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.