The weekend brings trucks filled with aromatic goods to Ash Street. Cartons of heirloom tomatoes, farm-raised eggs and fresh baked goods make their way to decorated booths in the Columbia Farmers Market. This year, a new item has made its debut: polvorosas prepared by artist and chef Cristina Nunez.
Nunez originates from Venezuela but moved to Columbia to be closer to her family. She spent her time painting at a studio downtown and getting involved with CoMo Cooks, a shared kitchen space for the Columbia community located just next door. There, she met the owner of an empanada booth at the farmers market.
“I started helping her and going to the kitchen to bake her empanadas and everything, and I just fell in love with it,” Nunez said.
When her friend moved away, she asked Nunez to help run the empanada booth. And thus, she started an adventure to develop the perfect recipe for what the weekend crowd of Columbia has come to love: her savory take on polvorosas, a meat-filled Venezuelan snack.
Nunez combined her traditional family recipe with new ideas to create a different variation of the meat pie, including cheese and vegetarian options.
“It’s like an old-fashioned recipe, the chicken one, but I try to do a different kind with a twist – so I make the beef and the chickpea and spinach,” Nunez said.
She prepares the polvorosas carefully, assembling the filling and dough with hours of effort. She then disperses them into colorful cups and lets them bake.
Her booth doesn’t just showcase the polvorosas, empanadas and coconut pearls, but it also frames her line art painted in watercolors. Nunez spent long hours of her childhood in Venezuela with a paintbrush, studying art there and later in China and South Korea. Through selling her artworks at the booth, she combines her long-time passion for art with her newfound love of cooking.
Setting up her booth at the farmers market and seeing people come back to try her food week after week is Nunez’s favorite part. Feeling welcomed into the community through this endeavor is something that took her by complete surprise and was an added bonus to her experience.
