A Potpourri of Santiago

This is just a mix of some of the photos I´ve taken around Santiago. Thought I would take this time to share them. Enjoy!

Católica vs. Ñublense soccer match in San Carlos

de Apoquindo. In the second period the police

came in to stop a small riot. Then a fight broke out and

some guy was dropped in one punch to the face by this guy.

Keep in mind that they were both cheering for the same team.

A view towards the area of Santiago in which

I live, from Cerro San Cristobal, the mountain

that separates the city in two regions.

An idea of how expansive Santiago is, from Cerro

San Cristobal.

The virgin Mary atop Cerro San Cristobal.

The oldest building in Santiago still standing,

Iglesia San Fransisco. Built circa 1680.

Viña del Mar and Valparaiso

Naval Headquarters in Valparaiso.

Narrow, confined streets in Valparaiso.

The best shot I could get of the House of Rock.

The pool overlooks a 30 foot drop to the sea.

View northward from the Viña boardwalk.

View south towards Valparaiso from

the Viña board walk.

Two weeks ago, my good friend Daniel came to Chile to pay me a visit, see the sights, and take in some sun, a nice change from dreary Chicago in February.

In attempting to think of things to do, I realized that a visit to Chile is incomplete without at least a night's stay in Viña del Mar. Viña and Valparaiso a two cities, side-by-side on the Pacific coast slightly northwest of Santiago. Valparaiso is fairly well known in the world and is the main port and naval base of Chile. Viña del Mar is the city to the north of Valparaiso and is characterized more as a beach and party town. Together, the two cities claim upwards of 500,000 people.

As I have already mentioned, Santiago becomes a ghost town during the month of February, and if you were wondering where it is that all these people go, it is either to the south or to Viña del Mar, or other beaches to the north such as Reñaca, Con Con, and Maitencillo. During this time, the area swells to more than 1,000,000 Chileans, Argentines, and various other tourists. The beaches in Viña and Reñaca have lately become so packed that they are now referred to as "the cemetery" due to the miles of people closely packed together trying to get a small patch of sand.

Another famous landmark of Viña del Mar is the Casino Municipal, or the first casino in Chile. Back in the day it was elegant as any Monte Carlo casino, though today it is much more like Vegas. At night, though, you still see people dressed up in suits and dresses walking into the casino to gamble. Today the Casino also has an unbelievable hotel adjacent to it called the Hotel del Mar, which is considered the best hotel in Chile and one of the few 5 star hotels here. Because we chose to only go one night, Daniel, Hans, my friend Alvaro, and I chose to book a suite at the Hotel del Mar. Our beautiful room had a great ocean view (to explain the proximity to the ocean, on a windy day you can get wet on your balcony from the waves crashing on the sea walls). The weather, however, was not as warm as we had hoped and the sun peaked in and out through the two days we were there.

One of the best parts of arriving in Viña is the actual descent into the city, which is breathtaking. The majority of all the cities and beaches in this area are built into steep hills and cliffs, creating a scenario for interesting architectural styles. Apartments appear as staircases rising up the hillsides. Funiculars run up and down the sides, shuttling people higher up or to their own apartments. Valparaiso has its own distinct style, also including century-old funiculars that run to this day. Individual houses, all painted distinct collars, densely dot the hills of the city. The downtown buildings also reflect the interesting array of colors among the older constructions. Valparaiso was to be the original capital of Chile, but the country´s fathers feared invasion from the city and decided on Santiago, which lay more inland.

After arriving at the Hotel del Mar, we immediately noticed the strange air in the city. We happened to arrive in the middle of the Festival de Viña, a Summerfest-like music festival, claiming such stars as Marc Anthony, Carlos Santana, and Daddy Yankee. All the stars were staying at our hotel or at the Sheraton Miramar, the other nice hotel in town. The entrance was covered with fences and security guards could be found at every corner. Perhaps confusing us with some rock stars, a nice bottle of champagne was left for us in our room. 

We went out for lunch and then took a walk all the way down the beaches of Viña del Mar. Unfortunately, due to the weather, the beaches were not packed and we ourselves lost the desire to go lay out. Instead, we headed back to the hotel where I installed myself at the blackjack table for a few hours. Later that evening, we regrouped and prepared to go out. However, because it was Wednesday night, the discos were not open, so we opted for a well-known pub called Hollywood, probably because it is a favorite for musicians and other famous people to hit up when in town. Around 4am we headed back to the hotel, where I thought it would be a good idea to hit up the craps table. After launching the dice off the table and crapping out in my first two rolls, I gave up and headed back to the blackjack tables where I won $300.

