Almost alliterative: Comida, Concierto y Quintay

Okay, it is finally time to discuss food in Chile. Prior to arriving, I was a little concerned because the majority of what I'd heard about food in Chile was meat, fried stuff, sweet stuff, more meat, and sugary juice. I also heard about the abundance of bread and avocado (palta en español) which didn't concern me so much...hehe. Anyway, I have been totally pleased to discover a wealth of fresh fruits and vegetables and I am lucky to live with a family that both cooks a lot and cooks healthfully. Yes, Chileans love their mayonnaise and oil and there are definitely a lot of extremely unhealthy (but muy sabrosos) options, but I feel like I eat more fruits and vegetables here than I normally do (i.e. at school) because they're just so fresh and commonplace. The classic Chilean salad is tomato (tomate) and onion (cebolla) tossed with a little oil and salt (big on salt here too) and we also have lettuce (lechuga), often with palta, too.

Cecilia and Hector (my host parents) go to a local feria (fair) every Saturday to stock up on produce and I finally went with them last week. It's this insane block of land with people selling melons, grapes, beans, palta, bananas, apples, citrus fruits, spices, all types of vegetables, etc. The apartment is always stocked with plenty of fresh fruit and I usually have a banana or apple with breakfast (which is always toast with marmalade and hot tea) or bring something with me on my way. Like in a lot of my classmates' homes, dessert is almost always fruit or some sort of fruit-based dish. My favorite so far has been the pears that Cecilia soaks in a caramel made of wine, sugar, and water. ¡Que rico!

Almuerzo (lunch) is the main meal of the day and, traditionally, people go home to almorzar even though more and more contemporary work schedules do not allow this. Cecilia is an amazing cook and is always in the kitchen preparing things for later, including various bean-based dishes (porteros granados are a basic white bean that go with basically everything), cazuela, arroz (rice, but when Cecilia says she's making rice she means she's making it with diced red bell pepper and chopped carrots), a dish made of pureed zucchini (zapallo italiano) and cheese which is the only time I've ever loved zucchini, and seasoned chicken or meat. So on a typical day we have breakfast, almuerzo, and then usually some sort of tea-time around 6 with tea and something small like pan con palta (bread with avocado, love it), and then the "once" (ohn-say, as in Spanish for eleven) around 9 or whenever Hector gets home from work. Once is usually a smaller amount of what we had for almuerzo or maybe a little sandwich or more pan con palta if I'm not that hungry. Yes, I eat avocado pretty much every day and that very well maybe a big reason why I'm so happy here. Me encanta comer palta (I love to eat avocado) and that's not changing anytime soon!

Left: Toasting pan in our tostador, which heats on a burner. This was one of the first times I did it by myself, which is why the bread is more charbroiled than toasted. Right: My true love, the lovely palta, getting ready to go on my toast. Mmm.

Empanadas are also traditional Chilean comida and you can find them pretty much everywhere...the ones from the panaderia near Casa SIT are extremely delish (queso? Check. Pino? Check. Pino, btw, means that the filling is meat, onion, and usually egg and an olive) and I am planning to hit up Empanadas Famosas in Valpo which actually is famous for its, well, empanadas. Helado (ice cream) is also bountiful here and I take advantage pretty much every time I can...my main Spanish prof, Arturo, eventually noticed that all of my examples in class (as in, "Elizabeth, give an example that uses subjunctive/conditional/preterite) involved ice cream. The best helado that I've had so far is at a cafe/restaurant in central Vina that is a little pricey but the "small" scoop is the size of a triple at any normal Baskin-Robbins, so I'm not complaining! Here's a photo of my helado experience before the concert that I will explain later:

What I simply must describe, however, are completos. A completo italiano (allegedly named so for the colors)—which is the basic complete—is a hot dog with a load of palta, diced tomatoes (a.k.a. salsa Americana) and mayonnaise. Told you they liked their mayonnaise here. A completo completo (this is not a typo) has all of the above and what I believe was described to be sauerkraut but I'm not totally sure because I've never actually seen anyone order it. At first I thought that I would hate the completos, but OH MY GOODNESS they can be amazing. I usually order mine without mayo or with just "un poquito" but the Chilean definitition of "very little" is what we'd consider "a sizeable amount" so I usually skip it altogether. Here's a photo of a recent completo experience:

No, I did not eat the whole thing...halfway through I was defeated but satisfied. Oh completos.

