Typical Grub

Chilean cuisine has a reputation for being rather bland; spicy and hot dishes are definitely not the norm here, and most things rely heavily on salt.  Yet the best part of living in Chiloe has definitely been the food.  Due to the cold, wet climate people tend to stay indoors and eat year-round.  As opposed to the dry desert climate of the north, where meals are light and have more fruits, food in the south is greasy and heavy.  Cuts of pork and beef with lots of fat are staples at every asado (cookout), "healthy" salads are usually just lettuce doused in oil and salt, and potato-based foods are the cornerstone of southern Chilean cooking.  After all, if something is super typical of Chiloe island, you say it is "as Chilote as potatoes" and just this past weekend I went to Maullin (back on the mainland) where they celebrated their annual potato festival (Festival de la Papa).  (Check out the pictures of my dancing the cueca at the Festival!)

Julio dancing at the Festival de la Papa.

I was in Maullin this past weekend to visit my friend Julio, who is the co-regional coordinator for my program.  I visited his family once before (I wrote about it here) and they were nice enough to invite me back.  When I arrived, the small kitchen was packed with women preparing the curanto.  Curanto is probably the most well-known dish of Chilote cuisine.  It is a mix of shellfish (super popular in Chile since the whole country runs along the Pacific), meat, milcaos, and chapaleles.  Milcaos, one of my favorite foods here, are greasy pancake-like things you get by mixing shredded raw potatoes with cooked ones, along with some pig lard.  Chapaleles are Chilean dumplings are made by mixing shredded boiled potatoes with flour.

The unique thing about curanto is how it's prepared.  Each ingredient is placed separately in a big pot and each layer is separated by a pile of leaves.  In Julio's house, his mom covered the pot lid with a couple of big rocks, turning the pot into a pressure cooker.  More traditionally, curanto is prepared in a big hole in the ground.  It's just like in a pot, only everything is placed on rocks that are first heated up over a fire.

Milcao mix and sausages

Uncooked chapaleles laying on top of leaves.

Toast and Tea is Not Dinner

Although the food here is awesomely fatty and delicious, and folks in many households enjoy overdoing it, there are still some less-than-awesome things about Chilean cooking.  If you're a fan of spicy foods, you'll be disappointed.  But more importantly is how the Chileans eat.  They don't do breakfast-lunch-dinner the same as us back in the States.  Breakfast is usually small and quick before work, like in the US, but lunches are always pretty big and hot.  Everybody here seems to bring something to microwave: pasta, chicken, empanadas, etc.  Lunch is comparable to our dinners, just a bit smaller.  Sadly, dinner simply doesn't exist. Instead, folks eat once (pronounced own-say) around 6 or 7pm.  Once is always tea with lots of bread, and could include homemade jams, butter, tubed spam-like meat paste, and/or something with eggs (our house is big on scrambled eggs and onions).  It usually is delicious, especially since in the south homemade mayo and marmalade are popular, but tiny compared to a US dinner.  I'll have a couple cups of tea and like 3 pieces of bread at a time when I'm usually eating half of the Wendy's dollar menu.  However, being hungry a majority of the time at least helps balance out the lack of physical activity (due to rainy, cold weather I'm always in bed at home) and the fatty-ness of everything here.

-PM

Festival de la papa photo album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.928058406404.2435457.5321418&type=1&l=9847078de9