La Latina, Chatswood

Excluding Salsa's in the Chatswood Chase food court, La Latina is probably the only Latin American eatery around the area. It's a welcome change, with its focus on crunchy corn pockets (arepas) and Colombian coffee. It also sells a variety of South American products, including pepper pastes, chilli sauces, grains (e.g. Bolivian quinoa) and frozen pre-mix smoothies in exotic flavours like lulo, a citrus fruit, and feijoa (also referred to as 'pineapple guava').

Sauces and salsas for sale

The coffee's not bad - Colombian coffee beans, not too milky, not too watery :)

Flat white

I also liked the mango smoothie, but it came with a normal straw, which wasn't practical for this particular drink. It was so thick that I had to drink straight from the glass.

Mango smoothie ($5.00)

The arepas have an addictive light crunch, but they're also quite dense, heavy and a tad overpowering. This is easily overcome by adding hot sauce (see below). It's actually quite magical as the spiciness somehow draws out the flavours of each ingredient and takes the emphasis away from the starchy corn bread. The fillings range from pork and beef to vegetarian. The Boy and I picked similar fillings - chorizo and the "Monster" (containing the whole works - beef, shredded pork, chorizo, sour cream and cheese).

It wasn't love at first bite, but these corn pockets really grew on me. Keen to return to taste the lulo and feijoa smoothies!

"Monster" Arepas ($10.00)

Hot sauce

Chorizo Arepas ($9.00) + Guacamole ($1.00)