Venezuelan Food so far

So I´ve been trying to sample the different foods typical of Venezuela, and here´s what I´ve found so far. I have been staying in the mountains mostly so my experiences admittedly are limited, and I hope there is better food to be found else where. Food doesn´t seem to be at the top of the cultural list here (although that´s a bit rich coming from an English guy), I think it links back to that lack of sophistication thing. Anyway, here´s whats gone down my throat so far:

Empanadas
They are essentially a stuffed deep fried corn flour dough, tenuously ressembly Cornish Pasties, but in Venezuela at the least, they are not so good. There is a standard selection here: chicken, meat, cheese, vegetable. They are partly let down by the fillings (the cheese is more like a piece of chewing gum that´s been chewed for two hours; tastless and pointless), and partly by the over greasy deep fried casing.

Arepas
These are like smallish looking but thick pancake things, but made out of maize or wheat. They seem to be the most common and most typical food of Venezuela. Everyone eats them for at least one meal a day, and if they´re unlucky, two. I spoke to a guy the other day who was proud to tell me he ate them 3 times a day. In a nutshell they are dry and tasteless, so its up to the filling to save them... which is the problem. The family I´m staying with take them with ham and an excuse for cheese, and sometimes for a real treat sometimes they add a bit of margarine. If all of these fillings were of a decent quality, and the whole thing was cooked properly, then they might be edible. I´ve had them with avocado and salad which was bearable, but still not worth eating everyday.

Churros
These apparently originated in Portugual and Spain, which might explain why they taste so good. They are like little sausage shaped deep fried dough things, with sugar sprinkled over them. They are a great when dunked in a Chocolate Espeso, which seems to be just melted chocolate in a cup. Divine.

Jugos Naturales
Fruit juice made from fresh fruit in front of you. You can usually choose from orange, pineapple, mango, strawberry.... A great chaser to a nice strong coffee.

Meat Dishes
Disappointing. Stake knives here should come with a battery in them and a small motor to help you cut them. I´m sure there must be good stake some where, I just haven´t found it here yet. The most interesting meet dish I´ve had, was a stake with a dark sauce with bits of strawberry and peach in, sounds odd, but tasted interestingly good.

Chicken Dishes
Quite literally nothing to write home about, so I won´t.

Fish
I´ll wait until I get nearer to the coast before I tell you how below average the trout dishes in the Andes are.

Soups
One of the dishes that are done reliably well here. Always with coriander, and usually with potatoes, vegetables and sometimes stewed meat in. Nothing drastically different from an English vegetable soup, but the coriander gives it a nice twist, and its a reliably good choice wherever you´re eating.

Pasteles (Pastries)
You can find some great pastries in some of the cafés here; usually covered in sugar, you can find them with different jams in (guayaba, strawberry), or pieces of different fruits. A great accompaniment to a coffee...

Coffee
Hit and miss. If you miss, you get an overpriced cup of instant. If you hit, you get a big hit of caffeine. The coffee is nice and strong here, you can get either a generous sized espresso or a large sized espresso, which is the size of an average cup, which results in a great caffeine rush. Qué Bueno.