Finally, today I got to observe/help Cecilia and Mami Luz (my host grandmother) cook Sunday almuerzo for the family (including Cecilia and Hector's son Christián, his wife Prisilla, their baby Julieta, Cecilia's sister Teresa and Teresa's teenage son Sebastián). We made a very traditional Chilean dish, pastel de choclo (corn cake, but not really cake like we'd think of it). It was a lengthy but worthwhile process. Check it out:

Left to right: The choclo (corn) goes from what Jimmy cracked to a sort of cornmeal-esque food that we put onthe bottom of individual dishes. In the middle of the third photo is the pino, which is the ground beef sauteed with onion and garlic.

Then we put a layer of the pino on top of the choclo, then a piece of cooked chicken, hardboiled egg, and olives, and then covered it all with more choclo and a sprinkle of table sugar. Then they were baked for about 20 minutes and came out deliciously golden brown. Naturally, I was too mesmerized by the glistening goodness to take an "after" photo," but it was basically the same as the third photo above except cooked. As every Chilean and his/her madre would say,¡ que rico!
In addition to food, I must share two fabulous experiences that I had this weekend: a free concert in Valpo that featured crucial Chilean groups like Inti-Illimani and Sol y Lluvia and then a day trip to Quintay with two friends.

The concert was called "La Democracia: Fin a la Exclusión" and turned out to be some sort of activism-based event with some speakers and a lot of chanting of "¡legalización! ¡legalización!" (legalization, i.e. of marijuana). Very interesting. It's also a memorable experience to be surrounded by tons of people, mostly around my age, who jump up and down like (inebriated) pogo sticks during specific songs and shout political phrases that have to do with the former dictatorship during others. Some of the most famous songs played by these groups (like "Adios General" by Sol y Lluvia) were written during and about the dictatorship, so I guess it's tradition to still shout the relevant phrases now. Even though the lyrics are about a specific point in time, the mobilizing effect is still very strong when it comes to new issues that interest Chilean youth. All in all, a concierto y experiencia to remember!

Concierto para la democracia; fist-pumping and political passion; a typical taken-by-Elizabeth shot of me with Celeste @ the concert.
Thanks to the recommendation of one fabulous Michelle Stoler (I hope we actually meet someday!), I set off for the nearby beach area/former port of Quintay with mis amigos Adam and Celeste. We arrived not really knowing what to expect, but what we got were absolutely breathtaking views and some delicious seafood (eaten in a restaurant with aforementioned breathtaking view...¡que bacán!). Words can't even express how beautiful this place is, so I'll let some photos do the talking.

View of the water in Quintay when we arrived; Celeste and Adam; view of gorgeous water!

A completely candid, unposed shot of me on the rocks; beautiful water (duh); more beautiful water

The sign said not to ascend the stairs up to the peak with the lighthouse, so naturally we did and got a totally different vista of the water. I have about 239812875 (give or take) of this day so it's hard to select just a few...:)
One week from today we all leave for the North/South excursions (I'm in the South group, to Temuco) so I hope to really soak up this next week with a lot of free time in Viña and Valpo. Right now it's almost 5:30 and I'm avoiding doing my last bit of tarea, working on my ISP stuff, and walking to a pharmacy to buy more minutes for my cell phone. Prisilla and Julieta are still here though, so it's legit if I'd rather hang out with them, right? Right. ¡Hasta pronto!