The next day saw us off to lunch at a great restaurant well known for Chilean fare. We then took a trip out to Reñaca and Con Con to see the sights. The way is marked by curvy roads running along the coast, moving up and down the sides of hills and small mountains. Beautiful sand dunes can be seen up top, and below the road are numerous rock outcroppings. The most famous of these rock outcroppings is the House of Rock, a beautiful private home literally built out of the rock, laying directly over crushing ocean currents.

After taking in the sights, we head back south towards Viña and then onto Valparaiso. As aforementioned, Valparaiso is the main port in Chile and also one of the older cities. The city is characterized by narrow streets with decaying, colonial buildings along the sides. However, the most picturesque building is the 19th century, blue naval headquarters. Not only is it a beautiful building, but I was recently informed that it was built over a shipwrecked exploration vessel from the 17th or 18th century, and the ship has only recently been exhumed.

We did not, however, leave the safety of my cousin´s car because unfortunately Valparaiso is no longer a safe place to go wandering around. The downtown is considered much more dangerous than that of Santiago, harboring many delinquents and other such types of people. After tooling around in the car, we headed back up inland and began our trip back to Santiago. 

It was a lovely trip, and also a necessary one as a visit to Chile requires a visit to Valparaiso and Viña del Mar. Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Weekend in Huilipilun

View of Lake Villarica from Villarica

Dock at the main house at Lake Huilipilun

View from the Barroilhet-Diez house

where I stayed.

Me climbing Gringo Mountain. Notice

the thickness of the foliage. It was about

10 am at this point but looks like it's 10 pm.

Well worth the climb up, a view half way down the 

mountain of Lake Huilipilun.

Hello everybody! It has certainly been a long time since my last post. Since January 16th, I went back to the US for three weeks. I had a great time seeing all my family and friends, but it was also great to get back to Chile where it is warm and there is no sign of snow.

I got back to Santiago on February 6th and quickly got settled back in. My first week back really did not bring forth anything of consequence- merely seeing friends and family here and enjoying the nice weather. However, last Wednesday I received a phone call from my mother's best friend's son, Jose Luis, inviting me to come with him and stay at his family's country home in the south. I immediately cleared my schedule and thanked him for the invitation.

Jose Luis' family have been longtime friends of my family, and twenty-four years ago my parents, recently married, came to Chile and went to Huilipilun to visit what was then a new country estate. The entire estate belongs to the Diez family. In 1984, the estate had one home on it, my mother's friend's parents home. Today, the estate includes nearly an entire lake, several small mountains, and five or six homes, not including those of the permanent caretakers and farmers who live there year round, belonging to various members of the Diez family.

The south of Chile is a beautiful zone composed of mountainous peaks, volcanoes, and temperate rain forests known locally as Valdivian Forests (think of Oregon or Washington State). Huilipilun is actually a small lake among many lakes, the largest of which called lake Villarica, which borders both a town and a volcano, all of the same name (you can see it on the map here). Villarica was a very provincial town, but was quaint with very friendly people and some spectacular views.

After a 10 hour bus ride, we arrived in Villarica where members of the family were waiting for us. After another 40 minute ride, we arrived at the Barroilhet-Deiz home where I was warmly welcomed, though right away I was swept up in the commotion. The entire extended Diez family were there for what they call Huili Week, a week of competitions between four groups of the family. This meant that at any one time there some 100 friends and family on the estate. The first day saw me head with one of the teams to the cow barn for a milking competition. Knowing I was from Wisconsin, several family members asked me if I had any experience milking cows, and when I replied that I had done it before they asked me to compete. I promptly declined the invitation knowing how uncomfortable and smelly a task this was.

Afterwards everyone dispersed and I took a swim in the lake followed by a little nap lakeside. However, it quickly grew cold and so I retired inside. This far down south, weather is comparable to summers in Canada or northern Wisconsin. In the evening, the families continued to compete with musical and acting skits. After the competitions, with the whole family in one place, we had a singalong and dance time.

