Vegan Vacation Part Four – Kaxapa – Best Vegan Food in Playa

Kaxapa

We finally found the wonderful vegan-friendly restaurant we were searching for on my birthday! Daylight, and having the name and address handy, sure help a lot. It was off the beaten path, but well worth the trip.  Thank you, Happy Cow! We arrived at an off-time, so we weren’t hungry for a meal, but had a chance to talk with Jadie, the owner, pictured above. She and her family are from Venezuela and are some of the most warm, friendly people you’ll ever meet.  She told us about the vegan and gluten-free options and gave us samples of amazingly fresh juices. She was very knowledgeable about vegan and gluten-free diets and told us her sister is working towards being vegan.

The next night we went back to Kaxapa (pron. Ka-shop-uh) for an incredible dinner. We ordered all three vegan, gluten-free items and shared them. It was just the right amount of food for a light dinner for both of us.

The restaurant’s namesake dish is the Kaxapa, a corn flour pancake filled with an assortment of veggies.

The pancake is nice and thick with a perfect chewy consistency.  The veggies are slightly spicy and blend perfectly together with the corn pancake.

The Arepa was a  soft, sandwich  pocket  made of  corn flour and stuffed with spiced veggies.

My favorite was the Patacon.  The “bread” is actually fried plantains. You’d never know it wasn’t made from grain. It reminded me of toasted bread – soft and starchy on the inside and crispy on the outside. The veggies were nicely spiced and I really resisted ordering second one. It was an unbelievably good sandwich!

We had a great conversation with Jadie about some ideas for vegan desserts and felt like we made some new friends.  If we didn’t have so much food left in our mini fridge at the hotel, we would have eaten there a few more times.  I’d highly recommend Kaxapa for a wonderful meal.

Thanks Jadie and family for your fantastic cooking and hospitality!!