chile: la comida

Yes, that's right. Food. Basically every American I've ever talked to about Chilean food thinks that it's spicy. We'll blame it on the fact that both Chile and Mexico speak Spanish, but nothing could be farther from the truth. (I took a box of Hot Tamales down with me for people to try... 0 for infinity on people liking them.) The food down there isn't spicy, it isn't crazy, it isn't complicated, it's just good. Because I was there during the week of Fiestas Patrias, we ate a lot of the best, typical food Chile has to offer.

 Cazuela. Soup with meat, potatoes, corn, green beans and rice. You drink the soup first and then eat the meat and veggies.

 CocaCola (or Biltz... the red soda) and ensalada (cut up lettuce mixed with olive oil, lemon juice and salt). I don't quite know why but I assure you that the Coke down there tastes what I would expect liquid gold to taste like.

 Empanadas de pino (meat empanadas). These bigger ones are baked in the oven (rather than the smaller fried ones). They're stuffed with ground beef mixed with onion and cilantro (that's what's called pino), a large olive and half of a hard-boiled egg.

 Asado (barbeque). Meat, pan (bread), lettuce ensalada, ensalada rusa (russian salad which = potato salad), ensalada chilena (chilean salad which = cut up tomatoes, julienned onions and cilantro) and Pap (the Papayan flavored soda). Delish.

Completo. A chilean hot dog on homemade bread topped with diced tomatoes, mashed up avocado and mayo. They may look disgusting, I'll give you that, but they are a dream. This one was the length of my forearm and that's what was left of it after I was done eating lunch.