During our three weeks in Chile, we didn't feel like the food was all that impressive. There's a LOT of meat. Meat sandwiches, hot dogs, steaks, slabs of meat served with chips, more meat sandwiches. Not used to this amount of meat, my stomach was confused for a while, and it probably would have given up entirely if it wasn't for the fact that quite often we were able to buy great fresh fruit & veg from markets and supermarkets, and cook our own meals. On the whole, Chilean food didn't really seem very exciting.
But thinking back, I can actually come up with a surprisingly large number of great food experiences (although admittedly most of them do involve meat in some shape or form).
This one's written with the help of my beautiful assistant, Karl.
Pork & bean stew – A big, hearty bowl of bean stew, with chunks of pork and pumpkin, and a delicious spicy sausage. Possibly one of my favourite things in Chile, and something I'd like to recreate when I get home. In fact, I wish more of the food in Chile had been like this.
Karl's Chilli con carne – the markets and butchers in Chile were pretty good, and the hostels we stayed in often had a kitchen. After using our newly-learned Spanish to buy good quality minced meat and smoky, spicy dried chillies, Karl whipped up the best chilli I've ever had. He normally makes a pretty mean chilli anyway (no, I'm not sure how food can be mean either) but he outdid himself here.
This is actually a chilli con carne that Karl made later in Argentina,
where we took the leftovers as picnic food with crusty bread. But you get the idea.
Avocados – I often find avocados at home quite disappointing – they're never ripe enough. But here they were perfect. So good, in fact, that we had at least one a day. Karl made a tasty improvised guacamole to go with our chilli. Avocados are now Karl's new favourite non-fruity fruit. By the way, did you know that the word 'avocado' comes from the Incan word for testicles. Surely they could've come up with something less unsavoury!
Pasta with chorizo, asparagus & olives – When it was my turn to cook dinner, I whipped up a pasta dish with some chorizo, asparagus and olives – three ingredients that are normally expensive at home, but were really cheap and delicious in Chilean supermarkets and helped make a simple meal really excellent.
Chilean wine – We drank far too much of this. After a couple of weeks we realised we'd been averaging about a bottle every other day. Sometimes every day! It's just so good, and a bottle of decent red wine only cost about 1.50pound. Plus they have a really nice Chilean grape variety called the Carmenere which isn't grown anywhere else.
Pisco Sours – Pisco is a traditional Chilean and Peruvian liquour, kind of like whiskey. On it's own it tastes like weak whiskey (not particularly great) , but it's great in a pisco sour which is made with pisco, lemon juice, sugar and (if you want) frothy egg white.
Empanadas (Karl) – Like little pasties you would find at home, but filled like a pizza. They come either baked or deep fried.
Sometimes they were sold as street food, where they were hollow and deep fried, which were surprisingly delicious and simple. Best served with homemade chilli sauce. During our Pachamama tour of Chile, we stopped at Empanadopolis - aka the best empanada place in the southern hemisphere, probably northern too. Mine was called “something something dragon” and was spicy beef in a tasty gravy. Sheena had “meat”, egg and olive which was also very good but she probably still had food envy.
Cazuela – A meat broth with rice, a nice chunk of meat, potato, pumpkin and corn on the cob. We had this first at a service station in the middle of the Atacama Dessert with our tour group, and looked out for it whenever we could afterwards.
Pastel de choclo – This ceviche was the starter of a three course set meal I had ordered. The main was Pastel de Choclo, which is like a South American version of Shepherd's pie I guess. A delicious minced meat & vegetable sauce, topped with mashed sweetcorn and baked.
Pachamama BBQ – On day two of the trip, we all chipped in and paid for a massive BBQ. Chorizo sausage, chicken, steak, BBQ'd vegetables, salsa, salad, bread rolls. So much food that we only managed to finish half. The leftovers made for great packed lunches the next day though.
Churros with dulce de leche – Mmmmmmmmmm. So we were in a city called Antafogasta which is fairly grim and noisy and grotty. Walking home from the supermarket discussing what a shithole the place was, we came across a stall selling churros which is a sweet batter that has been deep fried.
It tastes a bit like doughnuts. You can have them as they are, fresh and hot from the fryer. OR (and personally I don't see how or why you would turn down this option) you can have it filled with dulce de leche. If you haven't had it before, it's something along the lines of caramel, toffee and butterscotch.
I could easily eat a deep fat fryers worth of these and get extremely fat. And then eat some more. And I don't even have much of a sweet tooth.
Completos (Karl) – Hot dog, ketchup, mayo and mashed avocado. I could eat about 15 of these if Sheena wasn't monitoring my intake. Chilean fast-food revolves around them, and two with a drink to share only cost about 1.50. In Chile you could order almost anything with the same combo of ketchup, mayo and avocado. Probably even dog food. It's called an Italiano, and is best in some form of sandwich.
Worst Eat (of our entire trip!!)
Karl says: Sheena and I went out for a nice meal on our last night in Santiago. We were going to “splash out” and treat ourselves, at least as much as you can do on a dwindling backpacker budget. We chose somewhere we had been before, where the food had been plentiful (we barely finished half) and the wine delicious (we finished it all).
Sheena ordered pork ribs, which she barely made a dent in (portions here are massive, and consist mainly of meat). I was feeling a little more adventurous and ordered “Cow's Hoof with onions, salt, lemon and coriander” on Sheena's recommendation.
The waitress, repeatedly asked Sheena if I was sane and knew what I was ordering. Of course I did, do I look like I don't? I can assure you I have done this many times before thank you very much.
It was absolutely disgusting and stone cold. Small square pieces of translucent gelatinous weird stuff, with the odd coarse dark hair protruding from each. It was topped with raw onions, a sprinkling of coriander and no lemon to my recollection.
Appetising, my foot!
I gave it a good go, not wanting to seem like I didn't know what the hell I was doing, and even convinced Sheena it was ok. But I eventually gave up feeling a little peakish and dove into Sheena's food instead. Between the two of us, we still didn't manage to finish off her portion.
We had a good laugh with the waitress when it was time to collect the dishes, mine almost untouched. But at least the wine was good. And we left her a good tip, at-least she tried to warn us.
Sheena says: I felt so bad when the waitress served up Karl's dinner, especially because I was the one who had pointed it out on the menu after noticing that it had some of his favourite ingredients (lemon & coriander). I suggested sending it back and ordering something else, but he was such a good sport and tucked into it with an impressive amount of enthusiasm. I would've been convinced that he liked it if the meat hadn't been hairy. A few mouthfuls later he was looking almost as grey as the hoof meat, and finally agreed to help me with my enormous slab of pork ribs. Just looking at the picture now makes me feel a bit queasy.
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