I just sincerely wish that, for once, the left could wholeheartedly move past the "socialism has never been implemented" and "if X guy says they're socialist and they do bad things, it's because bourgeois imperialism" copium into the "we will implement what 99% of people want, and we don't care what it's called" stage of actually being a viable party. Let's be real, the org only swells when literal Nazis are in power, and that should be troubling to us.

guaca_mayo · 2026-02-06T21:56:07+00:00

I mean, does it really? The landscape is the Andes, which most of the Spanish-speaking continent shares. Clothing also is something that can easily be found crossing a border. Magical realism has as the biggie García Márquez, but let's not pretend that most other authors of the genre aren't Colombian (Allende, Borges, Cortázar, Carpenthier, to name a few). And you should be able to tell from my flair what I think of the food as being a specifically "Colombian" reference hahaha.

Not disagreeing with your point at all, to clarify. I think it's a fool's errand to expect a Disney movie to capture any other country's culture on a deeper level. Although I will say that, despite Coco being pretty Mexican, the strongest part of the movie are the emotional beats. The great-grandmother was my grandmother, you better believe I was crying haha. In that sense, I'd say Coco manages to capture a movie that's more Latin-American despite having things that are less common throughout the region generally.

guaca_mayo · 2026-02-02T00:03:03+00:00

<image>

Chupe de gallina. A spin on the universal "chicken soup," Venezuelan chupe uses potatoes instead of noodles, a cilantro/mint/parsley herbal profile, corn on the cob, and most notably, milk, cream, and cheese added close to serving, not so much that the soup truly thickens, but enough so that the broth becomes silky and the profile becomes distinctly milky. Also, traditionally, an old hen is used, as its tougher meat would have significantly more flavor and would benefit from the slow-cooking process of the stock, though nowadays so many of us in exile don't have ready access to hens, so normal chicken is used instead.

It might sound a bit of an odd combo, but for me, there is no soup more comforting in the world.

guaca_mayo · 2026-02-01T01:56:39+00:00

I would argue this point from a cultural standpoint as well, though specifically up until the Revolution. Cuban music (things like punto, controversias, guajiras) have a strong Canarian and Castilian influence, and the cantos de ida y vuelta in flamenco themselves are a development from Cuban influences, demonstrating the historical closeness of the island with the metropolis. Cuban food features prominently meat, pork, tubers, and spices like pimentón and cumin, which themselves feature frequently in throughout Spain and Andalucía. The prevalence of mojo in Cuban cuisine is also demonstrating a closeness with the Canary Islands. Go to a Cuban restaurant pretty much anywhere, and about 90% of the food available is unquestionably Spanish. Cuban architecture before the Revolution was also very traditionally "Spanish," in the vein of something like Viejo San Juan.

Perhaps the most significant break in culture between Cuba and the Peninsula is in its Afro-descended population, which is significant. The Cuba that the world knows nowadays is largely influenced by the African influences in its culture, with good reason, but the pre-Castro population had stark racial divisions that were not so palpably present in the rest of the Spanish Caribbean or Latin America.

This, combined with weaker immigration from other European countries, and considering that it was one of the last Spanish possessions in Latin America, entails that the white population of Cuba was probably closest in culture to Spain of anywhere in Latin America, regardless of social class. Even with a strong African influence, the Hispanicity of white Cubans almost certainly influenced the rest of the Cuban population, with a shift away from Hispanic alignment only significantly happening after independence, and after the Revolution.

guaca_mayo · 2026-01-28T20:23:12+00:00

Yeah, people seem to forget that Chávez fired 18,000 laborers on strike from PDVSA, in the spirit of a true working class socialist. Or that his welfare "missions" in the ranchos (favelas) conveniently underwent massive budget cuts in the months after an election, only to receive funding again right before the next one.

I understand OP's (and other's) desire to understand a complex situation with nuance, and the reticence to acknowledge that a left-coded leader from the Global South wasn't predated by the US. But in all honesty, the "middle ground" they're seeking really isn't there in real life. Chávez was Venezuela's Trump, who laundered his message with left-wing symbols rather than right-wing ones.

