Chilean Food Post

I know I haven't updated in awhile, and the reason isn't that I have been too busy or anything like that, it's just that nothing much has happened. I've settled into a routine here in Valdivia, which is both good and bad. Teaching has started to feel more like a job and it can be very tiring by the end of the week. I liked it more when I first started, now it's just okay. The weather has been very bad here in Valdivia.  The past few weeks it has rained pretty much everyday, which makes it hard to do things. So I've been kind of homesick lately, but I think it's mostly out of boredom. 3 more months here feels like a very long time. Once the weather starts to get better, hopefully I'll do some cool weekend trips around southern Chile. Anyways, I thought I would make a post about Chilean food too pass the time since it's something people have me asked about. Okay, here it goes:

Mostly, it's not that different from American food, just at little bit more bland. A typical meal is like chicken and rice, or a porkchop and mashed potatoes or things like that. Alright, not very interesting but alright. Seafood is really popular, one meal I had was just a bucket of clams in their shells and a cup of dipping sauce. They tasted pretty good, except for the ones that had sand in them still. There's a dish called ceviche which is fish cooked in limejuice with other seasoning and its served cold, but it's very good.

Fast food is also popular in Chile, but it's a little bit different and generally worse. They really like hot dogs, but they eat them with guacamole, mayo, and tomatoes. This trio of ingredients, known as italiano because of the colors is put on everything, hamburgers, sandwiches, whatever.  They also use the fried egg as topping fairly often, which is good usually.

There is one food item which is unique to Valdivia, German-Chilean in origin only served at a few select restaurants. It's called crudo, and it's basically raw hamburger meat, on a piece of bread, with onions, a horseradish-type sauce and lemon juice. The lemon juice supposedly kills the bacteria and makes it safe to eat. 

It goes against all natural instincts to eat this, but it actually tastes really good. I've eaten it a few times and never gotten so much as a stomach ache. It's a really unique subtle taste, I'm not sure what to compare it. They only serve this at nicer semi-upscale restaurants I'm not sure if I have the guts to attempt to make this back in the U.S.

Finally, Chile is most widely known for its wine. I haven't had any of the really pricey wines here but the cheaper middle range wines are very good. A 2 dollar bottle of wine here tastes like a 15 dollar bottle in CA. I haven't had anything as good as Sculpterra here, but what else is that good anyway? The best beer in Chile, called Kuntsmann, is brewed in Valdivia. This makes sense because of the huge German population/influence here. The one Southern Chile staple that I do plan on bringing with me to the U.S. is Navegado. This name means sailing, and it originated in Southern Chile. It's basically wine, served really hot with sugar, cinnamon and orange added. It's delicious for a cold evening. Anyways, I'm probably forgetting a bunch of good stuff, or that there's more I haven't hear even of.