I just moved back home to Oregon, USA with my husband Carlos and could not be happier or more unemployed :) While we complete his visa process and I look for jobs we are enjoying spending time with family, friends, living with my grandma and getting reacquainted with Oregon.... full info
PIsco Sour-the national drink of ChileAmericans, I want to introduce you to pisco. Pisco is made from a grape called the Quebranta which produces a pure, highly potent, aromatic brandy. One of the traditional drinks here in Chile is 'pisco', mixed with egg white, lemon juice and sugar to make a 'pisco sour.' These tastes somewhat similiar to a tart margarita but with a much more powerful punch. You have to be careful with these. They can leave you down and out the next day. Foreigners often find this out the hard way and don´t head the Chileans caution.
A ¨schop¨ is a draft beer. My spanish teacher in Santiago introduced us to the FanSchop. This is draft beer mixed with Fanta (orange soda). I know is sounds ridiculous but it isn´t that bad at all.
Chileans guzzle ¨bebidas¨ (soft drinks) like it is going out of style. Coca-Cola rules the market down here. They also drink a lot of Sprite, or the country's own Biltz and Pap brand. My family ALWAYS drinks juice(aka Koolaid) or soda at meals. I bring my Nalgene bottle with water to the table and they ask me if I want a drink. I tell them no thanks, I have water and they tell me, No, do you want a drink? It is as if they don´t consider water as something you would consume as a beverage...strange!
Pastel de ChocloPastel de Choclo is a corn mash casserole. It uses cornmeal and pieces of corn mixed with onion and sometimes ground beef. There is always a little suprise baked into the middle...a whole olive, pit and all. You have to be careful you don´t bite into it without knowing. Also there is a sliced, hard-boiled egg too. I tried it at a restaurant but the texture doesn´t really float my boat.
Mote con HuesilloThis is a very tradicional dessert/snack. I wish it was a better picture but I couldn´t find any on the Internet. This description just doesn´t paint a good enough mental picture. It is called ¨mote con huesillo¨, which is dried peaches soaked in a light syrup and served over barley grain. In all reality the first time I tried this I thought the peaches looked like a small preserved brain, like the one you saw in your junior high science class that had been on the shelf since the 1930´s. Yeah, like that. Yuck! If you can just close your eyes and eat it it i s tolerable...not good, but bareable. The barley in the peach juice is an odd combination. I will always try something at least once. I have tried Mote and 1 time was enough.
Lomo a la PobreLomo a lo Pobre is a very simple, standard dish at restaurants. It is usually a fried piece of pork with egg and french fries. Chileans love french fries. They try and serve them with every meal! :) Pobre means ´poor´in spanish so I think this dish was kind of like the poor mans meal in the olden days. Good for my pocket book but not good for my arteries. I can actually hear them clogging when I eat this stuff :P
