New Latin Foodscape: Guaiqueri’s Venezuelan Empanadas
There are empanadas, then there are Guaiqueri empanadas, a family recipe made with corn flour from Venezuela and filled with flavors of home.
Editor’s note: This is part two of a five-part story from HONOLULU’s April issue exploring Honolulu’s new wave of Latin restaurants.
Peruvian Corner | Guaiqueri | La Casita | San Paolo Pizza & Wine | Mercado de la Raza
Launched from Spain centuries ago, empanadas crossed oceans—to Italy and North Africa, the Philippines and Indonesia. In Central and South America, where they permeate virtually every country, countless variations evolved. The big half-moons at Guaiqueri, a roving pop-up on O‘ahu, are rich and subtly flavored—exactly as Omarlys Fernandez’s grandmother made them on Isla Margarita, 25 miles off the coast of Venezuela.
Jurian Rojas and Omarlys Fernandez at Guaiqueri Empanadas. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
Venezuelan empanadas are corn flour empanadas, mixed sometimes with a bit of wheat flour to tamp down oil absorption in the fryer. Beyond that, Fernandez adds dashes of sugar and salt to the corn flour she buys from Venezuela. Her fillings vary from traditional to ham and cream cheese; chorizo yields soft notes of cinnamon and paprika, the minced beef a robust garlic. When the menu veers from empanadas, it’s because Jurian Rojas, her husband, has a new idea—like poke on arepa chips—which he debuts at the weekly Sunday Aloha Home Market in Waikīkī.
Fourteen years ago, the couple traded Isla Margarita for O‘ahu, drawn to its beauty, and compared to Venezuela, its comforts and safety. For 10 years, Fernandez taught Montessori school, then she put on an apron and dove full-time into making empanadas.
Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
The hand pies let her express a duality—her roots are Guaiqueri, the Indigenous people she named her business after, and Venezuelan. They come together in Guaiqueri’s pabellón criollos, Venezuela’s national dish of stewed beef, black beans and plantains wrapped in an empanada. The crispy-chewy crust hints at a fleeting sweetness—her grandmother’s pinch of sugar—then it’s gone like a ripple.
(808) 292-7666, guaiqueriempanadas.com, @guaiqueri_empanadas
