While Chile isn’t renowned worldwide for its cuisine (how many Chilean restaurants can you think of?), we have had a few special food related moments here.
Jesslyn already mentioned the lomito sandwich with a base of pork and topped with your choice of avocado, tomato, sauerkraut, melted cheese, and/or mayo. Sandwiches are very popular here. It is often your choice or chicken, pork, or beef with any of those toppings. My favorite is the Italiano which means topped with avocado, tomato, and mayo. I can't stop thinking about the hot dog that way, or "completo Italiano" I ate last night. Oh and the sandwiches are always on fresh baked bread, which is everywhere. While we were way out in the boonies near La Campana national park, we were driving through a tiny village and stopped at a little shop for some beer. The smell of freshly baked bread overwhelmed us as we walked in to what could honestly be called a shack. We asked for “dos panes” and received two of the typical pieces of individual, round pieces of bread, still warm. We intended to eat them for breakfast, but one of them didn’t make it longer than 5 minutes after we got back to the cabin.
While in Valparaiso, we had a few more Chilean specialties. The first was chorillana, which starts with a platter of french fries, topped with sautéed onions, chunks of beef, fried eggs, and sometimes cheese for good measure. One order is enough for two people to split. That meal was more special because it took place in a restaurant that hasn’t been restored since circa 1945. It was recommended by a local, and when we went by we couldn’t tell if it was open. We asked “abierto?”, and got the affirmative, then motioned to a back dining room. A liter of beer and the chorillana set us back $8 including tip. To make it even better, they didn’t speak a lick of English, but that didn’t matter. They didn’t have menus anyway. We knew what we wanted to eat there, and when the waitress came by she simply said, “chorillana?”. Easy enough. Chorillanas are not the only dish served atop fries, onions, and fried eggs. Many restaurants serve a steak, chicken, or fish that way. It is called "a lo pobre”, loosely translated as “poor man’s style". For example if you want a relatively inexpensive, yet large and hearty meal, you could order “pollo a lo pobre”.
Also in Valparaiso, we had been told about a special drink called a “terremoto”, or “earthquake”. Stories of the invention of this drink vary, but the one I like best (and probably slightly better than the truth) goes something like this... A restaurant wanted to serve a sweet drink to a special guest, who happened to be a German reporter. The bartender started with a cheap white wine and added grenadine. It wasn’t quite sweet enough, so they added some of the pineapple ice-cream they happened to have on hand. After four of these monstrosities, the guest stood up and promptly fell to the ground. He later wrote that there was an earthquake at the exact moment he lost his balance. There was no earthquake. The drink itself is good, but a little too sweet for me, and one is definitely enough.
As in Argentina, beef is popular in Chile. We had one of our top ten steaks of all time at a vineyard in Santa Cruz of the Colchagua wine region. We don’t normally go for the ribeye, but it was highly recommended. We ordered them “a punto”, which seems to be slightly more medium than rare. Typically, I think of ribeye as too fatty, but these were not. They were incredible. We started that meal with some delicious ceviche, which is chunks of raw fish marinated in lime juice and onion. It was some of the best ceviche I’ve ever had. Sorry to my Peruvian friends who take their ceviche very seriously. I won’t mention the great pisco (a type of liquor made from grapes) we had here since there is some debate over which country has the best. Some Peruvians don’t even consider the stuff made in Chile to be proper pisco. We are going to Peru and I intend to do some “research” in order to determine which is better.
We love eating and trying all the new food popular in the places we visit. I am excited to once again have some good food to write about!
- Jake
The lomo a lo pobre, enough food for 2
Un Terremoto por favor!