Food!

This is an old post that I wrote but never published so I'm posting it now for myself.  Great food photos below bring back nice memories!

I'm enjoying trying new foods here and have had some outstanding meals and some familiar meals just like I would have at home.  I'm surprised that they eat so much wheat here.  There are bakeries with fresh breads and pastries everywhere!  Lots of empanadas and hot dogs too.   

 

We ate so much fresh seafood last weekend on the coast! We saw much of the fish and shellfish fresh on the docks and in the mercados.  It was my first time to eat Machas a la Parmesana.  These are pink clams native to Chile that sit in half their shell and are covered with parmesan and baked.  They are delicious!  I also tried locos, which are a Chilean abalone (or so a website says).  It´s a huge shellfish that tastes a lot like scallops and I´ve never seen anything like it.  You cover them with salt, lemon, and onion salsa and eat. Yum!  Que rico! See picture below with 3 on the plate.

Salmon and many types of fish are common and delicious.  It is difficult to order from a menu because we don't know their names for meats and fish.  Potato puree' is mashed potatoes and papa myo is potato salad.  They usually have mayonnaise,  lemons, and some type of salsa with every meal - and Chilean wine.  Another typical food I ate is pastel de choclo (corn).  It's baked in a round pottery bowl and  has an egg,  a hidden green olive, and a piece of chicken inside and is topped with a sweet cornmeal cake.  Love it!

I also ate a soup and a platter of a variety of shellfish including shrimp, crab claws, scallops, calimari, and other things that I didn´t recognize but it´s all good!  And it was my first time to try Chorillana, which is common and traditional.  It´s meant to be shared and is a big platter of french fries and on top is meat (chorizo and beef), fried onions, and some fried egg.  It´s greasy but good and everyone just digs in with a fork.

Other popular foods - salads of tomato, onion, fresh corn, lettuce, carrots.  Canned sardines come in a variety of flavors and are good.  We drove back to Santiago through a town known for olives and tuna (not the fish).  It´s very dry there so there are miles of olive trees and you buy big scoops of black and green olives at roadside stands.  And tuna is a fruit from a huge cactus.  The fruit is round, about the size of a pear and you peel and eat.  It´s green and very sweet.  A favorite fruit in Chile is Chirimoya, which is only available for about 3 months  and it´s now!  The fruit is large, green, and hard and inside with big seeds but a sweet creamy fruit.  

Another first was Manja - which is very sweet creamy goo made from boiling milk and sugar into a paste.  It is pictured below as darker layers in a layered pastry and a cortado (espresso cut with milk).  

Other faves here - everyone drinks Chilean wine often and they believe it is the best.  I´m becoming a fan of wine.  The pisco sour is a drink made with pisco (which is something made from grapes grown here), lemon juice, sugar, and some frothy egg white.  It´s my favorite.  

Another common drink is a Terremoto (earthquake) that I tried this weekend at a bar called El Piojero - filled with young people.   It is a form of early white wine  poured over pineapple ice cream and a splash of grenadine. Everyone says to stop at one or your head will feel the terrremoto, so I had less than one.  They go down very easy.  A coffee in a little cafe is good but they are small.  People drink Nescafe instant a lot and the nearby OK market (just like 7-11) has a machine with Nescafe unsweetened latte that I enjoy every morning.

Grocery stores are large and have everything we have and things we don't have.  I've enjoyed shopping and have cooked a few times too.  you can also find everything in big outdoor markets. Restaurants usually offer ceviche on the menu and there's always lots of outdoor seating.   Chinese restaurants and sushi are common but friends say it's not like what we know.  The sushi often has cream cheese in it!  There are many food vendors on the streets too but the only thing I've tried is nuts.  I think there will be more interesting food in my future here in Chile. 

Enjoy some photos I took!