Pelluhue

My friend Erik on top of a big rock where the villagers

have erected monuments to the fisherman that haven't returned.

There was a memorial as new as this past May.

The beaches of Pelluhue stretch on as far

as you can see.

An array of colorful fishing boats that populate

the beach in the late afternoon.

Me and Pelluhue behind me.

Big cave under a lookout point on the beach. It was

filled with prophylactics and empty liquor bottles.

Apparently even in small towns there's always something

going on somewhere.

Trip to Chanco

Erik's House

The most beautiful strawberries in the world.

A typical southern house, complete with creepy

girl from The Ring, in the picture.

View from the top of a mountain on the way 

to Chanco.

Retarded yet still picturesque construction.

This weekend I traveled south to Chanco and Pelluhue (pronounced pe-yoo-way), having been invited by my friend Erik to spend a weekend at his home and see the sights. We left Friday and began the six-hour drive around 4pm. The route took us basically straight south until we got off the central freeway and took side routes west towards the coast. The whole time, all I could think was how incredibly beautiful everything was, so beautiful in fact that I find it stupid. Whether it was the Cordillera mountains or the rolling hills and slopes of vineyards, there's beauty around every corner here.

After some pretty horrible traffic due to road construction (I have to admit that they seem to execute road repairs about as effectively as a 90 year-old with Alzheimer's can do long division), we arrived in Chanco, to my friend's home, around 10:30. My first impression was how beautiful the sky was, considering I hadn't seen a star in over two months in Santiago, the sky was breathtaking. My second sentiment was "holy shit, this is rural." Considering that my friend's family live reasonably well, it was a shock to see only one old TV, no internet, and a wood-burning stove inside.

After a "light" dinner, we drank a big pitcher filled with clary, an alcoholic beverage made from artesian wine, fruit, and juice. It was very smooth and tasted more like juice. After consuming the fruit at the end of my third glass, I was definitely more than just a little happy. We then went to bed, only to be woken up the next day by their rooster. Yes, I was woken up by a rooster, and there's nothing relaxing or quaint about it. I'll spare the meal sections in order to devote a post to southern cooking tomorrow. For now, suffice it to say that I came back weighing an extra four pounds from before.

On Saturday we took a tour of Pelluhue, which is the sister town to Chanco. Pelluhue is a beautiful beach town mostly dedicated to artesian fishing. Chanco is slightly more inland and is famous for producing strawberries, honey, and most of all cheese. I'll put up some pictures of Pelluhue, but it was stunning- right out of a Pablo Neruda poem. We drove and walked through town and then the beach. We stopped at the local radio station where Erik used to work where we chatted with the DJ/Mayor of Pelluhue. As we talked every car that passed by seemed to honk and wave or scream hello. Erik commented that here most people don't have cell phones, and because the town is so tiny everyone knows one another and they just holler across the street or what not. This was a sharp contrast to Santiago where no one goes out of their way to say hello. Not only did Erik seem to know everyone, but even if you don't you say hello to everyone or else they think you're rude.

After touring we came back and ate what they called lunch and what I now call a meal to feed all of Ethiopia. After rolling out of my chair, all I could do was crawl to the couch and take a nap. After about 20 minutes of napping, we all awoke and began to drink more clary and play darts outside. Three hours later, there was tea and about six different types of cakes, about the last thing I wanted. Then they served dinner which was about 3/4 the meal of lunch.

We drank more into the evening and went to bed quite easily. On Sunday morning I didn't awake to any rooster which was surprising. When I asked where the rooster was, Erik's father said that he was probably sleeping in, and then laughed, which leads me to believe that he might have later been lunch, though I don't think I'll ever know.

After breakfast, Erik's father took us on what I can only call a mountain safari. We hopped into this tall 4x4 and went up a mountain into this forest used to make wood products, many of which are exported to the states. The route was treacherous, and for a gringo like myself, stressful as he was driving like a maniac about six inches from a perilous fall down the mountain. However, the journey was well worth it because it lead to an interesting encounter with some oxen and then to some of the most gorgeous ocean views I've ever seen.

