::[food food food]::
so my plan to diversify my parents' stay failed miserably. unsurprisingly, the dominating theme of their trip remained food. our tour of santiago took us to open markets, restaurants, and even the pacific coast. of course, this was not altogether a bad thing. our experience actually serves as a nice educational primer on chilean cuisine.
the most notable aspect our diet would have to be the approximately 17 bushels of avocados my parents consumed during their week in santiago. chile's culinary highlight, aside from its shellfish, is probably its fresh and abundant produce. my mother was a big fan of the traditional marketplaces, where vast amounts of fruits and vegetables could be purchased for hardly anything.
corn cobs, which chileans have somehow cultivated to gargantuan sizes, are big players in their diet. corn is featured in humitas (tamales), pastel de choclo (a baked corn and meat pie), and cazuela (a hearty soup). the chunk of orange squash to the left, called "zapallo", also appears in a lot in dishes. it is often mixed with meat or beans (the latter under the name "porotos," popular in their own right), or incorporated into a fried bread known as "sopaipilla".
the markets are the place to find sauces, spices, herbs, and roots. this photo was taken at one of the traveling street markets, known as "ferias", which establish themselves on different streets of the city according to the day of the week. this feria sets itself up in my neighborhood on sundays.
my parents also had their share of typical chilean seafood. for our first meal, we ordered a paila marina, a soup piled high with shellfish, including barnacles and sea urchins. as adventurous as my parents's palates are (hey, they're chinese, they'll eat pretty much anything), my dad couldn't bring himself to try the barnacles, or "picorocos". he did later try typical dishes featuring "congrio", a.k.a. conger eel, and "jaivas", a type of local crab. we even went out on a limb and bought an enormous strip of giant squid at the behest of an eager vendor at the central market, who pushed its medicinal qualities. we took it home and whipped it into an improvised stir-fry.
an enthusiastic vendor wins us over and we take home a strip of curious looking giant squid.
the crowning culinary moment, however, was during our trip to the port city of valparaiso. we parked ourselves in a restaurant along the pacific coast and feasted on abalone ("locos" in spanish) until we could feast no more. i don't know what thrilled my parents more...how succulent the locos turned out to be, or how much of a deal they were getting. abalone in chile is sold for a fraction of its price abroad...and rather than being served in paper-thin shavings, as is the custom elsewhere, they throw the whole thing at you.
a mere bite of the piles of abalone we enjoyed at caleta portales, a fun restaurant built to resemble a ship on the inside. we found the locos to be such a bargain, we didn't bother to order anything else.
but you ask: what about the chilis in chile? to the surprise of many a non-native, chileans do not call chili by the name one might assume. here, chili is called "aji." not only that, but aji isn't really used that much in chilean food! (especially in comparison to, say, mexican cuisine.) it is most commonly chopped up for "pebre", a tomato-based dip for bread. an indigenous spice known as "merquen", made of dried crushed aji, is also sometimes thrown into soups or empanadas (typical meat or cheese-filled pastries, found everywhere). beyond that, however, the uses of aji are limited.
a decieving photo, but irresistable. chilis in chile.
upon leaving, each of my parents brought home a taste of santiago. my dad packed a few bottles of chilean carmenere wine (carmenere is a grape that only grows in chile, after it was wiped out by disease in europe. chile's natural borders---the atacama desert to the north, the andes and the pacific to the east and west, and antarctica to the south---protect the country from many of the plagues that affect livestock and agriculture elsewhere). my mother, who fell in love with a popular summertime treat called "mote con huesillos"---a cold glass of barley kernels and re-dehydrated peaches floating in peach nectar---took home a couple bags of mote along with some canned locos. as for me, i'll be spending the next few months trying to eat my way through the enormous suitcase of preserved chinese food my parents brought down with them. mmmmmm...
the most notable aspect our diet would have to be the approximately 17 bushels of avocados my parents consumed during their week in santiago. chile's culinary highlight, aside from its shellfish, is probably its fresh and abundant produce. my mother was a big fan of the traditional marketplaces, where vast amounts of fruits and vegetables could be purchased for hardly anything.
corn cobs, which chileans have somehow cultivated to gargantuan sizes, are big players in their diet. corn is featured in humitas (tamales), pastel de choclo (a baked corn and meat pie), and cazuela (a hearty soup). the chunk of orange squash to the left, called "zapallo", also appears in a lot in dishes. it is often mixed with meat or beans (the latter under the name "porotos," popular in their own right), or incorporated into a fried bread known as "sopaipilla".
the markets are the place to find sauces, spices, herbs, and roots. this photo was taken at one of the traveling street markets, known as "ferias", which establish themselves on different streets of the city according to the day of the week. this feria sets itself up in my neighborhood on sundays.
my parents also had their share of typical chilean seafood. for our first meal, we ordered a paila marina, a soup piled high with shellfish, including barnacles and sea urchins. as adventurous as my parents's palates are (hey, they're chinese, they'll eat pretty much anything), my dad couldn't bring himself to try the barnacles, or "picorocos". he did later try typical dishes featuring "congrio", a.k.a. conger eel, and "jaivas", a type of local crab. we even went out on a limb and bought an enormous strip of giant squid at the behest of an eager vendor at the central market, who pushed its medicinal qualities. we took it home and whipped it into an improvised stir-fry.
an enthusiastic vendor wins us over and we take home a strip of curious looking giant squid.
the crowning culinary moment, however, was during our trip to the port city of valparaiso. we parked ourselves in a restaurant along the pacific coast and feasted on abalone ("locos" in spanish) until we could feast no more. i don't know what thrilled my parents more...how succulent the locos turned out to be, or how much of a deal they were getting. abalone in chile is sold for a fraction of its price abroad...and rather than being served in paper-thin shavings, as is the custom elsewhere, they throw the whole thing at you.
a mere bite of the piles of abalone we enjoyed at caleta portales, a fun restaurant built to resemble a ship on the inside. we found the locos to be such a bargain, we didn't bother to order anything else.
but you ask: what about the chilis in chile? to the surprise of many a non-native, chileans do not call chili by the name one might assume. here, chili is called "aji." not only that, but aji isn't really used that much in chilean food! (especially in comparison to, say, mexican cuisine.) it is most commonly chopped up for "pebre", a tomato-based dip for bread. an indigenous spice known as "merquen", made of dried crushed aji, is also sometimes thrown into soups or empanadas (typical meat or cheese-filled pastries, found everywhere). beyond that, however, the uses of aji are limited.
a decieving photo, but irresistable. chilis in chile.
upon leaving, each of my parents brought home a taste of santiago. my dad packed a few bottles of chilean carmenere wine (carmenere is a grape that only grows in chile, after it was wiped out by disease in europe. chile's natural borders---the atacama desert to the north, the andes and the pacific to the east and west, and antarctica to the south---protect the country from many of the plagues that affect livestock and agriculture elsewhere). my mother, who fell in love with a popular summertime treat called "mote con huesillos"---a cold glass of barley kernels and re-dehydrated peaches floating in peach nectar---took home a couple bags of mote along with some canned locos. as for me, i'll be spending the next few months trying to eat my way through the enormous suitcase of preserved chinese food my parents brought down with them. mmmmmm...
posted by saiph at 11:10 AM
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