#19 Chile
- Jen
- Jul 26, 2020
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 4, 2022
Well this is exciting! The first country in the blog that I’ve actually been to! Well, I was there for a grand total of four days and I was in San Pedro de Atacama, which is a proper tourist town in the middle of a desert so my summation that Chilean cuisine comprises of pasta and pizza might not be so accurate.
I think the only piece of first-hand experience I can bring to this blog is that Chilean empanadas are different to those in Argentina; they are massive! Chilean empanadas can be baked or fried. Fillings vary but the firm favourite is empanada de pino, which is minced beef and onion.
The Atacama desert is so cool! It’s the driest place on Earth (if you discount Antarctica), it’s boiling hot in the daytime and freezing cold at night-time, so layers are key (one day I experienced -10 at sunrise and +24 in the middle of the day), the sky is bluer than blue, it might be the best place in the world to stargaze and there are some hilarious cacti. Sorry not sorry for the holiday spam pics below!
Chilean cuisine
Chilean cuisine draws on its indigenous roots and, thanks to the European colonies, it’s strongly influenced by Spanish flavours and ingredients but also with notes of German, Italian and French.
Despite imperial Europe’s best efforts, South America has so many similarities to Europe but doesn't quite hit the nail on the head. To illustrate my point, consider the antipasti board: a wonderfully social sharing platter, full of the finest charcuterie, cheeses and other delightful accompaniments, arranged delicately to showcase each ingredient’s attributes and to entice you in, and it might look something like this:
In Chile, they have pichanga, which means “mess”. This is also a wonderfully social sharing platter, full of the finest charcuterie, cheeses and other delightful accompaniments, but here they’re all diced into bite-sized pieces and mixed up together in a single bowl, and it looks something like this:
Same same but different.
What I’m discovered in this blog is that many countries seem to have almost a national sauce that they serve with pretty much everything. Chilean salsa, which seems to be served with most things so fits the bill, is called pebre. Its constituent parts are the classic salsa ingredients: onion, tomatoes, coriander, olive oil, garlic and also hot aji peppers. Pebre is Catalan for “pepper” and, so I read, was introduced by Catalan engineers working in Santiago. I’m clearly not the first engineer obsessed with food.
A common use for pebre is accompanying sopaipillas, which are leavened and fried wheat dough morsels, a popular street food snack throughout Latin America. In Chile they add pumpkin to the dough. You could also have humitas with your pebre. These are a pre-Columbian dish that survived the Spanish takeover and made it to 2020. They’re eaten in all of the Inca places: Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and are similar to the Mexican tamales. In essence, they are a corn dough wrapped in a corn husk and boiled. In Chile, the humita dough includes onion and lard and they’re made either sweet or savoury by the addition of other flavours.
Being the longest country in the world *CORRECTION* second longest country in the world (glad I fact-checked that; Brazil is actually longer), Chile has a wildly diverse range of geography and climate, which means that agriculture, and therefore food, varies greatly between regions.
In the north, quinoa, potatoes and corn have been grown since pre-Inca times and still play a significant role in the diet today. A northerner’s traditional diet is protein-rich, with llama and alpaca being common meats. See the photo below for a llama meat skewer with his pal in the background. It was quite similar to lamb in flavour and tasted all the better for being able to see first-hand the happy, natural, organic lives the livestock get to live.
In the centre of the country, we’re on beef and chicken instead of the camelids, and this is where the wine grapes grow!
Things get a little unorthodox in southern parts of Chile. Hens lay BLUE eggs. These are the Araucana chickens, which are endemic to Chile, and (Google them) are also mighty fine-looking birds. The internet is quite critical of these hens, laying “only” three eggs a week. I don’t know about any of you ladies, but I’m definitely not up for laying any eggs a week so fair play las chicas Araucanas.
With over 6,000km of coast, there are obviously many seafood options in Chile, from conger eel soup to sea urchin. Having once stepped most unfortunately in Croatia onto a sea urchin, who sadly lost his spines in my left foot, I’m pleased to hear that the Chileans on the ball with improving the safety of their seas by removing them for consumption. They also enjoy numerous shellfish dishes in the north and lots of crab in the centre.
Scholars maintain that one of the oldest dishes in the world is the Chilean curanto from the south of the country. I’m not sure how they know this. It’s basically alllll of the food (meat, shellfish, veg, spuds) cooked in a hole in the ground, sort of Pacific island-style.
Like the neighbouring countries, Chileanos love an asado (barbeque). In my Paraguay post I did say that I would save having an asado for another time and it remains parked for now. But…I am going to make hot dogs!
El completo & sopaipillas
"El completo" is how the Chileans eat their hot dogs. They’re not even fancy: a flabby Frankfurter and a plain white mass-produced bun. Their interest lies in the toppings, which are slightly more upmarket than the American mustard and ketchup: mayo, avo, sauerkraut, pebre. Simple, fast street food.
My “complete” hot dog wasn’t completely authentic as my Helen Browning’s Organic Hot Dog was about as high-end as a hot dog sausage can be, but it was marvellous! What an excellent combination of toppings!
I had some pebre left over after the hot dogs so also made a batch of sopaipillas. I bought a tin of pureed pumpkin for this, which I think is what Americans refer to as ‘pie filling’, something that I have always wondered what on earth it is. They were a bit dense, which I attribute to insufficient use of baking powder, and under-seasoned but nice and crisp on the outside with a lovey pumpkiny flavour. I bet they would be proper comfort food on a cold day if made by someone who knew what they were doing.
Bebidas (drinks)
The local beer is Escudo. It comes in gigantic bottles, so you’re supposed to share one with your buddy, and it’s best enjoyed whilst watching a Chilean team in the Copa Libatadores because the fans are mental and it will be an absolute hoot.
The Spaniards got grapevines planted when they arrived and what a good idea that was! Chile is the 7th largest national producer of wine in the world! I opted for a standard supermarket “£1.50 off” Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon to accompany my hot dog.
I’ve had a blast in Chile but it’s time to don my face mask and fly to...UKRAINE.
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