Saturday grew to be a beautiful 80 degree day, and so everyone swam, walked, or boated to the beach where we spent the day in competitions and relaxing. The afternoon included an excellent lunch and more naps. At night I decided to stay in due to my worsening allergies, which had me suffering from a runny nose and sinus headaches.

Sunday started out ugly and rainy but quickly the sun came out. We had an excellent asado of fresh caught fish and typical Chilean meats, all accompanied with plenty of excellent wine. In the afternoon I decided to go take a little nature walk, which found me picking fresh wild berries, plums, and apples. In the evening were the final competitions, which consisted of a dessert competition and then a noodle bridge competition. The desserts were all delicious and every team's  noodle bridges held up more than 8 pounds. In the late evening everyone went back to their respective homes and we played a variety of charades-type games while drinking pisco sours.

Monday morning saw an early rise at 8:30 for a climb of Gringo Mountain. This mountain behind the estate plays an important part in the Barroilhet-Goodman history, as my father journeyed up the mountain in dress pants and leather loafers 20 some years ago with Jose Luis, then 12, and his younger brother, two dogs, and a caretaker. Upon reaching the top, the caretaker leaves them behind to go cook dinner. Nearly four hours later, they had not returned and my mother and the rest of the Barroilhets began to worry for their safety. Not soon after, though, my father returned with two dirty boys, two terrified and exhausted dogs in arms, and with his leather ruined, his clothes torn to tatters, and scratches all over his face and arms. Apparently they had taken a wrong turn on the way down through a steep, water-fall clad ravine, or quebrada in Spanish. Ever since, the story of La Quebrada del Gringo have been family legends and have inspired the naming of the mountain for my father.

In any case, I simply could not leave without attempting to take on Gringo Mountain, especially since it has since become a test of manhood at the estate. Let me say at this point that I have a newfound respect for my old man. I had a hard enough time making it up and down in hiking shoes, jeans, and a special trekking sweatshirt, let alone as a skinny gringo with a button-down shirt, dress pants, and loafers. I came back down the mountain covered in dirt and jungle-mess, completely soaked in sweat and water from the small river I fell in. It was one of the hardest hikes I've ever taken, and even as I write this entry a day later my body still hurts. It was worth it, though. Rarely have I ever been in a place so untouched by man. It was a spectacular view from the top and I saw some great examples of stunning wildlife.

After finally making it back 5 hours later, I immediately jumped in the lake one last time. After lunch and a nap in a hammock, I boarded the bus once again and headed back to Santiago.

It was an amazing trip that I will never forget. 

Buenos Aires, Part One

The obelisk at the center of Avenida

9 de Julio, the widest street in the world, at 144

meters across.

La Casa Rosada, the presidential palace.

It´s pink color originates in the mixing

of bull´s blood into the mortar to keep the

building cooler.

Colorful Caminito, at the heart of La Boca neighborhood.

An old club-turned-museum on the banks of the

Río de Plata.

Punta Chica, an old village near the BA. Notice

the South American humor here.

Well my friends, I am finally back in the US. I currently am writing this post from the lovely Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and will be back in Milwaukee in a few hours.

Regardless, I still want to post about my trip to Argentina, and furthermore I have nothing better to do for the next four hours.

Last Thursday night around 7pm, I got a call from my cousin saying we were going to Buenos Aires the next day at 7am. It was quite a surprise; we had been trying to book passage to Argentina all week and it was not working out. However, for about $120 round-trip, we did make it to Buenos Aires. We got in Friday morning to Argentina after an amazing beautiful flight over the picturesque Andes Mountains from Chile. Unfortunately, as I claimed my luggage, I noticed that the bag had been opened and that someone at one of the two airports had robbed me of my iPhone and camera chargers. It was disturbing but I also attempted not to worry because they were not very valuable items.

We were picked up by a tour guide and bus, and began the 45 minute drive into Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires is actually a city of 3 million people in the Capital Federal, an entity similar to the District of Columbia. However, the province of Buenos Aires is home to 12 million more people, bringing the metropolitan population in excess of 15 million people. In a country of 40 million, it's shocking that more than 1/3 of a population can live in one city so large. People in Buenos Aires are referred to as Porteños, while people living in the province of Buenos Aires are called Bonaires.

