My son’s school is having some kind of multicultural night, and his class has been assigned Venezuela and Paraguay as far as what dishes for parents to bring.
I’m not too familiar with either country’s cuisine, to be honest, and googling isn’t super helpful as to what would be reasonably authentic without being a colossal amount of work, or not really appropriate for buffet-style service.
Anyone have any suggestions as to reasonably easy dishes that are representative of the cuisine of either country, and buffet friendly?
Empanadas are pretty easy and very buffet-friendly. You could do some with just cheese, or with beef, or even plantain. Goya makes frozen empanada crusts (discos) that work well, or you could cut your own pastry into rounds for them.
Tequeños are cheese sticks wrapped in pastry and either fried or baked, and served with dipping sauces. (Generally, you want a salty white cheese for this.) Again, easy to put on a buffet, and ought to go over well with kids.
Arepa, which is kind of like a cornmeal pita, generally stuffed with various savory things, is often cited as a very Venezuelan dish, and it would work well on a buffet. It’s probably more trouble to make than you want to go for, though.
Personally, I would make several kinds of empanadas and some fried, caramelized plantains. (You can’t go wrong with fried plantains as a side for everything, IMHO.) Quick, easy, and likely to be popular.