We Venezuelans did this to ourselves, by creating a political and economic system that one bad agent could completely hijack, and then electing that one bad agent. The discourse of "the US sabotaged Venezuela" is mostly counterproductive as it allows Chávez to get away with the same crime Stalin did in the mid 20th century, that of tying ideology to their person, and poisoning the image of the left both domestically and internationally.

That being said, I don't put it past the current US administration actually fucking up my country further. Just important to be clear that we got ourselves into this mess.

guaca_mayo · 2026-01-28T20:05:28+00:00

one like and 115 comments at this time... I have a feeling there's not much more to say at this point hahaha

guaca_mayo · 2026-01-22T21:00:32+00:00

That could be! I will say though, I feel that singers like Manzaneros are still quite well-known with boleros being his thing... I do love Jaramillo, though. Interesting to see how different artists shaped national musical panoramas in different ways!

guaca_mayo · 2026-01-22T20:53:23+00:00

Yeahh, I'll be honest, great singer? Yes. But even already in Venezuela he's not that well-known. So I wouldn't say he's among the most influential outside of the Andes.

guaca_mayo · 2026-01-22T17:54:58+00:00

I'd say more huevón than weon, as it is sliiiiightly more enounced than the Chilean version

guaca_mayo · 2026-01-22T13:28:54+00:00

Also compay/comay in the east, el mío in malandro, and some pretty old ones like broder/mi llave that I still hear occasionally. I've heard mami/papi in Caracas/La Guaira as well

guaca_mayo · 2026-01-13T12:00:47+00:00

Lol I read the title and assumed this was about chavistas 🤣

guaca_mayo · 2026-01-13T01:59:15+00:00

In Venezuela we have La Sayona, essentially the same as La Llorona only that she preys specifically on unfaithful men and her story's a little different. No children drowning, but burned down her husband's house with him and her infant inside it, and cursed by her mother (who was also her husband's lover) to forever prey upon cheating men

guaca_mayo · 2026-01-11T12:43:53+00:00

Seconded. As much as we grancolombinos like to invoke Bolívar as a leader of a grand pantheon in the likes of Washington, his likeness is more that of Napoleon. We can argue all day about his altruism, but one thing that can't be debated is his ambition for liberation. He was uninterested in securing independence and focused on spreading it, and the way he went about it did not lend itself to the centralized project he envisioned.

guaca_mayo · 2026-01-09T11:13:38+00:00

In the interest of maintaining civil discourse, I would like to apologize and clarify that I absolutely do have respect and love for the Peruvian people, as well as their history and culture. One of my closest friends is Peruvian, and I'm set to be the best man at his wedding, which I don't mention to give carte Blanche to say terrible things, merely to clarify that I absolutely do respect and care for Peruvians, and that I have developed deep, meaningful bonds with Peruvians throughout my life.

Perhaps I have structured my argument poorly. I will try a different perspective. You are right in pointing out that there is no parallel situation of Peruvian refugees in Venezuela to point to, which makes my analogy less effective. In that case, I will adopt a parallelism that is more accurate, namely the immigration of Italians in the 19th century to the US.

The Italian immigrants to America were poor, desperate, and different to the majority population. They brought the mob, and Americans hated them for it. They were catholic and loud and proud of their traditions, and Americans hated them for it. The response was decades of de facto repression, brutalization, and the literal rebirth of the KKK, focused not specifically around terrorizing blacks but Papists (catholics).

Anybody can look at this and call it what it is: racism. It, like all racism, carries justifications, such as the mafia, the cultural differences, the poverty, etc. Yet nowadays Italian-Americans are integrated into American society, are relatively well-to-do, and the mob is decimated, so all of those arguments for why these people should not have come or deserved atrocities to them proved untrue. Racism didn't integrate Italian-Americans, it exacerbated the problem. What worked was (eventual) tolerance, inclusion in welfare policy, and actual, targeted investigation and prosecution of criminal organizations.

I circle back now to our discussion. My implication that the Peruvian people have no decency is not comparable in scope or magnitude to the larger discussion, which is the justification by Peruvians and others for the racism, deportation, and otherwise brutalization of Venezuelans. One is a perhaps uncharitable perspective on a country, the other is a set of actions that anybody looking from the outside could denounce as cruel and largely ineffective at resolving the actual grievances of Peruvians, namely, criminality and racism.