My first reaction to Buenos Aires was of how old it looked. The city´s structures are all very old, and by far the vast majority of buildings are older than 70 years. There are very few new buildings besides shopping malls and the occasional tower. My second reaction to the city was how hot it was. Though Santiago usually makes it to about 88-92 degrees during the day, it´s a dry heat so by nightfall the temperature actually drops down to 65 degrees or less. In Buenos Aires, it´s humid and just as hot, so not only do the structures take a toll from this tropical climate, but also my body took quite a beating.

The first day we took a city tour, seeing eight of the neighborhoods in Buenos Aires, including: Palermo, Recoleta, La Boca, San Nicolas, and the Plaza de Mayo. The Plaza de Mayo is home to the Casa Rosada, or the Pink House, most famously seen in Evita or other photos and film reels of Eva Perón. It´s now the home of the executive branch of Argentina. La Boca is one of the older districts; it´s most famous feature is Caminito, a famous pedestrian street where the houses and apartments are all painted distinct colors. Recoleta and Palermo are both shopping and dining centers within the city. Recoleta is famous for it´s cemetery and for it´s arts and crafts fair. Palermo is an upscale part of town formerly comprised mostly of Italian immigrants. In Argentina, besides people of Spanish descent, the largest ethnic group is Italian, with as much as 25% of the Argentine population being of Italian descent. Italian culture, and especially cuisine, are an integral part of Argentine culture.

In the evening after our tour, we went to a local bar but didn´t last long due to how tired we were. On Saturday, we hopped on another tour which took us to a part of the province of Buenos Aires known as Ciudad Tigre. This area named for the puma-like wildcats that live in the area is located on the Río Plata delta. The Río Plata is an immense river which is the termination of the Pirana river from Brazil. It´s also incredibly wide, being a three hour boat ride from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, Uruguay. Upon arrival, we got on a big tour boat and took a tour through the delta. About 5000 people live in the delta permanently, with many thousands more owning seasonal homes. There are no roads connecting the hundreds of islands, so to get to and from you either use your own boat or hail down one of the cooperative "bus" boats.

After leaving the river tour, we went to a small village called San Isidro where they had an artesian fair and also sold antiques. It was rather boring and can´t reasonably recommend it to anyone visiting Buenos Aires. After San Isidro we went back towards downtown Buenos Aires where we were dropped off at the main shopping center downtown, Galleria del Pacifico. Normally I would not mentioned any shopping centers, but this one was built into an old galleria and was actually very beautiful inside, with stained glass domes and wall murals painted by famous Argentine artists. There is something to be said for shopping in Buenos Aires, though. It´s easily the latin fashion capital. Argentines are very concerned with style and also generally take care of their bodies and worry about their appearance. There´s great shopping to be had in Buenos Aires, with very unique designers and stores carrying things that you would not find in the US, especially at such low prices.

In the evening we went to a bar and then to a dance club. The nightlife in Buenos Aires is also known as the best in Latin America, and the bars and clubs in the city reflect that. We had a great time dancing and "carreteando," and generally found the Argentines to be friendly and attractive (they also really like gringos!)

Well those were the first two days. I´ll cover the rest of the trip later this weekend, and finish my Argentina posts with a posting about Argentine cuisine. Thanks for reading and hopefully I will get to see the majority of you in the next couple of weeks. Thanks and talk to you soon!

New Year's Eve and Stuff from All Over

At the gas station, 7 am. Light in the distance, it was awful.

Though I admit the mountains and dawn are beautiful.

Small view of the pool area at the house party.

Hans and I. 5:30 am.

Gettin' down at the Estadio.

My friend Isa and I at the Estadio. Notice my bling.

First I want to wish everyone a happy new year! I hope you all had fun and I wish you all the best of health and happiness in the year to come.

New year's eve in Chile is definitely a different animal than New Year's in the US. Everyone here spends the evening until about 1am with their families. I went over to my cousin's again and we had a big "asado" or barbecue at their home. As the clock approached closer to zero hour, I noticed quite a few interesting rituals that go on. First of all, they have you put twelve grapes in your mouth all at once, one grape for each month of the coming year. They also light candles and have a spice associated with each candle. Each spice and candle combination is for good fortune in a given area, from love to business, and health to long life. Finally, after the clock struck midnight, everyone gives everyone a big hug; however, the first hug you receive has to be from a woman. Though all this sounds quite superstitious and antiquated, I do admit that I rather enjoyed it. It was nice to be with people I love and enjoy rather than in some random bar with tons of random people who's only objective is to be drunker than the guy standing next to him.