On the way back from the safari, we stopped at the Chanco fair to buy some food and other things. Since there are no stores really in Chanco, you can buy pretty much everything at the Sunday fair. There I bought, to no surprise, a giant block of cheese, about three pounds of the reddest cherries I've ever seen, and a kilo of honey, all for less than $8. After greeting everyone, because everyone was excited to see Erik back, we headed home to another delicious/agonizing lunch and then hung out a bit more. Around 4pm, we packed up and headed north. On the way back to Santiago, Erik did me a huge favor by driving me through Parral.

Parral is the birthplace of Pablo Neruda, perhaps the greatest poet of the 20th century, and one of my personal heroes. It was a wonderful feeling to be in his hometown, and helped me understand how he came to love the land, the mountains, and the people of Chile so much.

It was a wonderful trip. I had an amazing time and was shown a part of Chile that most tourists don't get to see. I learned a great deal (to be elaborated later) and also ate a great deal. I met a lot of people and saw some of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen. Enjoy my pictures, I hope that you like them. Thanks.

Chilean Cuisine, Part IV Continued

Chilean ¨huasos¨dancing the ¨cueca,¨ the national

dance of Chile.

The president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, drinking

chicha from a cacho to commence the independence day

parade.

Alto del Carmen pisco

First, I just have to say that today was too damned hot. It got to 90 degrees topside, but I had a meeting downtown so I had to take the metro today. Down below it was about 96 degrees in a standing heat, crammed together with thousands of other Santiaguenses. Then as I was leaving the train to go to the meeting, in my nice clothes which were already soaked with sweat, I passed under a mist-emitting fan that they thought would be a good idea to place on the walk out. Well, of course, the damned thing malfunction and I was hit with a wave of water, not a comfortable mist, so I was quite throughly drenched upon my arrival to the meeting.

Anyway, complaints aside, yesterday I mentioned that I would cover the rest of my Chilean liquor survey, and so that's what I'm going to do. Besides wine, Chileans drink just as heavily as Americans, and love beer, hard liquor, and mixed drinks. Here, by far, the most popular type of liquor is "pisco." Pisco is a white brandy that is distilled, as is regular brandy, from a mixture of different types of grapes. It's actually quite good, having a soft flavor and finish, but also a potency to it. The two main brands are Capel and Alto del Carmen. I prefer the later since it's much smother. The main way to consume pisco is the pisco-sour. It's a delicious mixture of lemon and lime juice with powdered sugar and pisco. It's very common to have a pisco sour to start of lunch or dinner, and is consumed equally in the winter and in the summer. Most people make it at home, but it can also be bought ready-made. I always have a bottle or two here and it's still very good ready-made. Pisco can also be mixed with Coca-Cola to make piscola, which is a personal favorite. You can buy pisco in the states, however you won't find any Chilean brands, only Peruvian. And as most things Peruvian, it blows and is way too expensive, ringing in at about $30 a bottle. If you live in Milwaukee, you can go to Cubanitas where they serve up pisco-sour, and it's not half bad, though nothing compared to buying your own $4 bottle of pisco and making your own here.

Besides pisco, Chileans love rum, whiskey, and now vodka is becoming more popular. As far as beer goes, there are plenty of Chilean and American brands (they just got Miller here this year), but the top brands are Cristal and Escudo. I drink Cristal when I rarely drink beer. A common action is to mix Fanta orange soda with beer to make a Fanchop, and it's pretty good, if you're a girl (women here generally don't drink beer) or my cousin Hans.

