When someone says "Chile" is the first thing you think "oh they have fantastic food there?" After spending 2 days here you will know that the food is not fantastic. Don't get me wrong I've had some incredible dishes, but overall the food here is either full of sodium and oil, or bland. I bet you didn't know that Chile is the second largest consumer in the world behind Germany. The average Chilean eats 90 kilos of bread per year. That's about 180 loaves of bread a year! The bread isn't thick and hearty bread either, it's plain and simple white bread. Fortunately my family knows that I don't really eat bread and my host mom even bought wheat pitas and whole wheat crackers for me.
Chileans love......MAYONNAISE! Chile is the third largest consumer per capita of mayo in the world. It became widely accessible in the 1980s and they haven't stopped eating it since. They put this egg yolk-oil-vinager-thick-white stuff on just about everything..... from corn to hot dogs, potatoes to rice. I always give my host dad a hard time when he puts mayo on his artichokes or on his chicken. He says it's normal and similar to americans eating ketchup, but we don't usually put ketchup on our vegetables (except potatoes) or on grains!
Baking-last week some of my friends and I really wanted to bake cookies. We went to the Lider (owned by Walmart) thinking they would have every ingredient we needed. After all it is Walmart right? Well we wandered around for almost an hour trying to figure out what all we needed. We found a tiny bag of chocolate chips that were $5USD so we smashed candy bars instead, the jar of Great Value peanut butter was almost $6USD, brown sugar which wasn't refined and some sort of baking powder or soda. I pulled out a spanish dictionary and asked a worker if they had "baking soda" and he was incredibly confused. Nonetheless we made the cookies after my host mom had baking soda which comes in a circular container. They were delicious and my host family couldn't get enough of them.
Every morning I walk out my bedroom and there is a bowl of fruit-banana, kiwi, pear, and apple some incredibly liquidy yogurt and brain flakes. I enjoy it every time! We always have so much fruit in our house. I think I eat at least 4 clementines a day even after sharing some with my friends.
Lunch is the biggest meal in Chile and on weekends is usually enjoyed for hours with multiple courses. There are microwaves at school so people usually heat up their lunch.
Completos- a version of a hot dog that is topped with tomatoes, half an inch of mashed avocado and another inch of mayo. They can't get enough of them here. Every street vendor and restaurant advertises them.
Empanadas- this weekend in Pomaire the boys each got a kilo empanada which, like the name suggests was a whole kilo worth of meat inside the empanada. At one point Mark pulled out a whole chicken drumstick. There were eggs, chicken, beef, onions and who knows what else inside. It was like a treasure chest.
Ensalada- Salad here consists of shredded ice berg lettuce, tomatoes and occasionally a cucumber. No such thing as salad dressing here- only oil and vinegar and salt.
Instant coffee is a staple here. Put a little Nescafe in your cup with some hot water and you're set. Chileans also really enjoy their tea or Mate. I personally like none of those, but I do like hot chocolate. It's great to have at home because when you buy it at as restaurant it's $4USD a cup.
Overall I consider myself fortunate with my food situation...some of my friends have plain pasta with no sauce and a hot dog for dinner or lentils with a hot dog on top. My favorite meal here was tacos with all the fixings, potato chips with guac and ice cream for dessert!
Chileans love......MAYONNAISE! Chile is the third largest consumer per capita of mayo in the world. It became widely accessible in the 1980s and they haven't stopped eating it since. They put this egg yolk-oil-vinager-thick-white stuff on just about everything..... from corn to hot dogs, potatoes to rice. I always give my host dad a hard time when he puts mayo on his artichokes or on his chicken. He says it's normal and similar to americans eating ketchup, but we don't usually put ketchup on our vegetables (except potatoes) or on grains!
Baking-last week some of my friends and I really wanted to bake cookies. We went to the Lider (owned by Walmart) thinking they would have every ingredient we needed. After all it is Walmart right? Well we wandered around for almost an hour trying to figure out what all we needed. We found a tiny bag of chocolate chips that were $5USD so we smashed candy bars instead, the jar of Great Value peanut butter was almost $6USD, brown sugar which wasn't refined and some sort of baking powder or soda. I pulled out a spanish dictionary and asked a worker if they had "baking soda" and he was incredibly confused. Nonetheless we made the cookies after my host mom had baking soda which comes in a circular container. They were delicious and my host family couldn't get enough of them.
Every morning I walk out my bedroom and there is a bowl of fruit-banana, kiwi, pear, and apple some incredibly liquidy yogurt and brain flakes. I enjoy it every time! We always have so much fruit in our house. I think I eat at least 4 clementines a day even after sharing some with my friends.
Lunch is the biggest meal in Chile and on weekends is usually enjoyed for hours with multiple courses. There are microwaves at school so people usually heat up their lunch.
Completos- a version of a hot dog that is topped with tomatoes, half an inch of mashed avocado and another inch of mayo. They can't get enough of them here. Every street vendor and restaurant advertises them.
Empanadas- this weekend in Pomaire the boys each got a kilo empanada which, like the name suggests was a whole kilo worth of meat inside the empanada. At one point Mark pulled out a whole chicken drumstick. There were eggs, chicken, beef, onions and who knows what else inside. It was like a treasure chest.
Ensalada- Salad here consists of shredded ice berg lettuce, tomatoes and occasionally a cucumber. No such thing as salad dressing here- only oil and vinegar and salt.
Instant coffee is a staple here. Put a little Nescafe in your cup with some hot water and you're set. Chileans also really enjoy their tea or Mate. I personally like none of those, but I do like hot chocolate. It's great to have at home because when you buy it at as restaurant it's $4USD a cup.
Overall I consider myself fortunate with my food situation...some of my friends have plain pasta with no sauce and a hot dog for dinner or lentils with a hot dog on top. My favorite meal here was tacos with all the fixings, potato chips with guac and ice cream for dessert!
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| Avocado with egg salad |
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| Peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough |
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| vegetable soup |
 |
| chicken, eggs, and potato balls |
 |
| completo |
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