That being said, after we went outside to see a huge fireworks show from the mountain behind us, you begin to see cars full of young people screeching down the road. We immediately began to make calls to our friends to get our plans together, however we found it difficult as cellular lines began to jam up with calls. After a few warm-up drinks, Hans and I went to the Estadio Español to meet up with some friends. The Estadio is basically a very large and nice community center; there we found two parties going on- one for younger people filled with blasting reggaeton, and one for older people playing gringo oldies. We opted for the latter, though we did visit the former a few times. We drank and danced for a while there. Aroud 4:30 am, we became bored and decided to leave the Estadio to go to a house party.

We arrived at the house party around 5 am. It was definitely one of the biggest and best house parties I've ever seen. We got in after paying about $2, and we found a back yard filled with 300 people while inside another 100 were dancing to a pretty good DJ. People were dotted in groups all over the yard, by the pool, and behind in this mini forest. Three of us arrived there and we met up with a couple others. After dancing, talking, and celebrating there for a while, we noticed that the party was starting to break up. We looked at our watches and realized that it was past 6 am. 

We left the party and went in search of a bar to top off our night. We found one but then it promptly closed around 7 am, so we decided to go get food. We stopped at a gas station where I finally realized that it was light out and the birds were singing. Damned birds, always ruining my good time... Anyway, we at the convenience store and then came back to my apartment where I made mini pizzas and we basically passed out. At around 9 am I finally kicked everyone out and went to bed. 

Later that day I woke up and decided to have a party at my apartment. It originally was supposed to be small, but soon we found we needed to go up to the roof. We talked about our nights, snacked, and danced until about 5:30 am. I went to bed utterly exhausted. Mind you this was last Thursday night, but the weekend was just beginning. Friday night was my cousin Alejandra's birthday, so there I spent another night out until almost 6 am. Needless to say come Sunday night I could barely move.

In other news, I finished the large project that I had been working on for the Universidad del Desarrollo. I handed it in on Monday and sat there as the Dean read it on the spot, not saying anything until he was done, by which point I was on the verge of a minor heart attack. Apparently he liked it very much and told me that they'll now be giving me much more work. Just my luck.

Finally, this will probably be my last post for a while, unless I go to Argentina. I'll be traveling back to the US next Thursday and arrive next Friday. I'll be home for a little over two weeks. I look forward to seeing you all and hope that I do get a chance to see a little bit of everyone. The one thing I do know is that the very first thing I will be eating up on my arrival will be a massive, bacon-filled Kopp's hamburger. With caramel milkshake. And onion rings. 

So enjoy not having to read my blog for a couple of weeks, because when I come back to Chile I'll be doing a lot of traveling, so be prepared. As always, thanks for reading and talk to you soon.

Christmas Time in Chile

My uncle, who actually can do

a pretty good Santa.

Pretty awesome spread, including

these amazing shrimp cocktails. Here they

don't use cocktail sauce, they use americano,

AKA Thousand Island Dressing

Peruvian pisco sour, complete with sugar-

rimmed glass.

The tannenbaum replete with gifts.

Quick side note. Since everyone was home

on Christmas, wandering musical groups walked down my

street. You had to throw them money. I dropped a few coins from

my 8th floor balcony and nearly killed them.

HO HO HO! FELIZ NAVIDAD.

I hope that all of you gentiles out there had a glorious Christmas. And to all my fellow Jews, I hope that you equally enjoyed your Chinese food (I'm not going to lie, I did miss going to Yen Ching this year) and seeing the newest movies.

I would say that the strangest part about Christmas here in Chile is the absolute lack of snow, or any cold weather for that matter. For the week leading up to Christmas (AKA Hannukah for me and some others), it was not too hot here, only about 75-80 degrees everyday. And then came Christmas Eve and it was 90 degrees. Just awful. Although I love missing out on what has so far been an abysmal winter, something just did not feel right about being hot while all the Christmas trees had fake snow on them. It must be confusing for children to see all this winter imagery in all things holiday related, but to never see snow here in Santiago.

