Some notes on Chilean cuisine…
Mayonnaise goes with everything. A standard snack is a “Completo”: one very mild almost tasteless hot dog, steamed or microwaved rather than grilled; Wonder Bread-style bun, microwaved for warmth, chopped tomatoes; onions or sauerkraut; avocado spread; a copious quantity of mayo spread over the top. A “Cesar Salad” at a fancy restaurant: iceberg lettuce; shreds of local Parmesan cheese; lots of mayo.
What you order is what you get. If the menu says “lettuce and tomato salad” you get a plate of lettuce, almost invariably iceberg, and tomato. No garnish. No spices. No dressings or sauces.
Canned fruit salad is good for everything from the breakfast buffet at a top hotel to part of an ice cream dessert.
Corn chips and salsa are almost impossible to find. An enormous Lider supermarket in La Serena had a few bags in the bottom of a small “international food” section.
“Chilean sea bass” is not available in Chile. It would be called “Bacalao” (cod) on a restaurant menu, supposedly, but nearly all of the Patagonian Toothfish steaks are exported to the U.S. or Europe.
Local seafood can be very good. It is generally available in a tasty soup, plain, or smothered in a heavy cream sauce.
Best meals so far… (1) a chic 6-table pasta place in Valparaiso, (2) the cafeteria at the lodge at Las Campanas Astronomical Observatory (lots of spices and veggies for the Americans observing there), (3) steamed shellfish in Achao, part of Chiloe in southern Chile
Just about every meal is served in a stylish environment by friendly and attentive staff.
There is much more to Chilean food.
You have been looking for the Chilean version
of American food !!!
Go for the traditional, the local, the authentic, it worth it.
For example, it will be a shame to leave Chile without trying:
HUMITAS -A corn mixture wrapped in corn leaves
and broiled or boiled. There are different versions, one spicier than the other, but always delicious.
EMPANADAS- Freshly baked, filled with ground beef, hard boiled eggs, olives and raisins,(this filling is called PINO) they smell and taste wonderful
PASTEL DE CHOCLO- (Corn pie)
Prepared in individual clay dishes, consists of layers of creamy corn , and “PINO”, the juicy ground beef mixture of the EMPANADAS.
Sometimes the PASTEL DE CHOCLO is prepared also with chicken instead or besides the beef.
It is baked in the oven so the top layer of corn becomes a golden crust. HUUUUUMMMM…
CASUELA Is the clasical Chilean soup
Everything goes inside, pieces of beef, corn, potatoes, pumpkin, and other vegetables.
A full meal in one plate.
BISTEC A LO POBRE. “Poor man steak”
This is a steak served with all the trimmings, including 2 sunny-side up eggs on the top, potatoes, etc.
PASTELES CHILENOS. Sweets cakes that you will see only in Chile. There are many different kinds, the most typical are the ALFAJORES, a sandwich of butter cookies with MANJAR BLANCO
(or DULCE DE LECHE as is called in Argentina)
in the middle and ground coconut, or
EMPOLVADOS, soft spongy cookies also with MANJAR BLANCO in the middle, and all kind of cookies covered with a kind of merengue (baked egg whites)
also a cake named MIL HOJAS (thousand leaves)
very thin layers of batter with MANJAR BLANCO
(yes, MANJAR BLANCO is a big thing there)
This is only for beginnings, of course we didn’t covered the sea food like ERIZOS, or JAIVAS (a small local lobster)etc.
I wish you well and a very nice visit to Chile. I am a Chilean that lives far away and wish I could also be there for a while.
Will we be seing some pictures from the South of Chile?
A word of caution:
I’m not speaking of Chile in particular but in most of Latin America you should be careful when eating lettuce unless you are certain it has been washed properly with a disinfectant (usually a dilute bleach solution). Otherwise, you have a high likelyhood of coming home with some intestinal buddies that will cause a significant amount of pain and possible permanent tissue damage.
The other distressing thing about Chilean cuisine is their tendency to take great fish, and fry it. The best meals seem to be in those areas that cater more to international tastes; my best meal there was in San Pedro de Atacama in the northern desert. The food in and around Valpo was okay, but nothing special.
National Car Rental
Gem Drop