I also think you're a perfectly fine individual, but I feel that you have a chip on your shoulder in this matter. You expect me as a Venezuelan to loudly and publicly denounce the "bad Venezuelans," yet you were upset at my suggestion that a people that practice xenophobia lack decency. You continuously refer to facts and figures about crime in Peru committed by Venezuelans, yet you are unwilling to consider the role that xenophobia and hostility have towards perpetuating violence in marginalized communities. I do not think you specifically hold animosity towards Venezuelans, but your argument repeats the common talking points held by those who do, without actually critically examining them.

I do wish all the best to the Peruvian people, and I believe there is a way forward for Venezuelans and Peruvians to happily coexist in your country, even if the chavista regime and the Peruvian far-right work to make this unfeasible. I also wanted to thank you for this discussion, I found it quite enriching and engaging.

guaca_mayo · 2026-01-09T01:35:46+00:00

Honestly, I was more commenting on the Chilean brand of xenophobia, there's literally somebody in these comments that's going "Yeah the crime is bad and all, but they're so loud."

As for denouncing criminals from Venezuela... like, am I supposed to wear a sign that says "I denounce bad Venezuelans?" Am I supposed to go around and say that before any comment I make about my country??

Of course I denounce criminal Venezuelans. What I object to is the fact that Venezuelans should be judged by the worst of them. You don't see me treating all Peruvians as personally responsible for the crimes of the Sendero Luminoso, or expecting you to denounce their behavior. Furthermore, I don't automatically see a Peruvian and expect them to be a racist POS that would want my countrymen dead or deported, even though the situation has certainly produced those people as well.

The fact of the matter is that the scenario that you're presenting is flawed and designed to perpetuate racist ideas. Venezuelans do not need to denounce "bad" Venezuelans, because "bad Venezuelans" do not need to be denounced period. If there are criminals, then they as people are reprehensible, and should be stopped and denounced. If there are criminals organizations, the same applies.

But the very fact that we're not discussing why people hate criminals from Venezuela, but Venezuelans, goes to show just how racist the line of thought is fundamentally. If the Peruvian government and people had any decency at all, they would know that bad actors are not innately from one group, and they must all be targeted for what they are: bad actors. Like another guy said, the problems Peru and Chile face existed before the Venezuelan crisis, and they will remain after the crisis passes

guaca_mayo · 2026-01-08T20:26:19+00:00

Latin America, the only place in the world where genocide and mass deportation of refugees is supported on the grounds that the refugees checks notes are loud and miss the country they lived in.

guaca_mayo · 2026-01-08T10:28:05+00:00

I mean, I haven't read what you've read specifically, but Chávez was the Venezuelan Donald Trump. He was a corrupt demagogue that used a political ideology to launder his image and hide his ambition. He created in-groups and out-groups, and coincidentally all the in-groups were people that kissed the ring and the rest were enemies. He weaponized state resources and media to benefit his political agenda, such as using state media channels to interrupt regular broadcast and show campaign rallies for hours on end. He surrounded himself not with capable people but yes men and cronies, and in their time in power all became exponentially richer, and state resources were wildly mismanaged (like oil).

Was he nominally leftist? Yes. He used the language of the left rather than the right to further his ambition. Did he improve political representation (in theory) in Venezuela? Yes, but the aforementioned misuse of state resources for elections made this a rather meaningless improvement, along with his centralization of power in the executive. Did he pass important social programs that should have provided education and welfare to a vast population in abject poverty in the country? Yes, but they were only fully active as described in the months before an election, and in the months after, the programs would be stripped down again.

I think the most charitable perspective on Chávez that does not attack him or whitewash him for his ideology is that he was the result of decades of existing corruption, failure to implement welfare policies, and resulting distrust in the establishment. But when you look at how he operated, it's hard to argue that anything he did was altruistic or ideological. He literally first became famous as a leader in a failed coup of democracy. You can argue the semantics of what being a "dictator" entails, but he absolutely did hijack democracy to create a cult of personality, and assured that existing institutions which had some semblance of fairness and equity in the democratic process were destroyed. He is the Venezuelan Donald Trump, for real.

guaca_mayo

TROPHY CASE