Food

Whereas most of this blog is in chronological order, I'm taking a break from the Bolivia posts and making this post about some of the food we had on this trip.

Featured here is one of the most popular foods in Chile, empanadas. These are smaller fried empanadas de queso (cheese empanadas). For the North American audience you can think of empanadas like hot pockets, only some are oven baked and some are fried. Pretty much every country in South America has it's own version of empanadas. Also shown here is freshly made cantaloupe and watermelon juice.

Here is something that is purely Chilean: Mote con Huesillo! It's a sweet drink/dessert made from sun-dried peaches that have been reconstituted in water with sugar and had mote (husked wheat) added. These are served chilled in the summer time and are so good.


Kuchen, which is a German word for cake is hugely popular in Chile especially in the south where large populations of Germans immigrated. This one was home made by the people who rented us the cabin in Pucón, and stuffed with local grown blackberries.
Ah umitas! For those of you from New Mexico I can most closely relate these to tamales, but they are different. They seem to be made from corn meal and freshly mashed corn along with various other ingredients, most commonly including zucchini. All of this is wrapped in the corn husks and then tied together by strings.
Porotos Granados con Pebre, or Select Beans with Pebre sauce, is the name given to this dish. As far as I know any soup made with porotos (common beans) as it's main ingredient can be called porotos granados, it also commonly uses a squash like winter squash or pumpkin. Pebre is a sauce made from oil, vinegar, water, onion, cilantro, jalapeño and ground aji pepper.


Salsa that was served with fried empanadas de queso.
More empanadas de queso, any one hungry yet?


Some deserts we picked up from a sweet shop in downtown Santiago. These are like cookies sandwiched together with manjar (similar to dulce de leche or caramel) and sprinkled with shredded coconut.
More sweets.
Freshly picked Almonds from our portion of an old Almond farm in Pirque just outside Santiago.

I've already made comments about how expensive things were in San Pedro de Atacama. While the cost of food is expensive you do get quite exquisite food. This is a pesto pulenta topped with cheese and served with vegetables.


The desert they served with the above meal. Since I don't partake of caffeine, hence no chocolate, Sita enjoyed this to herself.