In addition, a very popular drink I just tried in September is called "chicha." It's similar to wine, though thicker and sweeter; I think of it in this analogy- apple juice is to apple cider as wine is to chicha. I personally can't stand the stuff, but being as it's very Chilean, they drink chicha by the gallon during their independence day. The cool thing about drinking chicha, though, is the way that it is drunk. Since it's something that originated among the "huasos," it's drunk out of a bull's horn in a contraption called a "cacho." Chilean culture is replete with homages to the huaso; the huaso is the Chilean version of the Argentine "gaucho," a South American cattle herder or cowboy. Being as I am quite the gringo tourist, I bought myself a beautiful, polished cacho with a silver holder engraved with my name. After following the directions of the huaso that sold it to me, which was to cure it for 36 hours with a strong aguardiente, it was ready to go. I'm very excited to bring this drinking phenomenon back to the states and implement it. Say goodbye to the boot and stein, and say hello to the cacho.

In addition to all these liquors, Chileans also consume a variety of specialty mixed drinks and that are very traditional, though most of them are very sweet. One common drink, mostly drunk at weddings and such, is Poncha ala Romana, which is Chilean champagne mixed with juice and pineapple sorbet (this one is a favorite of my mother's- she claims drinking too many of these at a wedding when she was 12 was the only time she's ever been drunk). Another concoction is called Cola Mono, which is a mixture of aguardiente liqueur, milk, and coffee, as is usually drunk around Christmas. Finally, piña coladas are also very popular. You can buy these ready made too, and are also good. The latest thing is Chirimoya Colada, which is the same as piña colada, except that instead of flavoring with pineapple, they flavor it with a delicious and popular fruit from here called a chirimoya. This is my new favorite.

I hope that you all enjoyed hearing about these drinks. I wish I could relay some of the recipes, but the necessary ingredients really don´t exist in the states, so you´ll have to wait until I come back or if you come visit.

I´m not sure what I will cover in my next cuisine installment, but as I come across things to show, I will post about them. Thanks for visiting and talk to you all soon.

Chilean Cuisine, Part IV

An example of Casillero del Diable Carmenere variety,

2007 reserve, about $4.00.

Let this be a lesson to all you hopeful bloggers out there in the world, and for that matter to anyone who has any sort of plan to accomplish any form of writing on a Friday evening, that it's nearly impossible if you have any sort of social life. I guess I should have known better, especially when you consider that I was planning on writing a section about Chilean spirits.

Well, I am still going to talk about Chilean liquor, however I've decided to split this section into two. Today I'm going to talk about Chilean wine, seeing as it really deserves at least one post all to itself to do it justice.

As I'm sure many of you already know, Chile is very famous for its wine production. Although I am somewhat biased, I do believe Chile to be second to none in it's selection of red wine. I would gladly take up a Chilean cabernet sauvignon against any Napa, Sonoma, or Bordeaux production of the same type. Every Chilean knows a great deal about wine, and the serving of wine here is an art. Once in the US I attempted to send back a bottle of red wine in a restaurant because it was way too cold (red wine must be served at "cellar temperature," roughly 65-68 degrees fahrenheit), and he looked at me like I was crazy. In Chile, they wouldn't even think twice and would also apologize profusely. In the States people love the concept of "three buck Chuck" from Trader Joe's, being a very cheap and reasonably tasty medium red. However, one of the best parts of Chile is that you can go anywhere, order a bottle of wine for about $4, and it will be delicious, comparable to any $20 bottle of California wine.

Chile has hundreds of vineyards, ranging from tiny, family-owned wineries to big companies owned by famous wine names such as Rothschilds and Coppola. The biggest vineyard in Chile by far is Concha y Toro. Started in the middle of the 19th century, the vineyard now makes several brands, most notably Don Melchor and Casillero del Diablo. The former brand is the most reserve of varieties that they have, and a bottle of Don Melchor costs about $60 to about $200, depending on the year and grape variety (this is considered VERY expensive for a bottle). Casillero del Diablo is the mainstay of Concha y Toro, and a bottle here costs about $5. Fortunately for all of you, Casillero del Diablo is the most common Chilean brand found in wine cellars and liquor stores in the states. I suggest either a bottle of 2005 (about $25) or a bottle of 2007 reserve, which will cost you about $12 to $15, I believe. If you're looking for a nice way to impress the lady friend (or shock the boyfriend), order a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from Casillero del Diablo (don't mess up the pronunciation, it's ka-si-YE-ro del Diablo, not ka-si-LE-ro). You can tell your date that it's a great wine to accompany red meat, chicken, or pasta due to it's medium body with hints of black currants and plum, and finishes with a mild oak taste.

