Food

People often ask me what the food is like in Chile - what is different and what do I miss. Saving what I crave for another post, I will focus on some of the foods that I'm going to be very sorry to have to say goodbye to.

Sopaipilla

Sopaipillas

A circle of deep-fried filo pastry made with courgette and served with pebre - a hot salsa of garlic, tomato, onion and herbs. A lady sells them on our street during the evening commute home and Carlos and I have become thoroughly addicted to them. They are so tasty!

Alfajores

Alfajores

Chileans know how to do sugar and the alfajor is no exception. Two layers of very crumbly biscuit are stuck together with manjar and covered in chocolate or icing sugar. Manjar or dulce de leche is a thick, sticky mixture of evaporated milk and sugar. Ubiquitous in Chile, just imagine any pudding or cake, stick manjar in it, and you have a Chilean postre (dessert).

Asado

Choripanes

I have written about the delights of the asado before but I had to give it a mention here. Asado translates as barbecue but it is essentially a meat feast, washed down with lashings of red wine. The staple food is a choripan - a hotdog made from a chorizo or longaniza spicy sausage within a marraqueta, a type of bread that handily breaks down into two or four hotdog-sized rolls. When we can't get out on the roof to the quincho (barbecue range) Carlos and I have taken to having oven-baked asados on a weekend instead.

Sushi

By far the most common form of fast food here (apart from the completo) is sushi. Amazing as it sounds, particularly as there is almost no Japanese community here in Chile, sushi restaurants can be found on practically every street in Santiago. I'd read a lot about the Chilean twist on sushi, which was that it is unusually laced with cream cheese and avocado (see below). I had my first sushi experience last night and found it all pretty yummy.

Completo

Completo

Whisper this quietly, but I am not a big fan of the completo. However, I could not write a post about Chilean food without mentioning it. The completo is a frankfurter-style hotdog, slathered in tomatoes, avocado and mayonnaise. Tomato and avocado are a staple part of the diet here - no meal is complete without them. I've tried and failed with the completo (probably something to do with the fact that I'm not a fan of frankfurters, mayonnaise or fresh tomatoes!) and am admitting defeat on this one.

Pisco sour

Pisco sours

Not a food as such, but I'm developing a weakness for Chile's national drink. Pisco is a super-strong liquor but the 'sour' (lemon or lime juice) makes it wonderfully refreshing. A foamy top is made from egg white and then completed with a dash of orange-coloured bitters (thanks Wikipedia for that information).

With all that talk of my favourite Chilean foods I'm now salivating with hunger; if only the sopaipilla lady was there on a Sunday afternoon!