For Christmas this year, I really had two Christmas dinners. Last Monday I was invited over to my mother's best friend's home to have dinner with their family. We're very close so it was not a surprise to be invited. However, they are a very Catholic and conservative family, and I am anything but. It was a very delicious dinner (they served this type of avocado paté and then bacon-wrapped tenderloin) and then we had "secret Santa," where everyone buys one gift for an assigned person. With 7 children, plus either a spouse or significant other for everyone, it would get out of hand buying gifts for all. Afterwards, though, it became uncomfortable as we did this play the youngest daughter put together. In the activity, everyone randomly picked a stick with a Christmas character on it (Mary, Joseph, three kings, goat, star, etc.) and each person had to talk about why that character or virtue was important to them. Of course, as the only Jew there, I ended up picking the baby Jesus and having to explain why he was important to me.

On Christmas Eve, I went to my aunt's and uncle's home to spend Christmas with them. Though we are related, they're actually Catholic, though not religious at all. I got there and was blown away by all the gifts that were laying beneath the elaborate tree. I should note here that not a single person in Santiago has a real evergreen due to so many houses burning down. 

Anyway, we all gather downstairs around 9pm. We had some amazing canapes that my cousin Alejandra made along with some Peruvian pisco sour. I mentioned in the past that Chilean pisco is far superior to Peruvian pisco, however the way in which Peruvian's prepare pisco sour is much better than the Chilean way. After some chatting and what not, we sat down to dinner around 10pm. You know it's a big deal dinner here when you're served turkey due to how rare and difficult it is to get turkey, and that's what we ate. After dinner, we all hung out for a while. As opposed to the US, presents are opened at the stroke of midnight rather than in the morning, which seemed odd to me considering the whole Santa Claus coming in over night down the chimney routine. In any case, after all the presents were opening, some went to sleep, but I stayed up with Hans, my uncle, and my cousin's fiance to have a few scotch's. We stayed up until 4am drinking and chatting, mostly comparing American Christmas and New Year's to the Chilean versions. 

All in all, though I could not be with my family and friends back home, it really was just as fun and special spending the holidays here. I had an amazing time, experienced things in a different way, and felt very much at home and a part of it all.

Hopefully my next post will be later this week with a summary of New Year's Eve events. I wish you all a happy new year full of health and happiness for you and all your loved ones!

Final Chilean Cuisine Post

I know the salad is pretty normal, but

it looks so good and tastes even better.

Tia Jaqui's Pastel de Choclo looks amazing

and was among the best I've ever had.

Well, after several weeks of posting about Chilean cuisine, I'm going to finish off with my favorite Chilean meal, period.

The pastel de choclo that you see above is typically made during the summer months, generally from early December to late March, due to this being the principal growing season of corn here. This casserole-type dish is made up of several layers. The bottom layer is maybe up of meat, either chicken or ground beef, often a combination of both, in a mixture of seasonings and onion. Then a layer of hard-boiled eggs is added, along sometimes with raisins, although I don't like raisins in my food. Finally a thick layer of corn that has been mashed and cooked in cream is added to the top, with olives inside it. They top this off by sprinkling a layer of sugar on top so as to sweeten the corn. The thing that makes this unique to Chile is that the corn here is not sweet corn, like that which we consume in the states. Here you don't eat corn on the cob because it simply would not taste good. Most corn dishes are cooked dishes which have been sweetened. However, this is what makes the recipe difficult to replicate outside of Chile.

In any case, back to the dish. All of this is placed inside an oven-proof ceramic bowl, which is then baked in that bowl and served immediately. If there were a type of Chilean comfort food, this would probably be it. It's always best when homemade (you have to go to a truly excellent restaurant to find a good pastel de choclo in Santiago), and my aunt made me some the other day and it was unbelievably good.

With pastel de choclo, you generally serve it with Chilean salad, which is basically regular salad that has been deconstructed, served with each vegetable individually placed on a large platter. Then you add lemon, oil, and salt instead of dressing. However, that night my aunt and uncle had just recently returned from the extreme South of Chile. There they purchased centolla, which if you recall is Chilean king crab. I find it preferable to Alaskan king crab, and they purchased 2 kilos (about 4 1/2 pounds) of it for approximately $15 a kilo, which is absurdly cheap. My aunt served me a salad with a bed of lettuce, fresh centolla, fresh shrimp, all served under salsa americano, or what we commonly refer to as thousand island.

Here is a recipe for any intrepid chefs that want to attempt to make pastel de choclo. I checked it out and it seems fairly accurate:

Pastel de Choclo Recipe

Thanks for reading my blog. I wish you all the merriest of Christmases or the happiest of Hannukahs. Have a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year, and I hope to see all of you soon.