If you, however, will be dining on fish, red wine really isn't acceptable. This is more of an American custom. In Chile, you can drink any kind of wine you'd like at any time because they are more concerned about personal preference than custom. However, as I have been raised mostly a gringo, I only drink white wine with fish. I never thought of Chile as a hub of white wine, however in the past 20 years the country has also emerged as a leader in Sauvignon Blanc and other white varieties. I prefer dry wine and so when drinking white wine I always drink Sauvignon Blanc. In the states, white varieties are less common, but the same years and brands apply.

Lastly, Chile is now home to really the only supply of Carmenere grapes. Carmenere is a grape originally from the Bordeaux region of France and was used in blends with Cabernet grapes to produce deeply red and dry wines. In 1867, a disease struck all the vineyards that produced the Carmenere grades in France and so today it's nearly impossible to find the variety there. However, the grape survived in Chile because growers here were using it in place of Merlot grapes which were less common and harder to grow here. Today, Carmenere is known as something distinctly Chilean and is a wonderful alternative to merlot, though I have not seen it in the states.

Other Chilean brands to check out are Santa Rita and Valdivieso, two brands that I know make it to the states. Chilean wine has a great reputation and many are switching from French to Chilean due to a better price-quality ratio. I encourage you guys to experiment, because that's the only way to see what you really like.

Well now that I feel horribly pretentious and somewhat of a douche bag, I hope that you all learned something and were inspired to expand your palettes. 

Stay tuned later today for Part IV 1/2, where I cover the rest of Chilean liqor.

Chilean Cuisine, Part III

A lemon with marzipan and meringue torte.

The cake that I purchased.

These are variations of a common sweet filled with manjar

called "torta milojas," literally cake of one thousand leaves.

Other sweets. From right to left: meringue filled with manjar,

a sugar-coated alfajor, torta milojas, and a meringue tart.

The incredible, edible marraqueta.

Today, rather than talk about just one item of Chilean cuisine, I'm going to survey a wide variety of Chilean Bakery. Here, there are two different types of bakeries. In the US, usually one bakery sells both bread, cakes, candy, and what not; in Chile a "panaderia" is a place you go to buy bread and other things like that. A "dulceria" is the place you go to buy cakes, sweets, cookies, and other things of the sort. I have the luxury of living next to arguably the best dulceria in Santiago, and so will grace you with a few photos of those.

For bread, Chileans most commonly do not buy it by the loaf. You can buy any type of loaf bread you want, but here it's obvious that the "marraqueta" and the "hallulla" reign supreme in that department. The marraqueta is the base of Chilean bread consumption, and makes up about 70% of all bread sold. It's a simple bread, derived from French tradition, that is composed of four small pieces joined together. The marraqueta is used for everything from toast to hot dog buns to sandwich bread. The hallulla is another common bread usually consumed for breakfast or for tea. It's round and very buttery and delicious.

As for pastries and other sweets, it's likely that the vast majority contain manjar, a caramel-like jelly that is known in the states as "dulce de leche," due to it's origin in boiling condensed milk. Of all of these, my personal favorite is the "alfajor," basically two cookies filled with manjar in between. However, the alfajor comes in a shapes and sizes, and can be found dipped in chocolate, with rum and raisins, orange, or marzipan. In addition, most of the cakes to be found include manjar in some way. Last week I had tea with some of my mother's friends and bought them a cake that contained layered filling of thin crust, apricot jelly, and manjar. The crust was made of marzipan, which is a sweet almond paste. It was unbelievable and if any of you should come visit me, I'll have to buy you a cake of this sorts or some variation. I hope that these pictures entice you and prove just how delicious Chilean bakery is. It's so good I think it's better than anything we've got in the states. Enjoy!

Preview for tomorrow: A guide to Chilean booze.

Chilean Cuisine, Part II

Well I hope that you all enjoyed that tasty morsel yesterday. Continuing with my series on Chilean food, today I present perhaps the oldest of Chilean cuisines. This pocket-like food is purely Chilean, and some of you may have eaten them in Latino restaurants in the states. Most people make these at home every couple of weeks, however there are also several renowned bakeries famous for them. 

I'm talking, of course, about the "empanada." Empanada is a word derived from the verb "to wrap," so literally this food is a hot wrap. Originating in Spain, the empanada came during colonial times to Chile and has since become the unofficial victual of the country. In Chile, you can buy empanadas filled with all sorts of things, from tuna to fruit. However, by far the most popular fillings are either "pino" or cheese. Cheese empanadas are filled with a local white cheese and have a more flaky, croissant-like crust. Pino empanadas are made of a more solid dough, as shown above. Pino is a Mapuche word (the Mapuche are one of two indigenous groups of Chile), and the filling consists of ground beef, hard-boiled eggs, shortening, onions, olives, and sometimes raisins (though I hate them with raisins). 

The empanada is a great food because it represents tradition and adaptation to Chilean customs. Also, it can be bought made at any grocery store or bakery, while still being a common homemade food. They are great to eat on the go, but are usually served as a sort of appetizer or first course prior to a main course. They're easy to make and actually pretty fun. They can be easily frozen and consumed later, so I encourage you all to make some yourself. Here's a link for a recipe. Enjoy!

Empanadas de pino recipe

Preview for tomorrow: Chilean Bakery

Chilean Cuisine, Part I

By popular request (mostly from Flood), tonight's posting is going to be the first in a series covering Chilean cuisine. Today's delicacy is one of the most ubiquitous of Chilean foods, something that all people, no matter of class, age, or gender can enjoy. This wondrous tube of processed meat is commonly known as the hot dog. Here in Chile, the hot dog, or "vienesa," is one of the most common of street foods.

The most popular of the vienesas served here in Santiago is probably that of Domino. Domino is a small restaurant in the downtown that made the hot dog famous eighty years ago. Today it is a national franchise with many locations. However, to snag this photo, I journeyed to the perilous Centro to eat at the original Domino. My own father loved Domino very much- going there is not only for good food but also an experience. There you can only stand and it is constantly packed. I arrived with my camera and they were only too eager to serve me. I asked simply for a "completo," shown above, with a chirimoya juice. A completo is the standard hot dog served in Chile. It includes the hot dog, bun, americano (a type of sauce), mayonnaise with a relish in it, tomato with cilantro, and avocado. It sounds weird, what with no ketchup or mustard, but it's honestly amazing. These guys are so huge I typically eat one with a fork an knife. Served alongside a cold glass of chirimoya juice (chirimoya is a green fruit that doesn't exist in the states really), it's a complete meal, both cheap and delicious. This combo cost me a whopping 1200 pesos, or about two dollars. Bon appetite!

Preview for tomorrow: The empanada.

Halloween en Chile

Friday night I had a little halloween party here in my apartment. It was the first real party I had here and it went very well. I had a great time and people didn't leave my apartment until about 5 in the morning. Above are five of the best pictures that were taken, but for those of you with the Facebook, you can see the rest of them there. I hope everyone had a great halloween. Though I definitely missed Halloween in Madison, it was really fun spending it here. It was cool to know that even though things are often so different here, people still love Halloween. Though I'll tell you all that it was incredibly difficult to find a pumpkin, seeing as they really don't grow them in Chile. Also, they were damned expensive and I had no way of bringing one to my apartment. Everyone's costumes were great. I don't have mine on (I was V from V for Vendetta) because it turned out to be obnoxious trying to host a party with a mask on the whole time. Because I missed what you guys did for Halloween, if you feel like leaving a comment talking about your Halloween weekend, leave a post with this one. 

Also, to follow later, food posts, so stick around for that tonight! Thanks again as always.